Fort Monroe is reenvisioning what its landscape can offer residents and visitors.
Talk of change at the storied former U.S. Army fortress, however, can spur anxiety in history lovers, former soldiers and current residents. It’s why the Fort Monroe Authority is leading with a series of public meetings and online surveys before putting pen to paper for a landscape action plan.
Martin began work to update the fort’s master plan when he took the job in 2024. Many components in the old plan had since been written off, while ideas such as the in-progress African Landing Memorial Plaza weren’t included at all.
“I don’t think we can risk letting the public down,” said CEO Scott Martin between two listening sessions on Thursday. “We’re in one of those eras where showing that the public sector can build civic trust through success matters.”
People filled a room in Fort Monroe’s Visitor & Education Center on Thursday, the second day of listening sessions this week. Ideas and conversation flowed from questions raised by Mitchell Silver, a former New York City parks commissioner who is leading public engagement for the plan.
“You don’t want to force something that doesn’t work; you want it to come out organically from the engagement,” Silver said. “That guides the design itself so the public will know ‘Oh, I see how you elevated nature, that came from us; I see how you reflected the joy we’re asking for, that came from us.’”
Silver is working with Hargreaves Jones, which the authority selected in January to craft the plan. It’s an internationally acclaimed landscape architecture and planning studio that, more than 20 years ago, designed the reuse of another historic former Army post, Crissy Field at the Presidio of San Francisco. It has consistently been one of the country’s most visited national park sites.
Martin and Silver think the same can happen at Fort Monroe. The place has plenty of history to elevate, from being the point of arrival for the first African people taken to English-speaking North America in 1619 and a place of refuge for escaped enslaved people during the Civil War to serving as home and duty station for generations of soldiers. Coupled with its rich ecology supporting dozens of bird species, hundreds of plants and seven miles of shoreline, Silver sees it as a gem.
“It has a soul and an identity,” he said. “We need the public to tell us what that is, so when we do the plan, it’s authentic and it’s right for Fort Monroe.”
Some features are non-negotiable: The fort’s historic core isn't going to meaningfully change. But residents talked Thursday about several ways to create new experiences.
Hotels or bed and breakfasts. Bike and scooter rentals. Improved water and beach access. Concessions and bathrooms. Road and pedestrian path upgrades. Greater connection to Phoebus or Buckroe Beach. Renovated sports and recreation space. Winter festivals. Indigenous pow-wows. More visibility of the fort’s archeological work. Public art.
With such a variety of possibilities, Martin said homing in on what to include will be an effort of editing, knowing that it can’t do everything for everyone.
“You’ve got to have a really good, disciplined design that says we are going to do X and Y and stay focused and execute those,” he said. “It is death by a thousand good intentions if you don’t really deploy that discipline to the effort.”
Fort Monroe has an informal open house with the team at its Casemate Museum on Saturday morning. It will be hosting virtual listening sessions through the end of June, which is also when its online survey closes.
The team will then release a preliminary draft of the plan and host more meetings in July. A final draft and round of public sessions is scheduled by the end of the year.
“Success will be Fort Monroe writing new histories for Virginia and, I say it without apologies, fundamentally shaping the trajectory of our region and our state.”
