One of the pivotal events leading to the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party was commemorated with a once-popular tourist site in Boston Harbor.

A recreation of a British tall ship, the brig Beaver, raided by colonial protestors on December 16, 1773, drew 400,000 visitors yearly, most significantly during the nation's bicentennial year. The site eventually fell into disrepair. A lightning fire forced the museum's closure in 2001.

Historic Tours of America has taken ownership of the historic site and recently secured financing for an estimated $22 million to $24 million new Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. 

Two replica tall ships, exhibits, living history programs, memorabilia, a tea room, and more are slated to open in the fall of 2011 or early 2012. A third brig, the Eleanor, will be added in a few years.

Among the historic relics to be displayed is the rediscovered Robinson Half Chest, one of only two known surviving tea chests dumped overboard during the 1773 Tea Party uprising.