The interior veranda (above) of the Chamberlin suggests the gracious atmosphere of a bygone era when the hotel was one of the East Coast's most fashionable resorts. The dining room (below) is shown in a 1930s photo.

The Hotel Chamberlin (above), tucked into Fort Monroe, has welcomed guests and hosted fancy events for 75 years until recently, when heightened post-Sept. 11 military security led to its demise. The arches on the hotel's wide veranda (top left) offer views of the James River and Chesapeake Bay that stick in the memory.

The original Chamberlin Hotel is shown about 1900. The building was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1920. The present hotel opened in 1928.

Date published: 8/23/2003

IDROVE TO HAMPTON the other day to sit for a while with my old, ailing friend, the Hotel Chamberlin.

The hotel and I go back to 1955, when I was 10 and my parents took us kids there for a rare vacation from the routines of our Northern Neck farm. Over the years, I kept up the tradition by taking my own children to the Chamberlin many times. Now, the grand old place may be dying. When I heard the news, I knew I must return, perhaps for the last time, to the scene of so many memories.

The Chamberlin's doors opened in 1928. They were locked in April. In June, the company that owns the hotel filed bankruptcy a day before a foreclosure auction on the courthouse steps. The Chamberlin's owners say the hotel is a victim of Sept. 11, 2001. Of course, no airplane struck the Chamberlin, but its owners say that the venerable Hampton Roads landmark, about 130 miles east of Fredericksburg, was strangled to death by intensified security measures on Fort Monroe, the Army post that surrounds the hotel.

The Chamberlin is owned by a subsidiary of Pelican Properties International Corp. of Orlando, Fla. Things looked rosy when Pelican bought the Chamberlin in 1998 for $5.35 million. The company negotiated a new, 40-year $6,000-a-month lease with the Army for the 5.5 acres on which sit the hotel, its parking lot, lawns, tennis courts and swimming pool. Major renovations of the property began. Pelican said it looked forward to the hotel producing income of $3 million a year.

But in April, Pelican Chairman Gorham Rutter Jr. told the Newport News Daily Press that the Chamberlin's business had dropped 72.4 per cent since 9/11. Only six employees worked at the hotel that once had a staff of 145. Just a few of the hotel's original 283 rooms were rented and those, ironically, to Fort Monroe military policemen. Rutter said his company could no longer afford to pay $100,000 a month in debt service and other expenses to keep the place open.

"This property can no longer be a hotel," Rutter said. "We've gone as far as we can go with putting money into this property. The Army will be the victor here because they can outlast us."

Said another Pelican official, "We can't receive walk-in traffic for the hotel because no one will come up to a gate with an armed soldier and wait for a day pass in order to get on the base."

Not long after Rutter spoke to the paper, the Chamberlin's staff was fired and the doors locked. Among its many debts, the hotel owed the electric company $32,067 and the natural gas company $28,770.

Date published: 8/23/2003