Jackson Family Cemetery Cleaned and Roped-Off

Jackson Family Cemetery Cleaned and Roped-Off 

December 4, 2013

One of many family grave areas in Fort Ward Park is the Jackson Family burial area.  Located just outside of the fort walls, city archaeologists confirmed what public records have shown for years--the area has many burial sites.  Although city officials knew of the grave area the cemetery was always mowed and treated as recreation land rather than sacred ground.  At times the area has been either well-maintained or very neglected.

Recently in response to concerns of neglect expressed by Frances Colbert Terrell of the Fort Ward Park & Museum Advisory Group city officials took action to clean debris and rope-off the known graves.  

As the park’s management plan is completed, after review by the Advisory Group, the public and city officials, Jackson family descendants and others who love Fort Ward will get a better idea of what best practices the Recreation Department staff will use to maintain this, and other, historic areas at the park.

Fort Ward’s Lost Graves: Who speaks for the dead? Dr. Pamela Cressey

Fort Ward’s Lost Graves:  Who speaks for the dead?

Dr. Pamela Cressey

“Here are important points that need to be conveyed at the [public] meeting on the 18th.

1. the entire park is on the national register and has potential for cultural resources.
2. there is a lot of historical information collected already for us in the past and neighbors currently.
3. We have four oral histories related to fort ward--and another one done just last saturday.  more can be done.
4. the maintenance yard is definitely a cemetery--don’t know if resources are still there.
5. archaeology will take a long time because of money and staff--will need to prioritize (I would think graves first) and expand out from known areas to find graves--this is time consumng.  Is possible for community volunteers to help........

         9.  Best to capitalize on public interest and professionalism and form a workng group--call it an advisory group--to go through these steps: neighbors, descendant families and interested black history people, recreation people, natural history people as well as staff from both depts.  This group must work not like a regular task force with one mission job, but work over time to develop trust, communication and become good stewards of the park’s resources and stories”.

Memorandum from Pamela Cressey, City Archaeologist, to Lance Mallamo, Director of the Office of HIstoric Alexandria.  March 13, 2009.

Remembering the Solitude of Fort Ward Park

Remembering the Solitude of Fort Ward Park

Charles W. Hendryx, the City of Alexandria’s first arborist, is long gone and forgotten.  No one at the Fort Ward Museum remembers him.  The City Recreation Department has no information about him.  Some of the people that worked for the city back-in-the-day remember him and know that one of the features of Fort Ward Park is the memorial that was created in his honor.

A search of the records in the Fort Ward Museum and the Alexandria Archives turned-up information about Mr. Hendryx and a lady named Mrs. R.F.S. Starr.  Mrs. Starr is often recognized as one of the people that helped convince City of Alexandria elected officials to save Fort Ward and create a historic park.  The Museum’s Library is named after Mrs. Starr to honor her work.

As it turns out Mrs. Starr and Mr. Hendryx worked together in the 1950’s to develop “preliminary thoughts” for Fort Ward Park.  Ideas for preservation, land acquisition, picnic areas, trails, footpaths, restrooms, parking and, natural and azalea plantings were shared between the two and used as the basis for the preparation of the initial plan for the park.

To recognize Mr. Hendryx’s contribution the city developed a small memorial, surrounded by azaleas and flowers, in his honor.   The memorial is located near the boundary where the park, Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery and Marlboro Estates comes together.  It is downslope of the cemetery within an area that early city maps described as “Solitude”, which was keeping with the city’s goal to protect history, provide recreation and preserve open space within the Fort Ward area.

Over the years, for good and not-so-good reasons, the area of solitude became a forgotten part of the park.  The area increasingly has been neglected with grass and leaves uncut and shrubs unkept.  Several benches that provide quiet places to meditate about nature fell into disrepair and small donor plaques placed on them were removed.  Even the Fort Ward Park & Musem Advisory Group members, charged with improving the management and protection of the park seemed to be ambivalent about this area.

Yesterday and today, however, a change was in the wind.  A Recreation Department maintenance truck pulled into the area and two city workers began removing two badly damaged benches, pruning overgrown shrubs, removing invasive species, and raking leaves away from the memorial and sitting area.

