National Park Service to conduct meeting on Virginia's Fort Monroe

The Washington Post
© July 19, 2011

By Associated Press, Published: July 19

HAMPTON, Va. - The National Park Service is conducting the first of two meetings on establishing Fort Monroe as a national monument.

The meeting is scheduled Tuesday at the Hampton Roads Convention Center.

The historic Hampton fort on the Chesapeake Bay is being turned over to the state by the Pentagon under a base realignment.

National park proponents have lobbied hard to make a portion of the fort or the entire waterfront property part of the national parks system.

The Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that the proposal would create jobs and increase tourism.

Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at the fort. It is also viewed as the birthplace of the Civil War freedom movement after three enslaved men fled the South for the Union stronghold.

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