Wooden Boat
Building
Returns to the
Rondout
The Hudson River Maritime
Museum takes a bold step in
turning its dreams into reality.
O
n Friday, January 30, 2015,
the Hudson River Maritime Museum made a fortuitous acquisition of the property at 86 Rondout Landing, the former Rosita’s Restaurant. This enabled the Museum to turn a
“someday” dream of thoughtfully expanding its footprint on
the Rondout, into a bona fide reality, creating a more vibrant
working and teaching waterfront as well as a year round
tourist destination.
The Riverport Wooden Boat Building School of the Hudson River Maritime Museum and additional year round educational space will be the end result.
Museum Board President, Allan Bowdery, states that all
the necessary components were present with this property and location. “We just needed a coherent mission joined
with an impassioned vision, which was ably coordinated by
Executive Director, Russell Lange.” After much deliberation
amongst Board members and Museum staff about the realities of creek flooding, researching the positive economic
impact of a boatbuilding school on other similar waterfront
communities, and contact with wooden boat builders and
shipwrights, plans began in earnest.
Funding always rises to the forefront with projects such as
these. Lange notes that “through a major gift and a group
of lenders who deeply believe in the Museum’s mission, we
were fortunate enough to be able to move ahead with this
project. The Hudson River Foundation also has contributed to the operation of the Riverport Wooden Boat Building
School. Acquiring 86 Rondout Landing will now allow us to
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April 2015
transition into a year-round facility,
and to provide the City of Kingston and the Hudson Valley,
a unique ‘Riverport Experience’. We are continuing to work
on other sources of revenue in order to help off-set this investment, and to fund continued operations of the Museum’s existing programs.”
The Museum, now poised to celebrate its 35th anniversary this season, has accomplished yet another milestone
in its development. In 2012, Hudson Valley residents may
remember joining with Pete Seeger on September 15, 2012
to “barn raise”. Three months later to the day, the Kingston
Home Port and Education Center stood as a proud testament to this passion for the river, and for interpreting its
rich maritime history. The iconic Hudson River sloop Clearwater now has a winter home port and maintenance hub.
Board member and Project Supervisor Dr. Jack Weeks remarks on what this acquisition means not only to the Museum but to the region: “Having this boat building school
adds a significant additional educational component to the
museum’s programming, further enhancing the cultural vitality and economic development of the City as a whole
and the historic Rondout waterfront district in particular.”
Lange adds, “The school will also increase the attractiveness and lure of year-round heritage tourism, strengthen
our community partnerships, and offer even more docking
for visiting heritage vessels and cruise ships. The possibilities are exciting.”
boatingonthehudson.com
color
Master shipwright Jim Kricker will be playing a
central role in the Riverport Wooden Boat Building
School of the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
boatingonthehudson.com
April 2015
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