Casemate Museum of Fort Monroe — Attraction in Hampton

I worked at Fort Monroe for 42 years. I would often visit the casemate museum and found the atmosphere to be welcoming and all employees were very nice and informative. You would just walk in and enjoy the people and exhibits. I always told people to visit the museum. I invited friends from out of state to come to the museum with my family. Today, 9 Oct 22, my experience was terrible and I will not recommend the museum to anyone. We know that because of Covid that admission changes have to be made. On the museum website the policy is to obtain admission tickets on a timed entry from a visitor center that is outside the moat a mile away and then go to the museum. The hours were 10-4. We went to the visitor center at 10:30 with masks on and it was not open. The sign on the door said open Monday- Friday 9-5. So then we went to the museum. The hours said 10-4. By then it was 10:45. The door was locked and a sign said to ring the bell. We did and an extremely rude woman answered the door and said we were not getting in without a ticket and the visitor office was open and even though there was no one at the museum, the parking lot was empty and we had masks on she was not going to let us in no matter what. All in my pary were over 70 years old and she spoke to us in a very rude and condescending manner and then shut the door in our face. I know that being rude is quite often a trait among people these days and it seems that people in charge of representing their attractions seem to have acquired that trait, but I wish they would understand how bad it makes people feel and how many miles that people travel to visit their museum. It also makes people that are treated badly want to spread their story to others so that it does not happen to them. There was no reason in the world we could not have visited the museum today. Somehow it should have been...

We had a couple hours to drive from Williamsburg, VA up to Fort Monroe on the recommendation from some locals who indicated that with the spate of recent hot weather this museum was indoors. Fort Monroe is loaded with history and pre-dates even the founding of the country as this was an important area in early settlements such as Jamestown and Williamsburg. That said, even though the Casemate museum is primarily focused on Fort Monroe, the exhibit starts with the earlier history which is a nice touch. The museum takes advantage of the long history by touching on many historical eras, such as early settlements, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, World Wars, later schools, and a few others. Of great historical and local history is the focus on African Americans and how Fort Monroe took in "contraband" and became a place of refuge for those escaping the clutches of dreadful enslavement. The features helping explain General Butler's role, the slave census map, and many other well-done exhibits really are top-notch and well worth the time to read through.

The museum also highlights a few other points worth mentioning such as Edgar Allan Poe's time there, and Robert E. Lee's connection, and infamously the incarceration of Jefferson Davis. There is also a few exhibits on the defenses and artillery school which was housed at one time at Fort Monroe. Spend a couple hours at the museum, buy a gift or book in the well-stocked gift shop, and drop a few dollars in the bin at the end - I think you will have found it worthy of such an offering.

We also just enjoyed driving around the base itself, which was shut down in 2011 and enjoyed the views and general atmosphere before...

Some of the people who work there are RACIST! If you are African-American or a person of color DO NOT go there! I visited for the first time the other day and when I got to the end of exhibits, I visited the gift store and a white woman who worked there, followed me all around the store the whole time I was in there and watched me without saying a word. I am very affluent and its not like anything in the store was worth a bag of beans anyway! I was dressed nice coming from church with my jacket on and she still profiled me and made me feel uncomfortable. She didn't say not one word to me while I was in there, she just followed and targeted me. There was also an older white couple in the store at the same time I was in there, and she didn't even bother them at all, she was just focused on me. I had even donated money to support museum without even a thank you or acknowledgement from the security worker or other staff that was around. Unfortunately, they are so ignorant they still believe blacks are slaves as the setting of the past emanates there. They still like many idiots in the Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach areas and in our horrible nation, think blacks are dumb, broke, ignorant, and stupid; though my pocket book and credentials tells me different. Blacks BOYCOTT this place!...