Serious steps toward building a replica of one of Fort Wayne's American forts began in 1963, when the Allen County/Fort Wayne Historical Society voted to act on the project. In 1964, the Psi Iota Xi sorority gave the Historical Society a grant to fund reconstruction research led by Dr. Richard Knopf, and later military historian Brian L. Dunnigan was hired to lead Historic Fort Wayne. The third American fort was chosen for reconstruction because a detailed drawing made by Major John Whistler in 1816 was available, and programming focused on 1816 first-person interpretations based on historical records. In the early 1970s, a fundraising campaign office opened and property acquisition began, with numerous houses along the west side of Spy Run Avenue purchased and demolished. Construction started in 1974, and the fort opened to the public on June 5, 1976. Historic Fort Wayne ceased operations in 1993, and ownership returned to the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department. In 2004, a new group also called Historic Fort Wayne began programming and undertook repairs and rebuilding of the fort buildings. The longer history of the site includes a first French fort at the confluence by 1722, a second French fort built in 1750, cession of the French fort to the British in 1760, the British fort's fall to a Native-American confederation in 1763, General Anthony Wayne's first American fort in 1794, Colonel Thomas Hunt's second American fort in 1800, the Siege of Fort Wayne in 1812, Major John Whistler's third American fort in 1815-16, its demolition in 1819, and demolition of its last remaining building in 1852.