Saving Fort Hancock

NPS PHOTO

The Bachelor Officers Quarters reveals both the potential of Fort Hancock's historic buildings and the extent of work that needs to be done.

What is Fort Hancock?

Fort Hancock stands at the northern end of Gateway's Sandy Hook Unit. From the Spanish-American War through World War II and into the Cold War, the United States Army used Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook to defend New York Harbor from America's enemies. Today, dozens of historically significant buildings are themselves threatened by time and weather.

The enabling legislation that established Gateway as a national park explicitly charges the park with preserving Fort Hancock, which covers about 300 of Sandy Hook Unit's 2,000 acres. The law states, "In the Sandy Hook and Staten Island Units, the Secretary [of the Interior] shall inventory and evaluate all sites and structures having present and potential historical, cultural, or architectural significance and shall provide for appropriate programs for the preservation, restoration, interpretation, and utilization of them."

Watch our podcast on Fort Hancock to see both the problems and possibilities of the buildings as they are today. You can also see Fort Hancock for yourself. Take a tour of the buildings with us later in the spring.

 

NPS PHOTO

Citizens share ideas and concerns about Fort Hancock at an open house held at Henry Hudson Regional School.

What is Gateway doing about it?

In February 2011, over 140 people attended two open houses to brainstorm ways to save Fort Hancock. These comments will be considered as the park develops a preliminary plan to develop leasing of historic buildings at the fort as part of the NPS Leasing Program.

A preliminary, fact-finding meeting took place in January 2011 to discuss how other national parks have tackled similar problems. Attendees from outside the park were:

• Colonel Shawn Welch, U.S. Army;
• William (Bill) Wilby, retired (formerly of Oppenheimer Funds);
• Stephen Spaulding, Chief, Architectural Preservation Engineering and Maintenance Division, NPS Northeast Region;
• Gerry Glaser, National Science Foundation (also a member of Sandy Hook Foundation);
• Jon Bitman, Project Manager, Hembling Construction (involved with the previous restoration of Barracks Building 22);
• Guy Hembling, Hembling Construction;
• Michael Creasey, Superintendent, Lowell National Historic Park and Acting Commissioner NY Harbor Parks;
• Aaron Roth (via phone), Acting Deputy Superintendent, Golden Gate National Recreational Area;
• Laura Cartwright;
• Gail Hunton, Principal Historic Preservation Specialist, Monmouth County Park System.

Other parks with suites of historic buildings are Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes the Presidio, and Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts. These parks use the NPS Leasing Program to encourage public-private partnerships, which in turn save historic structures through creative reuse. These PowerPoint presentations detail the successful experiences at Lowell and the Presidio.

However, national parks have no monopoly on good ideas. The National Park Service and the local conmmunity need to engage in an ongoing, constructive dialogue that brings the necessary resources to save Fort Hancock. This process did not end with the open houses held in February. In fact, the dialogue is just getting started.