With the start of the Newport Folk Festival on Friday, thousands of music lovers will pack Fort Adams State Park for the next three days. Then the following week, more people arrive for the Newport Jazz Festival.
As these festivals have grown in popularity, so too has the profile of the historic fort, which sat nearly empty for decades. Rhode Island Public Radio’s John Bender took a tour of the fort to find out how large crowds and popular festivals are changing the historic landmark.
Fort Adams served as a military installation at the turn of the 18th century to protect Newport Harbor from attack. Over time, the military constructed a giant stone fortress in the shape of a pentagon with a series of tunnels underneath. The biggest thing you notice as you enter the tunnels is the temperature.
“On a day like today, they feel like air conditioning, it’s a beautiful thing,” said Rob McCormack, who organizes tours and works with visitors for the Fort Adams Trust, the steward of this historic property.
On a 90 degree day, the tunnel feels a refreshing ten degrees cooler than the sultry summer air outside.
As McCormack moves farther underground, past the part of the tunnel that’s open to the public, the arched brick ceiling and walls narrow until the passageway becomes difficult to navigate.
“One of those reasons we don’t open it to the public is because most people are more inclined to watch their step then they should be watching their heads,” said McCormack.
The tunnels are among the oldest elements of the fort, constructed in the mid-1820s. As we round a corner, McCormack points to grey patch of stone near his feet.
“This is basically the first corner of the fort that was constructed, so presumably just below this stone here was the first cornerstone laid at Fort Adams.”
You can see just a small portion of the tunnels crisscrossing below the fort, but McCormack said he hopes to open more of them to the public. It’s part of a growing list of restoration projects the trust has taken on in the last decade. This past spring, a section at the southern end of the fort opened up to the public for the first time in six decades.
“In the last 5 years we’ve put about $3 million into the restoration of the fort, and a lot of that was directed towards the stabilization of the fort to be able to host larger scale events,” said McCormack.
Large events like the Newport Folk Festival and the Volvo Ocean Race, which brought more than 100,000 spectators and sailors to Fort Adams last year. The trust recently completed a major renovation of the barracks where military personnel once slept.
Today, in the same spot that was home to hundreds to U.S. troops, a much smaller army of workers puts up tents and hammers away at staging. The crew is getting ready for the Folk Fest, one of the events. McCormack says has helped to put the fort back on people’s radar, after it ceased military use following World War II.
“Certainly a quiet period began in 1970s and went through to the mid-90s,” said McCormack. “But I’d really say since about 2010 that things have really started to pick up around here, with a lot more public interest, and larger scale events that we’re capable of housing.”
But what kind of damage can thousands of people do trudging through a historic fort weekend after weekend? Not much says McCormack.
“The fort itself was built to withstand cannon bombardment, so outside of the occasional dent or bend in some of our gates and a few of the other areas, the fort’s tough, and we’re able to withstand 10,000 [people] anyway.”
McCormack said there is always the issue of safety when large crowds gather for an event. The Fort Adams Trust spent some $30,000 to bring electricity to parts of the fort just to illuminate exit signs.
“Working with the Department of Environmental Management, and the Fire Marshall’s office so we can make sure that when we have big events like this we can do so safely,” said McCormack.
And big events like the Folk Fest are paying off. The fort received $1.5 million dollars in restoration funding from a state bond, approved by voters in 2014. McCormack says more of the property will open to the public over the next few years.
“In the next two years, we’re really looking at the restoration of the east wall, the officers’ quarters, the ornate molding and to really bring those back.”
But McCormack says the restoration would be important even if the Fort weren’t playing host to music festivals and sailing events.
“Simply a chance to show people history, in their own back yard’s here,” said McCormack. “And really explain how things had been, why we did them the way that we did, and really to expand upon that story.”
