Sites continue to change their approaches to telling stories of exploration, survival and war
Too often we think of history as fixed points in time, unchanged throughout the years. What varies, though, is how we interact with those points.
The people invested in historic sites across the Peninsula continue to develop, discover and rebuild with the hope they will reignite the interest to visit.
Fort Monroe officials are trying to attract people through a variety of projects, regardless of whether visitors are seeking a day in the sun or are planning to immerse themselves in a lesson on war and freedom.
Anglers are casting off a rebuilt pier on the property’s southeast tip which reopened in spring 2018. Another permanent pier jutting out into Mill Creek was built last year to help the owners of small craft access their boats and canoes.
And Fort Monroe officials plan to open a new visitors and education center along Ingalls Road by late summer.
The Aug. 23 opening day and dedication ceremony will coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first Africans to arrive in English-speaking North America, landing at what was then known as Point Comfort.
The center is being created within the former Coastal Artillery Library that was shuttered when the Army handed over the keys to the property to the commonwealth in 2011.
The plan is it to renovate the old brick building into a multi-functional space with exhibits, archives and public bathrooms.
Historic elements will be preserved including original architectural features such as the marble baseboards and antique doorknobs. A first-floor ceiling opening that allows beams of light from the second-floor skylight will also be restored.
State bonds will pay for the nearly $8 million project, and close to $1 million of that will be spent on exhibits explaining the property’s evolution using slides, interactive kiosks and multiple panels.
Just inside the stone fort’s east gate, the National Park Service is working to preserve Quarters No.1. The building is where the fort’s generals resided and made key decisions, including Gen. Benjamin Butler, who refused to return three slaves to their Confederate owner during the early months of the Civil War.
Workers are restoring the porches and outside masonry, installing columns, painting and doing landscaping. Their goal is also to complete the project before the late August commemoration of the first Africans arrival.
To date, the park service has paid $700,000 for the restoration work.
Preserving the historic elements of these two buildings while still ensuring they can be used for contemporary purposes is key to these projects.
If all goes well, both the library (visitors center) and Quarters No 1 will be used to engage visitors with our local history in unique ways.
Jamestown history unearthed
For decades, conventional theory among historians was the wood fort that sheltered English colonists on Jamestown Island was lost to a rising James River.
Twenty-five years ago, a band of curious archeologists sought to disprove that popular theory.
Teams, including Jamestown Rediscovery director of archeology Bill Kelso, broke ground in April 1994 and soon began to find pottery and bits of military equipment from the Jamestown period.
Soon, they found an outline of the fort using the discolored soil left behind by the wooden wall. Then they uncovered a bulwark, one of the three large circular areas where cannons were positioned. Now, nearly the entire perimeter of the fort has been found to exist on land, though one bulwark does sit in the river.
Archeologists have also found nearly 3 million artifacts on the site.
There’s a huge value in locating the fort, the site of several key events in American history, where the forces that would shape the nation were set into motion.
It was at the fort that the first representative legislature in English North America met in 1619. And the colonists were among the first slaveholders.
The project has shifted from a mission to unearth the settlement of white inhabitants, to learning more about the Native Americans and enslaved Africans who also played key roles in the settlement’s foundation. After all, it was the hardship that they endured that fueled the economic surge that would build this commonwealth, and eventually a united set of colonies.
To this day, archeologists are still finding new artifacts on Jamestown Island.
And there’s still more to discover on one of the most important sites in American history.
The stories of yesteryear — whether at Fort Monroe, Jamestown Island or other historic sites — speak to our ability to improve our understandings of ourselves and history.
Consider visiting Fort Monroe, Jamestown or any of the myriad historic sites on the Peninsula this year. After all, the renovations and new discoveries of recent years may enhance your experience compared to the last time you visited.
