Provide Coast Guard Museum room to grow

Some additional thoughts regarding Neil Ruenzel’s recent comments regarding the Coast Guard Museum location.

Much has been said regarding its impact on the City of New London, merchant’s issues, bonding issues, parking issues, a $20 million pedestrian bridge, architectural issues and others. What has been said regarding the success of the museum itself? I would ask the trustees, whose museum is it anyway?

They need only to look 10 miles to the east and appreciate the legacy of the Mystic Seaport Museum. In 1929, three farsighted members of the community, Carl Cutler, Dr. Charles Stillman and Edward Bradley founded the then Marine Historical Association in Mystic. In 1931 the initial grounds were established on 2 acres outside downtown on the Mystic River. It grew an additional 7 acres in 1947.

The historical association was primarily dedicated to archiving maritime artifacts, but in 1941 the trustees learned of the availability of the last whaling ship, “Charles W. Morgan” at South Dartmouth, Mass. The rest is history. Had the museum and the space in Mystic not been available the Morgan very well may have languished on the mud flats and possibly been burned for scrap iron during World War II. Instead the Morgan is the premier focal point of a 22-acre world-class museum. This is thanks to the foresight of the MHA 80 years ago, providing the space and capability to accommodate this great vessel.

Successful museums need to be able to grow and to take advantage of future acquisition opportunities not presently conceived. Who knows what the next 75 years hold. It would seem that our Coast Guard Museum needs more than a postage stamp one-third of an acre on access-limited land.

Let’s hope that the trustees appreciate this and find a more suitable location. Given a solid vision for future growth, the Coast Guard Museum has the same opportunity that the Mystic Seaport Museum has had. I wish it success.