Maine Maritime Museum, in Bath, has raised $3.37 million for a renovation that’s now underway on the 5-acre campus.
The fundraising campaign exceeded its goal by $35,000, the museum said in a press release.
The renovation encompasses a complete redevelopment of the front entrance and south side of the museum’s campus to enhance the visitor experience, create an ecologically friendly and attractive landscape, and improve handicapped accessibility. It’s being called the “First Impressions” project.
Phase 1 of the roughly year-long project began in March and is anticipated to be completed by mid-July. The main parking lot was filled to become nearly level with the main entrance, eliminating the need for front steps, and was reconfigured to provide ample handicapped space.
A new concrete arrival plaza at the main entrance includes an inlaid map of the Kennebec River from Moosehead Lake to the mouth of the river at Popham. Commercial landscape architects Richardson & Associates of Saco created the design; Crooker Construction of Topsham is managing the project.
The south campus of the museum will be transformed into a landscape that blends with the natural surroundings and utilizes interactive elements related to the history and ecology of the Kennebec River.
Features of the landscape plan include groves of native tree species that were used in traditional shipbuilding, a boardwalk along the riverbank providing views of coastal wetlands, and a garden honoring Navy families adjacent to an exhibit called “BIW: Building America’s Navy.” New native Maine plantings will include more than 70 trees, 2,000 shrubs and 1,500 perennials and grasses. The park-like south campus will be open and free to the public.
The project will be substantially completed by this fall, with the final paving coat applied next spring in time for the Maine Bicentennial. A special event will celebrate the renovated campus in spring 2020.
The project caps a seven-year effort to upgrade and improve the museum’s exhibits and historic shipyard.
That effort began in 2012, on the museum’s 50th anniversary, when six masts were installed on the grounds to evoke the Wyoming, a schooner that was built in 1909 on the shore of the museum’s campus when it was the Percy & Small Shipyard.
Since then, the museum has constructed the Kenneth D. Kramer Blacksmith Shop (2014); renovated the state’s largest lobstering exhibit, “Lobstering & the Maine Coast” (2015); constructed an exhibit called “Into the Lantern: A Lighthouse Experience” (2017); acquired and restored the 1906 schooner Mary E (2017-18); and opened the high-tech exhibit about Bath Iron Works’ ship-building for the Navy.
“The First Impressions project ensures the excellent visitor experience will start as soon as they enter the parking lot,” Executive Director Amy Lent said in the release.
“Maine’s maritime heritage is critically important to the state culturally and economically, and deserves the best representation we can provide,” said Lent. “This project will have a lasting impact on thousands of visitors and locals for years to come. The new landscape and arrival experience will beautify the south end of Washington Street, celebrate our unique connection to the Kennebec River, and will be accessible to everyone. Finally, the exterior appearance of the museum will reflect the world-class experience found inside.”
Donations to the project are still being accepted to grow the reserve fund that will ensure long-term maintenance of the landscape, and some naming opportunities are still available.
