Living in Virginia where the first ever colony was established in 1607 (Jamestown), you bet there are endless museums, monuments and parks to visit and explore. Some of these historical locations can be found within the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS has a really fun and addicting passport like program, where you can collect stamps and stickers for the locations you visit throughout the entire United States (I have links at the bottom of this post with all the information). This post won't include much of the history held within Fort Monroe, however, it will include photos and topical information about the day in general.
In July, my fiancé and I took a mini day trip to Fort Monroe, which is located just off of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. Coming from Virginia Beach, the drive was short, but fair warning of the traffic on the HRBT. We had enough to do on the fort for us to be there for a large portion of our day.
The Fort Monroe National Monument is located on, what I can best describe it as being, a moat! It is completely surrounded by water with only 3 gates with an accompanying bridge. We entered the fort on a very narrow bridge and continue on through an archway where only one car can pass through at a time. We parked the Jeep and grabbed a walking tour map. We had a scheduled time for the Casemate Museum, so we did this first. The fort itself is small enough to walk around in its entirety in one go. There were numbered locations on the map which were easy to find as we walked along, and the map had a brief description about each location.
One of my favorite locations along the walking tour portion was seeing the Fort Monroe Quarters No.1. The building was constructed in 1918 and is one of the oldest buildings within the moat. I especially loved this house because President Abraham Lincoln stayed there during his visit. Another famous visitor to the Quarters included Marquis de Lafayette, who everyone famously knows about from the ever so popular Broadway show Hamiliton.
While we walked, we stopped inside one of the archways to take a look at its construction, walked through the forts pet cemetery (enter Stephen King) where about 400 graves marked the resting place of US Army working dogs, mascots and pets that belonged to the families who lived at the fort. The pet cemetery was located up a hill that we can climb up too. The location actually continued over the top of the Main Gate entrance. At the top there were as well turrets that cannons used to be placed upon to protect the fort form land invasion. Although there were no cannons, it was really interesting to see how they would be placed on top of these cement and iron turrets in order to have the ability to swivel towards threats. Imagine having to push a huge cannon on this?!
We walked down into the stockade and guardhouse location. Inside there was a locked door, where behind were individual cells which you could see through the keyhole!
After our self-guided walking tour, we went into the Casemate Museum. This museum is free of charge. It was an excellent museum with plenty of history within to read about and see. The staff was extremely friendly and knowledgeable. We learned about the paranormal happenings as well, and I even bought a book about the most well-known ghosts that live at the fort. I think one of the most interesting things about Fort Monroe, is that people can rent and live on the fort! So, there are people living on this historical monument with ghosts and spirits of the past!
Once we took our time to walk through the Casemate Museum, I had to of course take my time in the gift shoppe. I always purchase a small memento, like a keyring or pin to add to our collection of adventures. This time I went with this keyring that is in the shape of the fort. There was also the location for us to grab our stamps for our National Parks Passports, and I was super excited to see that there was a Mid-Atlantic Regional Stamp sticker for the Fort Monroe National Monument to add to my small passport book. Here is where my fiancé bought the full-size passport book.
We then hopped back into the Jeep with our map and continued off the moat and onto the rest of the Fort to explore. Turns out there are beaches that people come to, which is pretty awesome, because if you know me, I don't care for crowds and that beach looked pretty awesome overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. At the same stop was the Old Point Comfort Light.
We then stopped to look at the Battery which had a couple cannons.
Something I was super impressed with, doesn't take much for someone as anxious as me, was to have a list (on the tour map) of all the near restaurants. There were 5 in total, and after a short Yelp review search, we decided to go to The Deadrise at Old Point Marina to eat.
We really enjoyed visiting Fort Monroe. It is really a place I would like to visit again. It was a beautiful day in late July, not too hot surprisingly. For being so close the "go go go" of daily life, it seemed off the beaten path and sort of in a world of its own. This is a place you can pack up for a day and hang out at the beach, walk and relax. I recommend 10/10.
- Fort Monroe here
- The Casemate Museum here
- National Park System here
- Passport to your National Park System here
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