Ethan Allen Homestead!

What Is the Ethan Allen Homestead?

This was the final home of chief Green Mountain Boy, Ethan Allen!

What Makes It Historical?

Ethan Allen was quite the rabble rouser! In the 1760s he moved from Connecticut into the Hampshire Grants (now Vermont), bought up a bunch of land, and picked fights with New York State, which was also trying to claim land already claimed by New Hampshire (upon the ancestral land of the Abenaki). New York put a bounty on his head, twice, but he kept on fighting!

All all this rabble rousing came to a point in 1775 when Mr. Allen took the news of American victory at Lexington and Concord and ran with it right to Fort Ticonderoga! He and his paramilitary group, the “Green Mountain Boys,” took Fort Ticonderoga from the British, then tried to take Montreal, ending up a prisoner of war for two years! After the Revolution, Mr. Allen and his brother, Ira, stuck around in Vermont during the fourteen years it was an independent republic, pushing for statehood, that wouldn’t come until 1791. Meanwhile, Mr. Allen set up this homestead with his second wife, Fanny, in 1787, farming and writing his manifesto, Reason, the Only Oracle of Man! He died of a stroke while hauling hay across Lake Champlain in 1789.

A note about Frances “Fanny” Montressor Brush Buchanan Allen Penniman! Already widowed at 24, when she met Ethan Allen, she was a trained botanist! She maintained quite the herb garden and kept amazing records of the plants of northwestern Vermont. One of the exhibits here, which talked about the flax grown here, described the incredibly complex 3-week process to turn 1/4 acre of flax into a single shirt! Nonetheless, after her hubby died, laws at the time, and opposition from her brother-in-law, forced her to remarry again and sue Ira Allen for her inheritance!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
Become a member of the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum!
Donate to the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum!
Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!