It has worked at other sites. The CWPT just announced the purchase of land on the Third Winchester battle site. It bought the land for historical sites in Tennessee. It should consider such a plan for Fort Monroe.
Such an idea should be drawn up and put into action within the next year. It should be placed before the Hampton City Council before the Army leaves in 2011. Before commercial and real estate interests overrun all else, like at the Wilderness Wal Mart.
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Thanks for this interesting posting. Hampton City Council has too much control over Fort Monroe, it's true. Given that Robert Nieweg of the National Trust for Historic Preservation ranks Fort Monroe with Monticello and Mount Vernon, it's a little bit like giving control of those treasures to Charlottesville and Alexandria. But in fact post-Army Fort Monroe in 2011 will belong to the state of Virginia, not Hampton. And that control is exercised through a special state panel -- again, with too much Hampton control. Anyway, the land is not for sale, and it's my belief that preservationists -- especially those who care about the meaning of the Civil War -- should support a self-sustaining, revenue-generating Fort Monroe National Park. Please see the Web site of Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, CFMNP.org.
ReplyDeleteSteven T. Corneliussen
Co-founder, Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park
E-mail Contact@CFMNP.org
Yes, Fort Monroe is already public land, so there is no need for the public to buy it. The question is what is done with it. We need an innivatively structured, hybrid national park operating in partnership with the state, establishing "grand public place" for American people, including maximizing open space in this public open space deprived region.
ReplyDeleteLots of people and businesses can lease the existing buildings, and lease land on limited areas for new development, thereby generating revenue needed to pay costs of operation. However there will be transition costs and occasional big capital costs that neither Va. nor Hampton have any interest in paying. With a National Park Service unit on the property, there will be opportunity to get Congress to provide this capital, probably not from National Park service budget itself but from elsewhere in federal budget.