News Release
Annapolis Maritime Museum / 723 Second St / Annapolis, MD 21403
Contacts: Jeff Holland / 410 295-0104 / director@amaritime.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 8, 2025
Annapolis Maritime Museum signs contract with Whiting-Turner
to renovate historic McNasby Oyster Company building
Mayor Ellen O. Moyer attended a ceremony at the Annapolis Maritime Museum on Friday, April 4, to celebrate the signing of the contract with the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company to renovate the city-owned McNasby Oyster Company building. Work is slated to begin in early May and will be completed in October.
Museum chairman L.B. “Buck” Buchanan announced to the audience of about 30 museum supporters that the $1 million contract would result in transforming the historic oyster-packing plant into a world-class waterfront educational facility for the city’s school children, residents and visitors. The Museum has a 50-year lease on the building, the last of at least a dozen oyster houses that once operated in the city. The renovations were planned in cooperation with Kirby Mehrhof Architects, the 2004 AIA Honor Award-winning architectural firm based in Annapolis whose work encompasses a mix of residential, commercial and institutional projects.
The Museum Board of Directors has raised the funds to finance the renovation over the past seven years. The City of Annapolis has provided $100,000 of capital grants, which have been matched 10 to 1 with $437,000 in private and corporate donations, $73,000 from the Annapolis Rotary Club, $400,000 in Maryland State grants, and a $100,000 grant from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority. Corporate donors include the Boatyard Bar and Grill, Comcast, BB&T and Annapolis Jaguar/Land Rover, which sponsor the annual Boatyard Beach Party fund-raiser, plus Cummins Power and the H.J. Heinz Company.
In addition, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways Network, Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Four Rivers Heritage Area, and other organizations have funded the development and design of the McNasby building’s key permanent exhibition, Oysters on the Half Shell. The building will be open for public programs and temporary exhibits by October; meanwhile, the Museum will continue raising additional funds needed for the fabrication and installation of the oyster exhibition.
With the McNasby building under renovation, the Museum has been providing a number of award-winning programs for school children, adults, and visitors out of the small Barge House, including Bay education programs for 4th graders, 8th graders, elementary after-school groups, an adult maritime heritage seminar series, tours of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, and the summer maritime concert series. These programs are conducted by nearly 250 volunteers, who last year alone logged 7,000 hours of service time.
“We’ve accomplished so much for the community for the past three years based in the 600-square-foot Barge House,” Buchanan noted. “Imagine what we’ll be able to do once the 7,000-square-foot McNasby building is finished.”
For more information, contact the Annapolis Maritime Museum at 410-295-0104, director@amaritime.org, or log onto the web site at www.AnnapolisMaritimeMuseum.org.
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Photo caption: Annapolis Maritime Museum Board Chairman L.B. “Buck” Buchanan and Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer signed the Museum’s contract with the Whiting-Turner Contracting Company to renovate the city-owned McNasby Oyster Company building at a ceremony on Friday, April 4. The McNasby building will house an exhibition about the oyster industry in Annapolis and the importance of the oyster in the ecological health of the Chesapeake Bay.
Annapolis Maritime Museum |
PO Box 3088 |
Annapolis, MD 21403
410 295-0104
office@amaritime.org
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