Although the changes are modest they are obvious and most welcome for they are the first signs of city interest in this part of the park in quite sometime.  City efforts, as well as donations and volunteer efforts from the Marlboro Estate residents, could help make this area an asset to Fort Ward once again.  If Mr. Hendryx and Mrs. Starr were still with us I’m sure they would be glad that the park they helped create and develop continues to be cared for.

Signs at Fort Ward

Signs at Fort Ward

If you visit the site of the proposed Freedman’s Memorial Park it is easy to learn about what work is underway.  Professional signs are posted on fences around the area to inform and educate residents and visitors to the proposed preservation site.

If you visited Fort Ward Park over the last three years occasionally you might find an 8 X 11” sheet of paper describing what archaeological research is underway.  The maintenance yard, where more graves are located, is locked-down and the only posted information is to “Keep Out”.  Staff in the Fort Ward Park Museum, or park maintenance workers, are always helpful if you seek them out and ask them about what is going on at Fort Ward.  However, the Museum has had cut-backs and is not always open.  Park maintenance workers are spread thin caring for a number of recreation areas in this district.

Many believe that you cannot not communicate.  Sometimes what you don’t or won’t say about what is going on speaks volumes about how you feel.  The Fort Ward Park effort has been undertaken with considerable resistance from the City of Alexandria department heads responsible for managing this area.  Some of that might be because they can’t do everything that needs to be done as quickly as it needs to be done.  In other cases they explain that they “don’t do historical parks”, “don’t have funding” , “don’t believe certain tasks are needed”, or that certain concerns aren’t concerns.

In many situations communication suffers when public servants are very busy.  Some city employees treat the communities that they serve as “the front” and view involving the public in decision-making as unnecessary, at best, and hostile at worst.  Fort Ward has clearly been one of the examples of how neglecting communication can make city services far more complicated, time consuming and expensive.   Although city leaders have taken steps to improve civic engagement more often than not it is business as usual at Fort Ward--which is a topic for another day.

As is the case with the Freedman’s area the city is getting outside public and private funds from others to undertake work at Fort Ward.  Professionally made signs which describe the work underway at Fort Ward would not only help keep citizens informed it would also be a good way to tell others about the support the city is receiving from other organizations.  City Council, the National Park Service, the National Trust for HIstoric Preservation, and others have made contributions that need to be publicly acknowledged.

Fort Ward Park has other signs sharing all kinds of information.  Not one sign acknowledges that the entire area is listed on the National Register of HIstoric Places.  Not one sign gives park users information about the work underway and why it is being done.  Perhaps omission of these signs is due to tight budgets. Or perhaps it is a sign of something else.  Either way, what we have here is a failure to communicate.

Fort Ward's Lost Graves: Who speaks for the dead? Councilwoman Del Pepper

Fort Ward's Lost Graves: Who speaks for the dead?

Councilwoman Del Pepper

“I’d like the grave sites[ at Fort Ward Park] commemorated in the park so that its an attraction.  There are lots of immediate neighbors in the area.  This has been an awful experience for them.  Don’t underestimate the value of their concerns”. 

Remarks by Councilwoman Del Pepper at the December 13, 2008 Alexandria, VA. CIty Council Meeting

City Council's Charge to the Fort Ward Park and Museum Advisory Group

Dear Linda and Chuck,

I hope this note finds you well.

This letter follows the comments I made at your Fort Ward Park and Museum Advisory Group Meeting about opportunities for public involvement in the review and approval of the management plan for Fort Ward Park and Museum.  I was disappointed that your meeting tonight to discuss this subject was cancelled.  However, I well understand the importance of taking a break from your volunteer work and enjoying the holidays.  All of you have worked long and hard and you deserve a break.

