Bob knew right away about the ship.

The Chamberlain Hotel served for years as a destination for steamboat travelers from Baltimore. It is the only civilian building on the Fort and it has been a landmark to mariners since it was built. The hotel currently on the site was constructed in 1926 after the original burned in 1920. My husband Bob remembered coming down on the steamer



Much of the Chamberlain Hotel had been restored and featured an impressive lobby and dining room. The lobby display cases which depicted the history of the hotel and the steamers that used to bring visitors to the Chamberlain hotel resort. The Chamberlain's rooms which offer excellent views of Fort Monroe and the Chesapeake Bay are unfortunately no longer available because the hotel has gone out of business - a collateral effect from 9-11. I heard it was converted into an assisted living place or something like that. From the top you can see the star shape of the fort.



These were film pictures taken with a point and shoot camera in November 2000



This is a photo I took of a photo in the museum in the casements - it was taken from a plane in 1967



This is another display in the (free) museum - it shows the various gun placements protecting the Chesapeake and the ranges that they have.



This is a postcard that was sent to my grandmother in 1907



The Spirit on the Seventh Floor:

"You could try hanging a ''do not disturb'' sign at your door if you have seventh-floor room at the Chamberlain Hotel at Fort Monroe, but don't count on it staying quiet. When the original hotel was on fire many years ago, a young girl dashed back into the building to try to find her father. But he had already evacuated from the hotel and by the time she found out, she was fatally trapped inside on the seventh floor. Ever since they rebuilt the Chamberlain, hotel employees swear they can hear the girl banging on the walls and looking out the window, hoping against hope she will be saved."

Robert E. Lee had these quarters



when he was stationed here at Ft. Monroe as a young second lieutenant and engineer in the U.S. Army from 1831 to 1834. Lee was an assistant to Captain Andrew Talcott and played a major role in the final construction of what was then called Fort Calhoon.

The first fort was originally called Ripraps before it was called Fort Calhoon because it was where ships dropped their ballast. During the Civil War, in addition to aiding in controlling entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads, prisoners were confined in the fort. After the Civil War it was named Fort Wool for the Union Major General John Ellis Wool, who captured Norfolk in the early part of the war.

In the 1950s, the southern man-made island of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel was constructed next to Fort Wool, and used as the southernmost anchor for the tunnels. A small earthen causeway connected the man-made island with that of Fort Wool. The bridge-tunnel opened to traffic in 1957.
The Fort Wool passenger ferry, Miss Hampton II, allows tourists boarding in Hampton to visit the island during most of the year, but it can also be briefly glimpsed by passengers in westbound vehicles prior to entering the southern end of the tunnel portion of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which carries Interstate 64 across the mouth of the harbor. During the summer months, it is served by various harbor tour boats.