Historic Quadrangle, not just Historic Triangle?

 

Virginia could enlarge the Historic Triangle and make it instead a Historic Quadrangle. The benefits would include not only financial enrichment for Hampton, the region and the commonwealth, but cultural, historical, environmental and recreational enrichment as well.

 

The present triangle tells part of the story of America's origins and founding, but omits the Civil War. That war was the crucial event that affirmed, in blood, that the country actually intends to try to live up to its founding principles of liberty and equality, just as President Lincoln declared in the Gettysburg Address.

 

And on the Virginia Peninsula we also have -- besides Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown -- Fort Monroe and the Monitor Center. Moreover, at Fort Monroe we have a good chance to get one of the new locations envisioned for Richmond's Museum of the Confederacy, and it might also be possible to attract the Slavery Museum for which planning is stalled in Fredericksburg.

 

These world-class attractions can tell the Civil War part of America's story.

 

In WHRO's online Fort Monroe film "Kingdom by the Sea," Robert Nieweg of the National Trust for Historic Preservation ranks Fort Monroe alongside Monticello and Mount Vernon. Fort Monroe, as the place where slavery began to die, contributes mightily to conferring on the Civil War its very meaning in American history -- and in world history.

 

In its post-Army years, Fort Monroe will come to be seen as a possible World Heritage Site. It symbolizes something fundamental worldwide: every human's innate yearning for freedom and dignity, under the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.

 

Now is Virginia's chance to act with real vision for the future concerning Fort Monroe, Virginia tourism, and American memory.

 

At Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, we have been talking about the Historic Quadrangle since 2006. Following are a few links to brief additional materials:

 

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot  op-ed, April 1, 2009: "Virginia’s Historic Quadrangle: Freedom's Fortress and the Civil War complete a story of America’s founding," by Steven T. Corneliussen

 

"Historic Quadrangle: Amazing history, amazing economic opportunity," by Scott Butler (comment contributed to an online discussion at DailyPress.com, Nov. 8, 2009)

 

Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed, June 19, 2007: "Juneteenth in Virginia: Historic Triangle Could Become Historic Quadrangle," by Steven T. Corneliussen
 

Daily Press article, March 19, 2007: "He wants tourists to enjoy the 'historic quadrangle,'" by Jim Hodges

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