Guest Opinion
Save Fort Monroe
H. Scott Butler
Inside Business - Hampton Roads
Monday, April 30, 2007
The sense of the past, of many pasts, is palpable at Fort Monroe. Gazing out at the deep channel, you see what Captain John Smith saw four centuries ago at the dawn of English settlement in America, when he decided that Old Point Comfort was "fit for a Castle" to guard the approaches to Jamestown. And lurking in the shadows of the moated stone fortress, the largest ever built in the United States, there are many ghosts: Andrew Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Black Hawk, Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, the hundreds of slaves who worked on the fortress in the early stages of its construction, and the thousands more who sought and found sanctuary at Fort Monroe and Union-held Hampton, creating what historian Robert F. Engs has called "the beginning of freedom for all Americans."
So rich a history and so beautiful a setting call for a federal presence in perpetuity after the Army leaves in 2011. But is such an arrangement possible? And would it benefit Hampton and the Peninsula economically?
The first question has been answered by the Presidio Trust in San Francisco. The Presidio, a former coastal Army post, is now a combination federal trust and national park on its way to being self-sustaining. Although it still receives federal funding, it is already meeting its operating expenses through the adaptive re-use and leasing of existing buildings for residences and businesses, as well as the leasing of George Lucas’ film studio, built on the site of a non-historic structure. According to Craig Middleton, executive director of the Presidio Trust, Fort Monroe is a good candidate for a Presidio-style park. And according to the National Historic Trust for Preservation, the Base Realignment and Closure process of the Army "should consider as an operational model the Presidio Trust, which was created by the Congress to preserve and enhance the Presidio as a financially self-sustaining national park."
New national parks are created by acts of Congress, and Fort Monroe’s assets – its unique story, 150 historic buildings, acres of green space, wonderful Chesapeake Bay setting, and accessibility – leave little doubt that if Virginians join together to ask for national park status along the lines of the Presidio, they will be successful.
As for the second question, a definitive answer awaits a comparative economic analysis of the various options for Fort Monroe. Hopefully, Gov. Tim Kaine’s new Fort Monroe board will shed light on this issue. But in the meantime, consider the following reasons in support of the federal option:
In 2005 the $2.6 billion budgeted to our national parks created revenue of more than $12 billion, most of which went to the gateway communities. If Fort Monroe becomes a national park, Hampton, Phoebus and the entire Peninsula would have a share in the economic bonanza.
National parks do so well partly because the NP designation is a built-in marketing tool, attracting both national and international tourism. But their success also derives from the National Park Service’s expertise in preserving both historic and natural resources.
A vital, revenue-generating national park on the Peninsula with museums, reenactments, restaurants, satellite campuses, professional firms, leased houses, hiking and biking trails, public beaches, a marina and historic cruises would spark additional economic activity and new development outside the park, and the quality-of-life benefits of this grand public place would lure new business to the area.
Finally, the federal government would be responsible for the millions in transition costs and the potential millions for repairing future storm damage. To put this benefit in perspective, consider that the Army has recently agreed to renovate the fort’s seawall at a projected cost of $20 million to $26 million, and that Virginia’s total 2007 budget for state parks is around $30 million.
Both Hampton and the commonwealth stand to gain more, then, by allowing Fort Monroe to remain a federal responsibility than by digging into their own pockets. And of course the American people will gain a 570-acre national treasure they can enjoy forever. We often hear, and seldom believe, that "everybody’s a winner." But in the case of a Fort Monroe National Park, that rare occurrence looks like a very plausible outcome.
H. Scott Butler is a board member of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park.(Home)