The Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Centre

Dewatering Gallery, Dec. 9/10, 1999



Latest Heritage Centre News

Orientation
Centre

1890 Drydock

Goal

The goal of the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Centre is to enhance historic Kingston waterfront lands and existing heritage structures, to tell the story of maritime commerce, labour and life that affect us to this day. There are few waterfront sites more appropriate to this goal.

The Interpretation Centre is for generating excitement, for telling the exciting story of ships, sailors and shipping on the Great Lakes in the multimedia theatre - walking below the Alexander Henry at the bottom of the dry-dock will emphasize the complexities of ship construction. The interior of the 3,000 ton ship is an ideal place to excite the imagination with the technology, the mythology and realities of life afloat.

Navigators Walk is for the community and all visitors - it will be a landscaped meditative waterfront link between Interpretation Centre and the Pump House Steam Museum. Its theme of  "Making Visible the Invisible" will provide opportunities to interpret the natural and historic significance of the Kingston shoreline landscape. Navigators Walk will also be the route for the 1/5th scale Kink & Push Railway!

The Pump House Steam Museum is dedicated to depicting and interpreting the importance of steam technologies in the development of the Great Lakes basin. The steam museum will be reinforced by an new Teaching Centre focusing on the theme of "Wind, Steam & Speed".

Planning

The Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Centre is intended to restore the 1890 Dry-dock to permanently berth the Alexander Henry, and provide a walkway along the waterfront to the upgraded Pump House Steam Museum.

The initial engineering study for the project was prepared by The Proctor & Redfern Group in 1988 and identified methods and costs associated with upgrading the existing dry-dock and refurbishing the Coast Guard icebreaker Alexander Henry as a major interpretive centre in the history of immigration and navigation on the Great Lakes.

In 1994 preliminary design proposals are brought forward by The Alexander Wilson Partnership Inc. Kingston, Terry Heard Design and Leisureplan International, Toronto. In May 1994 the Kingston City Council approved the project by unanimous vote. Through 1994 and 1995 there are meetings and discussions with potential private sponsors. In November 1995 a representative of a group of potential private sector sponsors visits the site and makes a recommendation that discussions continue. Further meetings in Ottawa and Montreal leads to development of a strategy.

In the spring of 1996 two proposals were received from consultants to study development levels of self sufficiency, site usage and marketing. Malone Given Parsons were selected to undertake "An Analysis of Financial Feasibility". Private sponsors, the Kingston City Council and the Project Committee shared the cost.

Local Political Support

At the City of Kingston Council meeting held on July 9, 1996, the following motion was approved unanimously:

WHEREAS the Marine Museum is an important component of Kingston's heritage, and an important tourism resource; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City share in the cost of a Business Plan and Feasibility Study with the Marine Museum and private sector sponsors; it being understood that the total estimated cost of such a study is $15,000.00, and the City's share shall not exceed $5,000.00, with funds to be drawn from the Economic Development Reserves.

Official Project Description

As suggested by the preliminary conceptual drawing, the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Centre is intended to achieve the following objectives:

Phase 1:

To restore the structure of the 1890 dry-dock - a listed National Historic Site - and to permanently berth the Coast Guard icebreaker Alexander Henry in the dry-dock as a compelling museum of the technological, sociological and labour history. Associated with this would be a new visitor orientation centre, theatre and opportunities for commercial involvement which would be located at the inshore end of the dry-dock and provide access to the floor of the dry-dock with its vista of the Alexander Henry above.

Phase 2:

To create a safe, exciting and imaginative interpretive walkway along the waterfront between the Pump House Steam Museum and the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes which will be fully accessible to all citizens and visitors.

Phase 3:

To upgrade the exhibit content and appeal of the Pump House Steam Museum by re-activating the existing displays with a modern Modular steam generator, build an addition to properly house the steam yacht Phoebe and to provide an opportunity for private sector commercial involvement.

For more information please contact: