BEAUFORT – The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources today announced completion of an evaluation report of the Maritime Museum expansion site at Gallants Channel, Beaufort, N.C., prepared by members of a statewide review committee. Committee Chair Ellen Newbold of Rose Hill, N.C. said “This report offers a perspective that incorporates many desires expressed by a diverse community and builds on the extensive and thoughtful ideas of earlier studies. It proposes a plan that focuses on maritime and natural history, education, and leisure.” Click here to view the report (Adobe Acrobat required).
Committee member and historian Dr. David Zonderman remarked, “The Gallants Channel project could become a crown jewel for North Carolina’s cultural resources. The vision for the new museum is balanced. It captures the history of the community and will have great space for traveling exhibits.”
Highlights of the Committee recommendation include construction of a 50,000 square foot museum with three principal galleries dedicated to Queen Anne’s Revenge and piracy; permanent exhibit space dedicated to fishing, boating and maritime history; and rotating gallery space for temporary and traveling exhibits. Construction of a full scale sailing replica of the Queen Anne’s Revenge is suggested as it would be a major attraction and its construction would “stir considerable public interest.”
Committee member T. Jerry Williams said, “The replica of the Queen Anne’s Revenge has the potential to become a new North Carolina icon that will greatly benefit travel and tourism.”
At a later stage, the report calls for construction of an Education Center to “extend the vital mission of the museum to educate visitors, young and old, about coastal heritage.” The plan envisions the move of the Custom House (Ward Hancock House), North Carolina’s oldest surviving gambrel roof house, from its present site in Beaufort to the waterfront and Gallants Channel.
A 30,000 square foot Exposition Center, to be built and operated in conjunction with Carteret County, would solve “presently unmet local need for community space.”
Citizens were encouraged to share their thoughts with members of the review committee appointed by Cultural Resources Secretary Lisbeth C. “Libba” Evans to guide improvement of the unique property.
Community input came from a January meeting held in Beaufort, attended by 115 people, and an online survey.
The Committee’s charge was to report to the Department of Cultural Resources about development of the site as a natural and historic resource center to preserve and interpret the unique maritime heritage and coastal marine ecology of North Carolina.
Committee member, and chair of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at East Carolina University Dr. Joseph Fridgen remarked, “The new museum will offer what travelers around the country are looking for. Tourists like variety and families and kids want to visit coastal communities where they can do something.”
Currently the Gallants Channel location is home for some artifacts from the shipwreck presumed to be the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), flagship of the pirate Blackbeard. Existing docks and facilities are used for the N.C. Maritime Museum’s junior sailing program, rowing programs and Cape Lookout Studies program. The property was purchased by the Friends of the N.C. Maritime Museum in 1997 for future museum expansion.
Precise details for the expanded museum site on the Intracoastal Waterway are yet to be determined.
The State of North Carolina accepted a gift of 36 acres of land on the waterfront on Gallants Channel in Beaufort, N.C., from the Friends of the Maritime Museum to expand facilities for educational and cultural programs of the N.C. Maritime Museum.
The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources is a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. For more information about the Department of Cultural Resources visit www.ncculture.com