Boatyard View from Parking Lot
The Antique Boat Museum broke ground on its new facility planned for the care and maintenance of the museum’s permanent boat and engine collections. This new boat shop will provide a dedicated space for professional maintenance and repair to ensure the museum’s collection can be preserved and showcased at the highest standard, enhancing the museum’s preservation efforts and educational programming.
“As a chartered institution through New York State’s Education Department, we are committed to providing exceptional learning opportunities for our community,” says Rebecca Hopfinger, the Antique Boat Museum executive director. “The Boatyard will allow us to expand our educational impact significantly, creating an environment that fosters hands-on learning through year-round classes, potential apprenticeships, and partnerships with higher educational institutions.”
The boat shop will also offer key opportunities for both novices and professionals to interact in an exciting teaching and learning environment, fostering a new appreciation for vintage boating in future generations.
“The boat shop is the keystone to museum objectives in many dimensions. It enables the museum to provide educational opportunities in the varied disciplines associated with marine science, whether an individual’s interests are of a vocational or avocational nature,” adds Chairman of the Board Charles Crow. “It is an asset to the museum as an institution, but also, to the community at large. It provides opportunities to witness and learn tradecraft while serving as another reason to visit and take advantage of all Clayton offers. Just as importantly, the activities in the boat shop will allow for the in-house care and preservation of the entire collection, including the in-water fleet. These in-water boats, whether rowed, sailed, or powered, provide a unique visitor experience into boating’s past. The items in the collection are as much pieces of art as they are the story of commerce, transportation, and pleasure on the water historically, all of which is better told and enhanced through the boat shop.”
A special dedication of the new building is slated for September 2025 during the Antique & Classic Boat Society’s 50th Anniversary Meeting and Boat Show, which will be sited at the Antique Boat Museum’s waterfront.
Visit abm.org to learn more.
