By CRAIG D. SCHENCK and KRISTEN KELLEHER/Sentinel staff
A workbench and tools used by local shipwrights from the Linwood Maritime Museum now are in Somers Point.
LINWOOD — A disagreement over the best use of space in the basement of the former Crestlea Park School ended with the Linwood Maritime Museum out of its longtime lodging.
“We were pressured out of the library by the city; we had been fighting them for years on it,” Linwood Historical Society treasurer Judy Branin said. “We didn’t want to go.”
Fortunately for the group, the items have found a new home in neighboring Somers Point.
‘We were pressured out of the library by the city; we had been fighting them for years on it. We didn’t want to go.’
–Judy Branin, treasurer, Linwood Historical Society
During a Somers Point City Council meeting Thursday, Jan. 23, Councilman Kirk Gerety reported that the museum “lost its home in Linwood” and the Somers Point Historical Society acquired all of the artifacts.
According to information from the Linwood Historical Society website, the Maritime Museum helped preserve items highlighting the area’s former lifestyle.
“The town’s location between Scull’s Bay and Patcong Creek meant that most families living here in the early years would be dependent on maritime trade for survival,” the website states.
The museum included tools from Linwood shipwrights, watermen and seamen from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as a large collection of model ships in custom-made display cases.
The items displayed included dead eyes, pulleys, needles to make fishing nets, fishing reels from the 1920s and a 1930s garvey built at a home off Shore Road. Gerety said the collection consists of everything from half-hull models to working tools and a workbench from a shipyard, as well as ship models that are as much as 100 years old.
“It’s all local history from the Great Egg Harbor Bay,” Gerety said about the items.
A model of a ketch similar to the Intrepid, the fire ship Master Commandant Richard Somers was aboard when it exploded prematurely, killing him and the crew, is now part of the museum’s collection. In the background a display area under construction.
Branin said the Maritime Museum was located in a basement room of the former elementary school before the school was turned into a library.
Linwood historian Carolyn Patterson said the school opened in 1920, a decade during which the city’s population grew rapidly. She said the Great Depression stopped that growth and the school closed in 1973.
“It was empty for many years,” she said, noting that the city was using some space for storage.
The historical society got permission to use part of the basement for its Maritime Museum in January 1984, at a time when the city library was located at the Leedsville School on Poplar Avenue.
“The historical society was given a room to have meetings and put up our collection,” Branin said, noting that Linwood residents Jim Kirk and Tom Adams were the founding members of the group.
“They built this wonderful museum down there,” she said.
When the Leedsville School was painted and preservation undertaken, the library moved into the first floor of the Crestlea Park School on Davis Avenue, where it has been since 1988.
Mary Todd, president of the Linwood Library Board of Trustees, said in a statement that the artifacts will be displayed in a better place to be seen by more people.
“I am sorry to hear that the Linwood Historical Society is unhappy. I thought we had the best possible outcome since the ship models have found a new home in Somers Point where they can be appreciated by more people and the library will actively use the space for its many library patrons. It is really a win-win,” she wrote.
Branin said the museum at first had a separate entrance and sole use of the basement space, but when the library opened and eventually took over some space in the basement, the group lost its separate entrance and could access the space only when the library was open.
Patterson said the pressure really started around 2007.
“The library wanted the space, and they wanted us to have the models and the garvey removed so they could use a little of our display room for books,” Patterson said. “Our issue is that to do that would split the entire collection of Linwood maritime history into two parts. We didn’t want half of what we had built there over the years.”
Patterson said the city “never offered us a good option for what to do with our ships and things. They offered to store it somewhere,” she said. “Once you break it up, it never gets back together to tell the story.”
Branin said the city had threatened to move the garvey outside the library and fill it with plants.
“Their first move was to put books and things on the stairs that led outside, then they put in a new door and wouldn’t give us a key,” Patterson said. “Then we had to go through the library.”
She said the library board then tried to get the display out of the hallway, where the garvey was located in an alcove under the stairs.
“They called it a fire hazard but the fire chief said it was not any more a hazard than books,” Patterson said.
She said another attempt to encroach on the museum’s space was successful. About a year ago, she said, they were informed that a work crew was moving the garvey because of mold.
“We knew if they took that boat out of there, we may never see it again,” Patterson said. “We moved the boat out of the hallway into the main museum so we knew where it was.”
Todd said the mold remediation was necessary.
“The area where a full-size garvey was stored required remediation to remove active and inactive mold to alleviate health concerns,” Todd stated.
Branin said the final blow came just days after Darren Matik was sworn in as mayor Jan. 4, noting that former mayor Rick DePamphillis never forced them out. She said Matik had been pressuring the group to leave even while a councilman.
Matik denied that the city forced the museum out, saying it was Patterson’s idea to move the items.
“That’s completely untrue,” Matik said, stating that the historical society no longer had any people to staff the museum. “They were the ones who called around and found homes for all of the items. They came to their own conclusion that they no longer had the staff or the wherewithal to commit to the museum.”
Matik said the museum “hasn’t been open to the public since I started as councilman in 2012. It was open about one day a year and they don’t have a staff.”
He said the issue was between the historical society and the library board.
“The library is the one that’s been pressuring them to move out of the museum,” he said. “The library had a lot of ideas for [the museum] to be open to the public but the historical society wasn’t interested.”
He said the space could be better used by the library.
“I think that if it was a museum open to the public on a daily basis, then it was beneficial, but to have a closed museum in the library when that space could be used by the public for a better use … .”
“We at first thought (the Somers Point Historical Society) didn’t want the model boats and oyster garvey, which the city was going to store for the Linwood Historical Society,” Matik wrote in an email. “We then learned they wanted it all and helped the society facilitate the move.”
“I believe that a closed museum was not in the best interest of our residents and the library can utilize the space to further community events and library programming,” he added.
He said he is pleased that the items have found a new home.
“It’s great, now it’s displayed whereas it sat behind closed doors as long as I have been involved since 2012. It’s a break that it’s now out on display,” he said.
An email from City Councilwoman June Byrnes to Historical Society President Catherine Evinski dated Jan. 9 states:
“Good Morning,
Good news! We have made room at Public Works to store the model ships currently at the library. The library along with the city’s approval is moving forward in opening the room for patrons to enjoy. With your approval, we will schedule the move.”
“That was our walking papers,” Patterson said.
“They said they were sending a truck to move out the ships,” Branin said.
Byrnes responded to questions about the incident with the following statement:
“The city of Linwood supports the Linwood Historical Society and their dedication to our town over the years. The new Linwood display at the Somers Point Historical Museum is a great opportunity for everyone to enjoy the maritime history of our town.”
Branin said one cruel irony of the entire situation is that when the library board was meeting with the state about receiving a grant to renovate the basement space, one of the things the state liked about the plan was that there was a museum already located there.
“They were very excited that the museum was down there,” she said.
Branin said after they were notified the city was going to remove the artifacts and move them to an “abandoned warehouse,” they attended a roundtable meeting of Atlantic County historical groups and “talked about the problem of being pressured to leave.”
“Somers Point said they wanted the items and had plans for them,” Branin said. “This was wonderful; someone was going to display it where it could be seen.”
Todd added that the library now will be able to improve its services.
“The Linwood Library continues to upgrade its facilities and will soon jointly submit with the city a grant application to the New Jersey State Library pursuant to the New Jersey Library Construction Bond Act to restore the grounds surrounding the library itself and including the new media space where the old ship models were stored,” she stated.