As I mentioned on November 13, 2013 the published schedule for the completion of the Fort Ward Park  & Museum Management Plan indicates that there will be one public meeting held before the draft plan winds its way through the formal City of Alexandria review and approval process.  Ms. Durham indicated that this proposed meeting would be some type of “informal public meeting”.   In the past Ms. Durham and you, Ms. Ries, have indicated that there would be opportunities for public involvement. Given these assurances I found the statements which were made on the 13th to be surprising given the history of decision-making for the Fort and the city’s recent Civic Engagement initiative. 

When the City Council resolution was crafted to direct and fund the development of the Fort Ward and Museum Management Plan there were three “charges” for the Advisory Group.  Items 2. and 3. relate to public involvement in the process of developing a Fort Ward Park & Museum Management Plan.  This provision was inserted to help insure that the plan for the park and museum would be developed with the community rather than developed for it.  As you are well aware Fort Ward has suffered from closed and inaccessible decision-making in the past.  As much as I’d like to believe that the soon-to-be-shared new plan will be a good one, the process so far has bee one that hasn’t embraced these two charges.

For example, Mr. Mallamo recent effort to prepare a hefty report on the families of the Fort Ward community was done with no input from those who lived in the community or their descendant family members.  The notion that an outside consultant can come up with a work product without input from citizens is paternal, unprofessional and a bad reflection on the city.  That effort was an opportunity to “bring community values, knowledge, ideas and advice into the process to develop the management plan”.  Although the African American community is now being given an opportunity to review the document to make sure the research is accurate, Mr. Mallamo’s actions--which are part of the management plan process, are a definite departure from the intent of City Council and the spirit of the 2011 charge.

It is unclear how the various pieces of the park and museum management plan will come together to avoid single-purpose perspectives of different departments.  I understand from what I learned at your meeting that the city’s consultant is scheduled to provide the advisory group a draft management plan on January 8, 2014.   Given that the  above-noted history report is still under community review and comment, and  promised city/ consultant outreach to adjacent homeowners regarding the Storm Water Plan has not been completed,  it seems as if a consultant presentation of the draft plan  is premature.  As you well know the topics of storm water and African American history and culture were two of the major issues that sparked public concern after the development of the 2008 Fort Ward Facilities Plan by the City’s Recreation Department.

Hopefully all these different elements of the park and museum management plan will come together in an integrated and timely way.

My hope is that as the advisory group discusses public involvement you will depart from the approach you have been using during this phase of the effort.  Offering public comments at your meetings is important but it does not respond to City Council charge to your group.  By providing the public with a number of well-designed opportunities to review and comment on the draft plan you help help insure that the document will be accurate and well-received by the communities of the city that you serve, before it is put on review by others.    Meeting your charge now with appropriate public involvement will make the process go smoother.  A failure to embrace your charge will become an issue especially if there is community dis-satisfaction to the proposed plan.  

My involvement with Fort Ward started unexpectedly in 2006.  My request then, as it is now, was to have appointed and elected city officials make decisions with us, not for us, or to us.  It takes a good process to come up with a good plan.  Hopefully you will help give us both so we can get behind the proposal.

Thanks again for your time and effort on the Advisory Group.  You are providing and important service to the city and your neighbors.

May your holidays be joyous and safe.

Sincerely,

Glenn

J. Glenn Eugster

Fort Ward Management Plan: Possible Alternatives for Park Ownership & Management

Fort Ward Management Plan:  Possible Alternatives for Park Ownership & Management

December 2013:  Members of the Fort Ward Park & Museum Advisory Group, as well as City Council members and the Chair of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, reportedly have been having discussions about possible options for the ownership and management of Fort Ward Park.  According to reliable sources  inside city government the idea of transferring ownership of Fort Ward to the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority has been discussed.  City leaders and advisors have also discussed numerous other options including some type of park conservancy approach for long-term operations and improvement to the site.  The City of Alexandria’s Open Space Coordinator and Liaison to the Advisory Group believes that type of recommendation will be included in the implementation section of the draft Fort Ward Park & Museum Management Plan now being developed by a consultant working for the Department of Recreation.   The details of these alternatives have not been shared with the public for comment.

The draft plan is scheduled to be presented to and discussed with the Advisory Group at their January 2014 meeting.