Fort Monroe in Blackbeard’s Lost Head

Fort Monroe, the town of Phoebus and Hampton University are all places in Blackbeard’s Lost Head. All three are within five miles of each other and represent a kind of ecosystem that drive the plot of Blackbeard’s Lost Head.

This blog is about Fort Monroe.

Fort Monroe is situated on the shoreline of Chesapeake Bay, built in the 1830s to keep an eye on ships moving in and out of the bay.

Today Fort Monroe is a National Monument and a tourist attraction, but this is a relatively recent title. Fort Monroe was an active military base up until 2012 something I find hard to believe given the legion of preserved 19th century homes and utilitarian buildings. How Fort Monroe was able to retain its historical architecture and grounds well into the computer age is a testament to the Army’s determination to preserve the fort’s important legacy.

Fort Monroe is nowhere near as popular as Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown and other historic sites in the area visited by millions every year, but in my mind, it’s better than all of them. Its relative obscurity is likely due to it being off-limits to civilians up until relatively recently. Right now, you can wander the place alone, free of the crowds and commercialization.

Much of Fort Monroe was built behind a moat. That’s right. A full-on Disneyesque, King Arthur, storybook medieval moat. But it’s no joke. The granite walls serving the moat are formidable and visiting the earthen walls behind them is not for those who fear heights.

And of course, there’s the architecture. Google says the officer’s quarters and storage facilities are a unique mix of Colonial Revival, Federal, and Greek Revival styles. Many of the buildings and homes are well over a hundred years old. Some are over two hundred years old.