Sandy Hook Unit Main Page | Military Sites at Sandy Hook
Fort Hancock, now part of Gateway National Recreation Area, was a coastal defense fort located at the northern tip of the Sandy Hook peninsula that protected New York Harbor from 1895 until it was closed in 1974. It is not a typical fortress such as Fort Sumter (Fort Sumter National Monument), but one that used massive, reinforced concrete and rebar gun batteries for defense. While much smaller than traditional forts, when outfitted with guns that could damage the armor plated hulls of modern ships, the batteries were much more effective than a masonry fortress with a hundred cannon.
Masonry forts such as Sumter had no problem stopping a cannonball, for these didn’t travel with much velocity, nor were they very accurate, so the chance of blasting a hole in a fort wall by hitting the same spot over and over again was slim. However, rifled artillery developed during the Civil War had an inner barrel with a spiral grove cut into it. When fired, bullet-shaped shells were sent spinning like footballs, increasing not only their accuracy, but also their range and velocity. The effect these shells had on masonry forts was first demonstrated during the Union bombardment of Fort Pulaski on April 10-11, 1862 (Fort Pulaski National Monument). The walls of the “indestructible fort” were breached in less than thirty hours, forcing the Confederates to surrender…and effectively ending the days of the masonry fortresses.
After the Civil War, the United States military was tasked with replacing all 42 of its masonry forts, though the post-war economy made this impossible. It wasn’t until 1885 that President Grover Cleveland formed a military commission under Secretary of War William Endicott to come up with ideas for a new system of coastal defense upgrades. Known as the Endicott System of Coastal Defenses, the idea was to build concrete batteries. Construction began in 1890, prompted by possible war with Spain, and lasted until 1910. Endicott batteries remained in use until after World War II, when air power made stationary forts obsolete for defensive purposes.
Sixteen batteries were built on the Sandy Hook peninsula, a few of them predating Fort Hancock. In fact, the fort was created to house the soldiers who operated the batteries. A few of these still stand today, but most are closed to the public. Some have been completely destroyed and only remnants remain—these are not publicized by the National Park Service, so you must know where to look in order to find the ruins.
In addition to the batteries, there are over one hundred buildings on the property that were used for housing, offices, hospitals, and mess halls, and these can be seen by taking the self-guided Fort Hancock Walking Tour. Pick up a map at the Sandy Hook Visitor Center, which is currently the Light Keeper’s House next to the lighthouse.
Though not on the main fort property, be sure to check out the Nike Missile Control and Launch Sites. Tours are given on select Saturdays and Sundays from April through November by the Fort Hancock Nike Association. See the organization’s website for a schedule.
Some of the buildings at Fort Hancock are now occupied by private residents and other organizations. The National Park Service has attempted to lease the buildings in exchange for renovation ever since the park opened in 1975, but initially very little effort was put into the program. As a result, many of the buildings have deteriorated at an alarming rate. To let you know how serious the issue is, when Fort Monroe was decommissioned in 2011 and Barack Obama created the Fort Monroe National Monument, staff from Fort Monroe traveled to Fort Hancock to show politicians what was going to happen to the buildings if they were not leased and occupied. Fort Hancock was the bad example.
When you enter a National Park, you find that everything seems to be operating smoothly. What you don’t know is that behind the scenes politicians, park supervisors, conservation groups, and nosy neighbors are arguing over whether the sky is blue or green. In 2004, Sandy Hook Partners, LLC (SHP) signed on to renovate and lease 36 buildings, but local citizens and politicians filed a lawsuit to stop this, claiming the National Park Service was privatizing the park. The lawsuit took four years to be resolved, with the National Park Service winning the case in September 2008. However, from the start SHP did not have all of the $70 million needed for the renovations, and with a lawsuit filed, it failed to attract additional investment funds (opponents claimed the money never existed in the first place, which was part of the lawsuit). SHP was able to renovate the Post Chapel, the Post Theater, and the Headquarters Building, but once the recession hit, the SHP dream was over, and in 2009 the National Park Service cancelled the lease on the remaining 33 buildings. After Hurricane Sandy severely damaged the theater, the source of half of SHP’s rental income, SHP was effectively put out of business.
So now we have historical buildings falling down—buildings that are never going to be renovated with federal money—because some idiots filed a lawsuit claiming that restoration by private parties in exchange for commercial or private use is privatizing the National Park. These aren’t buildings currently open to the public that are going to be taken away from us. In fact, these aren’t buildings that will ever be opened to the public. They’ll fall down before that happens. So why not allow them to be renovated? At least when you walk around the fort you aren’t going to be looking at eyesores that are being propped up by wooden poles.
The National Park Service has just recently started another campaign to drum up investors and is now starting to get some bites despite renovation costs being well over a million dollars for even the smallest building. You can’t just slap a coat of paint on one and pick up some lumber at Home Depot to shore things up and have a place to yourself. The buildings must be restored to their historical specifications as closely as possible. A Ranger told me that restoring a porch alone costs over $200,000.
I’m not sure what the terms are, but from what I gather, if you are willing to renovate a building, then you can get up to a 60-year lease with the initial rental fees paid for by money spent on renovations. For example, if the going rental rate on a particular building is $100,000/year and you spend $1 million on renovations, you’ve paid your rent for the first ten years. After that you owe $100,000 each year for the remainder of the lease. State and local property taxes and other fees associated with leasing a building are not included in the deal and must be paid from the start.
Buildings have been set aside for residences, educational and non-profit use, and commercial use like bed and breakfasts, office space, and restaurants. For more information, visit the Fort Hancock 21st Century Advisory Committee website.
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Last updated on December 15, 2024