Fort Halifax (Maine)

Fort Halifax
Fort Halifax
Fort Halifax
Location in Maine
LocationOn U.S. 201 west of Winslow, Maine
Coordinates44°32′23″N 69°37′47″W / 44.5396°N 69.6297°W / 44.5396; -69.6297
Built1754-1755
NRHP reference No.68000015
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 24, 1968
Designated NHLOctober 18, 1968

Fort Halifax is a former British colonial outpost on the banks of the Sebasticook River, just above its mouth at the Kennebec River, in Winslow, Maine. Originally built as a wooden palisaded fort in 1754, during the French and Indian War, only a single blockhouse survives. The oldest blockhouse in the United States, it is preserved as Fort Halifax State Historic Site, and is open to the public in the warmer months. The fort guarded Wabanaki canoe routes that reached to the St. Lawrence and Penobscot Valleys via the Chaudière-Kennebec and Sebasticook-Souadabscook rivers. The blockhouse was declared a National Historic Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.