EXPLORE FORT MONROE’S HISTORY

Start your visit at the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center (VEC) where you can get information about the area, pick up guided maps for the walking tour and the Fort Monroe National Monument. You can also pick up your ticket for a FREE visit to the Casemate Museum, and learn about other visitor experience and special tours.

Within the fort is the Casemate Museum, which chronicles the military history of Fort Monroe from the construction of Fort Algernourne, the first defensive fortification at the site in 1609, through the last major command to be headquartered at Fort Monroe, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. The museum features the room where Jefferson Davis was held briefly as prisoner following the American Civil War, highlights the 1861 “Contraband of War” decision that granted three enslaved men, and thousands who followed, sanctuary at Fort Monroe, earning it the nickname “Freedom’s Fortress.”

THE VISITOR & EDUCATION CENTER AND CASEMATE MUSEUM–TEMPORARILY CLOSED

Due to rising regional and national cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center and the Casemate Museum will temporarily close to the public starting Wednesday, November 25. The Fort Monroe Authority’s top priority is to protect the health and safety of its visitors and staff. We anticipate reopening after the new year and will announce a date at a later time. We are closely monitoring guidance from local governments, public health officials, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Our museum and visitor center doors may be temporarily closed, but your access to Fort Monroe and all it offers continues! Check us out at www.fortmonroe.org and follow us on social media at Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort on Facebook and Fort Monroe’s Casemate Museum Facebook page.

You can explore Fort Monroe and visit us virtually at Virtural Tour. You can also enjoy the outdoors and take a newly designed walking tour through the Old Fort. Pick up a guide at either site or access it here Walking Tour Guide.

We thank you for your understanding and look forward to welcoming you back to the Museum and Visitor Center.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Fort Monroe is looking to grow our dedicated team of volunteers. We welcome volunteers to assist in many ways at the Visitor and Education Center (VEC) and the Casemate Museum (CM).

Volunteers at the museum and visitor center enable us to keep our doors open six days a week, all year round. From greeting visitors, interpreting one of the many exhibits, conducting tours and helping with school groups.

Fort Monroe encourages family or group volunteering opportunities, and endeavors to place applicants with various backgrounds, ages, and interests into appropriate positions. Students with community service requirements for school or service organizations can fulfill their commitment too.
Here are some areas where volunteers can assist:

Visitor Engagement: Greet visitors, assist in ticketing, provide information, respond to inquiries, give tours, interpret exhibits.
Public Programs: conduct outreach, support special events, assist with publicity.
Educational Programs: help with school groups, conduct special tours, assist with special activities.
Archives: catalog books/maps/photographs/documents; create inventories and finding aids, scan and document photographs and other materials.
Collections: catalog items; research artifacts; assist with archaeology.
General: research, podcasting, social media, producing printed materials.

If you would like to volunteer, email us at msm.edu.interp@fortmonroe.org or call 757 690-8181.

FACES OF FORT MONROE

Did you or someone you know live, work, or serve at Fort Monroe while it was an active military installation? If so we would love to hear from you. Please click on the link below to complete the “Faces of Fort Monroe” form.
Faces of Fort Monroe Form

HISTORIC STRUCTURE REPORT–STRUCTURAL MONITORING AND TESTING AT THE CASEMATE MUSEUM

The Fort Monroe Authority and the National Park Service are partnering to complete an Historic Structure Report (HSR) for the the Casemate Museum.  This work will continue through June 2015.  The HSR will create greater understanding of the Casemate Museum section of the fortification to help address ongoing structural and aesthetic issues in a manner sensitive to the historic structure and character of the Fort Monroe National Monument and National Historic Landmark.  Funding for this project is provided by the National Park Service and a grant from the Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment.  Click the link below to learn more about this project.

Historic Structure Report-Structural Monitoring and Testing at the Casemate Museum

PRESERVING THE TOWER CLOCKS AT FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA

Please download and read the article originally published in The Journal of the Tower & Street Clock, Chapter #134 – NAWCC, Issue No. 27.

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