Alexandria Acquires Fort Ward by Tom Fulton. October 9, 2010

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY’S 6TH ANNUAL PUBLIC POLICY CONFERENCE
“Advancing Social Justice in Times of Crisis”
PANEL: “Views of the Same Scene: Protecting Archaeology and Heritage in Fort Ward Park.”
Friday, October 9, 2:00 – 3:15 pm, Room , Building
Paper: Alexandria Acquires Fort Ward
Tom Fulton


On January 1, 1952 the City of Alexandria expanded its boundary west from Quaker Lane to its present limit encompassing 6.475 square miles of Fairfax County, 12,000 new residents and the area that now encompasses Fort Ward Historical Park.
The City of Alexandria, a seaport community founded in 1749, currently has a city manager government and an elected mayor and City Council. All City Council members are elected at-large, unlike those in neighboring jurisdictions such as D.C., Arlington and Fairfax County.


The manner in which Alexandria addresses citizen concerns is generally through the use of citizen boards and commissions. The city management of Fort Ward Historical Park and Museum is shared between the City Department of Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Affairs and, the not quite co-equal Office of Historic Alexandria.


Both of these city agencies have citizen commissions advising them, as do most, if not all, of the other city agencies. The City Parks Department has the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Office of Historic Alexandria has the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission. There are also other City agencies such as the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services and the city police Department whose functions naturally touch upon Fort Ward and its management.
There are also other boards and commissions such as the Alexandria Archaeological Commission, of which I am a member, which also share oversight responsibilities for Fort Ward. The goal, ostensibly is to maximize citizen input into city policy decision making.


The acquisition of the land at Fort Ward began shortly after extension of the city limits. Although the Fort had been abandoned in 1865 and much of the 44-acre property divided into increasingly smaller parcels, civic groups such as the Seminary Hill Association with Dorothy Starr and the Civil War Roundtable led by Moreau Chambers were advocating that the city of Alexandria acquire the property in order to preserve the historic value represented in the earthen fort, one of the forts constructed in the defense of Washington.


The appeal, begun in 1953-54 met a receptive city government which was rapidly expanding city services such as streets, water and sewer and parkland in the newly acquired area. In fact, Alexandria City council had set aside $25,000 of a parkland acquisition bond issue specifically for parks in the west end. The need was especially acute at Fort Ward because of its proximity to Shirley Highway which terminated at King Street and the existence of Fairlington, a World War II government housing community built in 1944.


The Alexandria City Council endorsed the spending of the $25,000 for the acquisition of Fort Ward in 1954, specifically for the purchase of approximately 20 acres then being subdivided as the “Eagle Crest Development.” But upon completing the purchase the City began to realize that it had acquired only the west face of Fort Ward, the part that had confronted the Confederates in 1861 and not the more historically significant interior or eastern side of the Fort where the living quarters and other buildings had stood.


A community of African Americans held the land on the eastern slope of Fort Ward, and many of them did not want to sell. At this point the city realized that Fort Ward could be a part of the Civil War Centennial that was rapidly approaching and decided to move ahead with the acquisition of the approximately 44 acres that make up the current park today.


City acquisition of what is the eastern portion of Fort Ward began in the 1950’s and did not end until the 1980’s, although the Park opened on Memorial Day 1964, in time for what remained of the Civil War Centennial.
Because of the pressures associated with impending development of the land at Fort Ward, and the desire to open the Park to visitors in time for the Civil War Centennial, normal processes common in public land acquisition and subsequent operation of park land were ignored or rushed in acquiring Fort Ward. As late as the 1980’s it was discovered that the city did not hold clear title to some of the small parcels within the Park.


Although the city pursued traditional techniques in trying to understand the significance of Fort Ward itself, employing a professional archaeologist, Edward Larrabee, an architect Herbert Mark and an historian William Hershey in 1961-62, a complete inventory of the Park’s other cultural and historical resources, was not conducted and has never been done. Evidence of Native American presence at Fort Ward exists but has not been examined.


