Fort Trumbull Fort Trumbull refers to a fort in New London , Connecticut and to a nearby neighborhood . Neighborhood . The neighborhood of Fort Trumbull was demolished as part of plan for the economic development of New London . The plan was appealed in a case that reached the US Supreme Court , Kelo v . City of New London . However the site IS being redeveloped under a Municipal Development Plan or MDP . The Fort Trumbull Municipal Development Plan ( MDP ) , approved in 2000 , is one of the largest redevelopment projects in the history of the City of New London . The MDP area encompasses approximately 35 acres of development project sites that range from one to seven acres in size , within a total project area of more than 80 acres . The Fort Trumbull District / MDP area is approximately one mile from New London ’ s Historic Downtown Waterfront District . There were two catalysts for the Fort Trumbull Project : the 1996 U . S . Navy ’ s closure announcement for the 32 - acre Naval Undersea Warfare Center ( NUWC ) at Fort Trumbull and the 1997 Announcement by Pfizer Inc . that they would be developing their Global Research and Development Headquarters on an abandoned 24 - acre mill site adjacent to and immediately south of the Fort Trumbull area Fort . In 1775 Governor Jonathan Trumbull recommended the building of a fortification at the port of New London to protect the seat of the government of Connecticut . Built on a rocky point of land near the mouth of the Thames River on Long Island Sound , the fort was completed in 1777 and named for Governor Trumbull , who served from 1769 to 1784 . In 1781 during the American Revolutionary War , the fort was attacked and captured by British forces under the command of Benedict Arnold . Arnold ' s capture . - Extract of a letter from New London , dated Sept . 12 . " Never was there more distress in any place than there is here at present ; there are 50 widows within 8 miles of Groton fort " . 19th century . In the early 19th century , the fort was redesigned and rebuilt to meet changing military needs . First a redoubt was built at the site to react to threat of British attack . The present fortification was built between 1839 and 1852 as a five - sided , four - bastion coastal defense fort . The new fort was built under the supervision of Army engineer George Washington Cullum who later served as superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York . During the Civil War , Fort Trumbull served as an organizational center for Union troops and headquarters for the U . S . 14th Infantry Regiment . Here , troops were recruited and trained before being sent to war . Fort Trumbull was briefly commanded by John F . Reynolds who rose to rank of major general and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 . 20th century . After the Civil War Fort Trumbull was improved by having more modern artillery pieces installed . In the early 1900s several more modern Endicott era fortifications were built to defend Long Island Sound . Fort Trumbull served as the headquarters of these forts until it was given to the Revenue Cutter Service ( later renamed the Coast Guard ) in 1910 for use as the Revenue Cutter Academy which was renamed the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1915 . The Coast Guard Academy moved to its current location in New London in 1932 . Fort Trumbull served as the Merchant Marine Officers Training School from 1939 – 1946 and trained most of the Merchant Marine officers who served during the Second World War . After the war Fort Trumbull was the site of a satellite campus of the University of Connecticut from 1946 to 1950 educating war veterans attending college under the GI Bill . From 1950 to 1990 Fort Trumbull was the location for the Naval Underwater Sound Laboratory which developed sonar and related systems for US Navy submarines . In 1990 the Sound Laboratory was merged with the Naval Underwater Systems Center in Newport , Rhode Island . After a redevelopment period lasting several years Fort Trumbull was finally opened as a state park in the year 2000 . Today , the fort serves as a state park and tourist attraction .