Public's plea: Make Fort Monroe a national park

By Kate Wiltrout
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 20, 2011

HAMPTON

If federal officials had any doubts about whether the public supports Fort Monroe becoming part of the National Park Service, a pair of meetings Tuesday surely cleared things up.

More than 500 turned out for a midday public-comment session regarding the future of the historic fort, which the Army is vacating in September. Hundreds more flocked to the city's convention center for an evening gathering to express support for Congress - or President Barack Obama - designating the waterfront property as a national park or national monument.

Speaker after speaker told Terry Moore, a park service planning chief, that the 570-acre waterfront property deserves federal protection.

On Sept. 15, most of the property will revert to the state. The governor and the state agency overseeing the base's reuse, the Fort Monroe Authority, support the idea of a national park and envision a shared effort to manage the property. The authority will oversee the leasing of residential and office space, with controlled development limited to specified areas. Hampton, state and federal officials all want to see the fort become self-sustaining.

Tuesday, though, was all about memories.

For decades before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the post was wide open to visitors, and many residents shared anecdotes about their ties to Fort Monroe: crabbing and fishing from its piers, listening to outdoor summer concerts, walking a daughter down the aisle of its chapel, even cleaning refuse from its shoreline as a summer job.

Others cited the land's history, especially during the Civil War, when a Union general decided to grant sanctuary to three escaped slaves, spurring a tide of human refugees to seek freedom there.

Flo Joyner, a retired sailor, talked about seeing the fort from the deck of a warship and knowing she was almost home.

"Those of us who've served in the Navy know what it's like to see it from the water," she said. "C'mon, people. Write letters, write emails, lick stamps. We've got a little bit further to go."

Joyner took time off from her job with Gryphon Technologies in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake to make it to the midday meeting. Because of traffic, it took her 90 minutes to get there. She didn't care because it's that important, she said.

"It's an unbelievable sight," she said, recalling the moment she'd see the flagpole atop the fort as her ship returned from sea duty. "Just like crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, that is a sign you're home. It always has been."

Indeed, the moated stone fort, completed in the 1830s, has long been a touchstone for mariners. But more than just the 65 acres inside the moat must be protected, many speakers said. They want to see the open space on the eastern edge of the base remain as it is, too. It's unclear whether the park service would manage the open space.

Gaylene Kanoyton of Hampton said she was speaking on behalf of her 13-year-old son, who was away on a camping trip. He's a member of a Boy Scout troop that meets weekly inside the fort's old stone walls. Known as "The Moat Monsters," the troop is one of the oldest in the nation, dating to 1918, she said.

After the first meeting, Moore acknowledged the size of the crowd and its devotion to preserving Fort Monroe.

"I think we sensed a good deal of support," he said.