 Pell worked in the family business Pell & Co., which imported mahogany and marble before becoming an auction house that later went into financing.During a steamboat trip to Burlington, Vermont, Pell spotted the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain.In 1816, he began leasing the property from Columbia and Union colleges (whom had received the property from the state of New York in 1803), and in 1820, he purchased the entire 546-acre grounds for $6,008.