Following an archeological excavation in the summer of 1961 inside the fort itself and the compilation of the military history and significance of Fort Ward, including the design of a museum along with discussions of what its contents might include, the city in 1962 began planning for the use of the larger area now encompassed by the park.


Early planning documents prepared by and for the city clearly show the existence of at least two cemeteries within the outer boundary of the park, not including the Oakland Baptist Church cemetery – which is privately owned but also lies within the external boundaries of the Park. On the west side of the Fort itself, maps and written correspondence indicate the existence of a family cemetery later identified as belonging to the Jackson family, one of the first post civil war African American families to make the land encompassing Fort Ward their home.


On the eastern side of the Park, existing gravestones outside the Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery boundary, were clearly represented on city maps. What is less clear is whether city planners of the time knew or understood that other graves perhaps marked, perhaps not, also lay scattered around the park. It is now generally believed that a total of perhaps nine burial areas exist within Fort Ward.


The existence of these marked and unmarked graves, family cemetery sites and marked graveyards offered a tantalizing clue to another history, another less often told story, that resides at Fort Ward. African American families began making Fort Ward their home as early as 1867 and managed through great obstacles to create a community known as “the Hill” that existed for over a hundred years until the city bought the property in the 1960’s. That African American community still exists in the area of Alexandria, known over time as “The Seminary,” located near where T.C. Williams High School stands today.


In an area of the Park, now separated from the rest of the Park, city planners originally envisioned an open area. However, shortly after marking the area “open,” city planners reversed direction and designated the area as “overflow parking.” On top of the “overflow parking” drawing someone has marked the word “grave” and a small rectangle. The parking lot was never built.
What did happen, however, was that the city, without, as far as is known, a required special use permit, did eventually evolve the use of this formerly designated “open space” area, into what the city began calling its arboretum. And, despite the fact that at least one grave was clearly marked with a tombstone, began to use the area as a place to store equipment and vehicles.


In 1982, Park employee Wanda Dowell let a successful effort to place the entire 44-acre park on the National Register of Historic Places. More recently, with Alexandria sharing in the budgetary shortfalls common among area jurisdictions, the city began to look closely at what revenue generating ideas its agencies might employ to mitigate the impact of a flat or even declining revenue stream. For Fort Ward, among the largest of Alexandria’s city parks, the possibility existed of significant rent increases among those groups who might be interested in renting picnic space at Fort Ward. The city allows liquor among those who rent space with the application of a permit to serve alcohol.


With the growth of population in Alexandria, combined with a growing desire by inhabitants to recreation opportunities, pressures on Fort Ward Park began to mount. Additionally the city lacked a coherent operational plan for the management of Fort Ward (as well as other large city parks). As a result, agency officials, striving to meet often conflicting goals, found they lacked clear direction in making decisions that could harm the not even well understood cultural and historical resources on the 44 acre park.


As a result of these converging forces, individuals and citizen groups in Alexandria began to speak out for the need to reexamine city priorities in the operation of the Park. In response the city led an intensive citizen involvement effort to gain insight into what citizens felt about management and use of the park. One of the primary needs as defined by citizens was the lack of and need for a master plan for the park that would help guide city managers in future operations. Citizens articulated that they wanted to be involved in city management decisions that would substantively alter park functions.


Citizens also indicated a strong desire to identify and preserve the marked and unmarked graves in the park and to better understand the story of those African American families who called Fort Ward home.


As a result of citizen action and the efforts of academics to bring the cultural history of the park but lying outside the fort walls, the city has begun an effort to identify and locate the cultural and historic resources as a necessary prerequisite for the later development of a management plan.


The Office of Historic Alexandria and the Office of the City Manager have announced plans to form commissions to advise the city as to how to proceed in better understanding the cultural jewel the city calls Fort Ward Historical Park and Museum.