Borodino 2002

Welcome, Introduction,
and the Hotel Chamberlain

by Russ Lockwood


After over a year in the making and extensive contact via e-mail and telephone, Borodino 2002 opened to enthusiastic Napoleonic buffs at Fort Monroe, VA, on September 5-8, 2002. Fort Monroe, located at the tip of the peninsula opposite Norfolk, is a Vauban style fortress built in the 1820s, which is about as close a period as you can get to the Napoleonic era. It is also an active military base, so folks have to pass through security when they enter, that has expanded beyond fort confines. Fort Monroe is also home to the Hotel Chamberlain, an enormous historic hotel, the location of Borodino 2002, and about a block from the actual fort.

Hotel Chamberlain

This is a place whose potential is fantastic, but whose exterior and interior show significant wear and tear. Built in an age of large vaulted ceilings and elegant lobbies, it stands in faded lustre, the victim of neglect and outright desecretion. The sign on the door said it was owned by Vintage Hotels.

The individual rooms were acceptable in size, about the same as a contemporary room in a mid-class hotel, although my particular room on the sixth floor showed some, well, idiosyncrasies. For example, it contained a king-size bed, two night tables, two chairs, and a dresser, but no desk. The air conditioner was a window-mounted model, which would be OK except that the drapes, when closed, would cover the air conditioner. Since it was literally 95 degrees and about 80% humidity outside, the a/c was going all the time. I ended up stuffing the drapes up and around the a/c to block out the myriad spotlights of the base.

Plumbing was strictly 1950s. We had a "pig in the pipe" again. A "pig in the pipe" is a term my wife and I came up with while visiting the UK back in 1987. We were staying in a modest bed and breakfast in Dover, when we heard gurgling noises coming from the in-room sink. Since it sounded like a snorting pig, we've called such a noise a "pig in the pipe." The solution is to insert the sink stopper and that pretty much mitigates the little piggy.

The bed was firm, the environment quiet, and the water hot, so while I found the accommodations in need of a retrofit, the stay was pleasant. The price was on the high side -- $89 per night, down to $79 for the convention -- compared to other hotels in the area--like those just outside the gate a couple miles. I should point out that I arrived one day early (Wednesday) and was charged the full amount. $10 isn't much, but it seems that if you're coming to the hotel for the Borodino conference, you should be able to get the slightly lower rate. I will point out that the Sunday rate was $79. Go figure. I heard of another who complained a bit louder.

I should point out that the Hotel Chamberlain was, except for us Borodino folks, nearly vacant. I saw a young newlywed couple, a young fellow (best man, perhaps?), a few senior citizens, and that's about it. Arriving on Wednesday was like arriving in a ghost town. Departing Monday morning was the same.

I would also like to point out that the staff was uniformly pleasant and helpful. Since I was coordinating a number of rooms for the speakers, this helped immensely. Eveybody got a room, not that there was any shortage, and seemed accepting of the limitations.

At right, an aerial photograph of Borodino village, circa 1812.

At one time, the hotel was filled with brass ornamentation. It has long since either vanished or was painted over. One of the Borodino attendees, Kai, who now runs the Omni hotel in the area, noted that he worked at the Chamberlain as a kid and teenager. He wistfully noted that the hotel had two full-time employees who did nothing but polish the brass around the hotel. He also noted that it was only in the last 10 years or so that the original hand-operated elevators were changed to automatic ones. He was an elevator operator back in his teens.

I'll point out that of the three elevators, only two were in operation: one being fairly quick and the other being fairly slow.

The outdoor pool was open and used by a handful of attendees. Our keynote speaker, Dr. William Gregor from the US Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), praised the size--an old-time full-size version good for the laps he swims every day, although he also noted that one corner captured the flotsam and jetsam on the water. He stayed away from it. I imagine in its heyday, a pool boy would attend to that.

It offers an exercise room downstairs next to an indoor pool. The water level looked low in the indoor pool, but was perfectly swimmable as some attendees noted. The exercise room had no air conditioning or air flow at all--instant oven, or perhaps the "box" like in the movie, Bridge Over the River Kwai.

The Bar truly was magnificent: two tiers on the inside plus an outdoor patio/walkway. That more people didn't take advantage of it is somewhat of a mystery. Draft beer was only $1.50 (Bud, Bud light, and Amber Bock), although bottled beer was $4. The Borodino crowd eventually drank the bar out of Amber Bock.

The restaurant was completely closed. That surprised me, but when you consider that the hotel is on a base, and all bases were closed after September 11, 2001 they couldn't make a go of it. I understand it was open as late as March 2002. The bar would offer soup-sandwich-salad type fare from Thursday to Sunday, but when I arrived on Wednesday, dinner would be either from a vending machine or outside of the base.

As it turned out, we went out the gate up Rte 258 and had dinner at the Mongolian Grill in the K-Mart plaza. Excellent choice, I might add. The next night, Thursday, I took the keynote speaker, Dr. Gregor, for some seafood at a place called Sam's Seafood outside the gate the other way, up Rte 143. By the way, it seemed appropriate, taking the guy from SAMS to Sam's. Sam's was so good, we went back there Sunday night for more seafood.

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