A federal advisory committee has recommended the National Park Service (NPS) continue its leasing agreement for "adaptive reuse" of historic buildings at a former New Jersey ordnance proving ground.
The Fort Hancock 21st Century Federal Advisory Committee endorsed the agreement with Gateway National Recreation Area (GNRA) at its April 27 virtual meeting, the NPS reported May 8. The committee also recommended that GNRA continue “soliciting partners in the adaptive reuse of the nationally significant structures” at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark, according to the release.
"The National Park Service uses leasing to help preserve areas of historical significance, including Sandy Hook’s Fort Hancock," the release states. "Gateway has been working with the Fort Hancock 21st Century Federal Advisory Committee since 2012 to create a viable, vital community in historic Fort Hancock."
The GNRA is a 27,000-acre urban park stretching from Sandy Hook, N.J. to Jamaica Bay and Staten Island, N.Y. The Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark encompasses the entire Sandy Hook peninsula. The U.S. Army purchased the peninsula and named it Fortifications of Sandy Hook. The ordnance-testing ground was renamed Fort Hancock in 1895 and operated until 1974, when the area was transferred to the Department of the Interior as part of the GRNA, the release reports.
Seven historic buildings at Sandy Hook have been leased through the program and are currently in use or under rehabilitation, the release reports. Uses include short- and long-term housing, academic support for the Marine and Science High School, a snacks-and-sundries retailer, and a restaurant/pub that's scheduled to open this summer. The NPS has preliminary agreements for 24 other buildings, with one agreement covering 21 buildings, according to the release.
"For these buildings, design and exploratory engineering studies are underway to make sure the rehabilitation proposals conform to the park’s historic preservation, use, and occupancy requirements; and that there is a viable business model to support the high level of investment needed on these deteriorated structures," NPS states in the release. "The park continues to accept proposals as backups."
Gerard Glaser, advisory committee co-chair, said in the release that committee members’ efforts in preserving cultural resources at Fort Hancock should be commended.
“Their recommendations urging the park to let the public know more about how environmental concerns are addressed and how challenges associated with adaptive reuse in a coastal region are mitigated, are critical to the success of this effort,” Glaser said in the release.
Fort Hancock averaged 7,000 to 12,000 soldiers during World War II, according to the NPS website. The fort’s first general, Brig. Gen. General Philip Gage, served at the fort from 1940 until 1944. Several units were assigned to the fort during the war, including “245th, 265th, 52nd (railway), 7th and 5th (mine defenses) Coast Artillery.” Fort Hancock was decommissioned on Dec. 31, 1974.
The U.S. Ordnance Department tested new and experimental weapons at the Sandy Hook Proving Ground beginning in 1874 and continuing through World War I, according to its webpage. The facility closed in 1919, "as guns could hit targets further and further away, Sandy Hook lacked enough space to test such long range guns."
The Fort Hancock 21st Century Federal Advisory Committee has met since January 2013 to discuss options to preserve Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook historic buildings through adaptive reuse. Members are from a variety of professional backgrounds, including business, cultural and natural resources, real estate, recreation, education, science and hospitality. Representatives of the Borough of Highlands, the Borough of Sea Bright, Middletown Township, the Borough of Rumson, and the Monmouth County Freeholders are also on the committee.
Shawn Welch, advisory committee co-chair, commended the committee's special working group for its recommendations that "have well informed the Committee’s ongoing review of the current trajectory of the Leasing Program.”
“Without the recent and ongoing work of the Special Working Group," Welch said in the release, "the Committee and ultimately the NPS (National Park Service) would be in a much less well-informed position to continue forward movement.”
