Twenty years since the U.S. Army chose to divest itself of Fort Monroe, the remarkable historic landmark perched at the edge of the Peninsula in Hampton, officials have outlined a promising vision that would help realize its full potential.
While these are broad sketches rather than exhaustively detailed blueprints, imagining the fort as an attraction rivaling New York’s Central Park or London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is undeniably exciting. Fort Monroe is a global treasure, and a plan that protects and accentuates that would be a blueprint worthy of robust public support.
Hampton Roads is defined as much by the water that shapes its landscape as the history that rests just below the soil. It was here that the first European settlers carved out a foothold on a hostile continent, the first representative legislature convened and the decisive battle of the American Revolution won our independence.
Among these treasures is Fort Monroe, perched on a strategically important spit of land at the confluence of the Elizabeth, Nansemond and James rivers, with views of the York River and Chesapeake Bay that were defensively advantageous. It’s why the first arrivals from Europe built fortifications there in 1609.
Point Comfort, where the fort is located, was also where the first enslaved Africans were brought to North America. During the Civil War, those who liberated themselves from slavery sought refuge in the shadow of Union guns, as the fort was still held by those loyal to the United States. These “self-emancipators,” as historians and advocates correctly call them, secured liberty at “Fort Freedom” and are integral to the story of Hampton and our nation.
One might think that protecting such a critical historic landmark would be a singular priority. But following the U.S. Army’s decision to shutter the fort in 2005, debate has raged over how to best utilize the land. Proposals have called for allowing private development to gobble up the open space, potentially crowding out what makes the fort so special.
Thankfully, those plans never came to fruition, though preservation of the fort as a national, or even global, landmark has proceeded in fits and starts. The future of the fort, and the vital American history it represents, has been in question.
That’s what makes this new vision, and the support it has already engendered, so compelling.
The Fort Monroe Authority is developing a “Strategic Landmark Action Plan” under CEO Scott Martin, who was hired in November 2024. It intends to provide a cohesive vision that draws from various master plans developed over the years.
“The point of the plan is to have one approach that shapes and makes sure all those experiences, from the small ones to the big ones, all compliment each other so you get a forest and not just a bunch of trees,” Martin told The Pilot and Daily Press.
The idea is to preserve landmarks on the 565-acre site and accentuate them to create a public destination with broad appeal emphasizing land stewardship, design excellence and smart, managed development. Martin envisions something akin to New York’s Central Park, with a little bit of something for a variety of visitors but a shared space that is both timeless, compelling and restorative.
Already nineteen design firms submitted bids to participate, a list whittled down to four leading global design firms. Their ideas will be reviewed by a panel of local experts, who will select the plan so that work can begin as soon as early 2026.
With a variety of competing and important interests to balance, this is unlikely to be an easy process. Indeed, few things involving the recent history of the fort have been. But Fort Monroe’s potential — as a historic landmark, tourist destination, shared community space and national asset — have never been in question.
With public support, which must be earned, an ambitious vision for Fort Monroe would be a big win for Hampton Roads while ensuring that a place so important to the American story is protected.
https://www.dailypress.com/2025/11/15/editorial-a-grand-vision/
