Intrepid Museum
The Intrepid Museum is a military and maritime history museum in New York City, United States. It is located at Pier 86 at 46th Street, along the Hudson River, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood on the West Side of Manhattan. The museum is mostly composed of exhibits, aircraft, and spacecraft aboard the museum ship, a World War II–era aircraft carrier and National Historic Landmark, in addition to a cruise missile submarine named and a Concorde on Pier 86. The Intrepid Museum Foundation, a 501 organization established in 1979, operates the museum.
The museum was proposed in the late 1970s as a way to preserve Intrepid, and it opened on August 3, 1982. The Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for bankruptcy protection in 1985 after struggling to attract visitors. The foundation acquired USS Growler and the destroyer USS Edson in the late 1980s to attract guests and raise money, although it remained unprofitable through the 1990s. The museum received a minor renovation in 1998 after it started turning a profit. Between 2006 and 2008, the Intrepid Museum was completely closed for a $115 million renovation. A new pavilion for the Space Shuttle Enterprise opened in 2012.
The Intrepid Museum spans three of the carrier's decks; from top to bottom, they are the flight, hangar, and gallery decks. Most of the museum's collection is composed of aircraft, many of which were used by the United States Armed Forces. Among the museum's collection are a Concorde SST, a Lockheed A-12 supersonic reconnaissance plane, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise. The hangar and gallery decks contain a variety of attractions such as exhibit halls, a theater, and flight simulators, as well as individual objects like a cockpit and an air turbine. Several craft and other objects have been sold off or removed from the museum's collection over the years. The museum serves as a space for community and national events, such as Fleet Week and awards ceremonies, in addition to educational programs.
History
Context and founding
, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, was launched in 1943. She participated in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and was a recovery ship for space missions. Intrepid was supposed to be scrapped after decommissioning in the late 1970s, but Odysseys in Flight, a nonprofit organization founded by Michael D. Piccola and Bruce Sherer, wished to convert Intrepid into a museum ship. Odysseys in Flight had initially planned to salvage the carriers or. The United States Navy wanted the organization to raise $3 million for the carrier's upkeep. The organization hosted an exhibit at 6 World Trade Center to raise support for the project, and Odysseys in Flight had raised $2 million by March 1979. One of the museum's largest supporters was local real estate developer Zachary Fisher, who established the Intrepid Museum Foundation in March 1978 and contributed over $25 million to the museum during his lifetime. Fisher was enthusiastic about the project, eventually attracting other high-profile supporters such as radio and TV personality Arthur Godfrey and actress Maureen O'Hara. The Navy also hoped that Intrepid could be used for recruitment.Mayor Ed Koch announced plans for the Intrepid conversion in mid-April 1981, and the United States Department of the Navy transferred the Intrepid to Fisher, who led the nonprofit Intrepid Museum Foundation, on April 27, 1981. The conversion of the carrier's top two decks cost $22 million and was funded by $2.4 million in private donations, as well as $15.2 million of tax-exempt bonds and $4.5 million from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. After the New York City Board of Estimate gave the Intrepid Museum Foundation permission to sell tax-exempt bonds in December 1980, the bonds were sold to the public in July 1981. The federal grant was approved in January 1982, even though the project "had nothing to do with housing". The renovation involved the addition of a theater, several planes on Intrepid deck, and aviation and maritime exhibit halls. The carrier's navigation and flight bridges were also restored. The city spent around $2.5 million to renovate Pier 86 on the West Side of Manhattan, where Intrepid was to be docked. The museum leased the pier from the city for 33 years at $50,000 per year, making annual payments in lieu of taxes totaling $400,000.
Intrepid was towed to her permanent home at Pier 86 in June 1982. Following a soft opening on July 4, the museum opened on August 3, 1982, as the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. This made Intrepid the second aircraft carrier in the U.S. to be converted into a museum, after the. Larry Sawinski was named as the museum's director of exhibits. When the Intrepid Museum opened, it showcased several aircraft and spacecraft, and it also contained an exhibit on the early history of carriers. The exhibit halls on hangar level, as well as the theater, were not completed. Maritime and aviation schools were planned for the lower two decks, the renovation of which was expected to cost $22 million. The museum had 50 paid staff, who worked mostly in the cafeteria, gift shop, and ticket booths; another 100 volunteers were responsible for the museum's displays and expansion. The museum's opening was expected to create 469 jobs in the surrounding area, though many of these jobs never materialized.
1980s
The Intrepid Museum Foundation dedicated the Hall of Honor, the United States' first archive dedicated to Medal of Honor recipients, on December 10, 1983; the Medal of Honor Society also relocated into offices within the carrier. The museum originally was projected to attract 1.3 to 1.4 million visitors annually, but it recorded only half of this amount in its first year. This forced the museum's directors to delay payments on its debt. The museum had recorded 450,000 patrons in 1984, nearly half of the 800,000 annual patrons that were required to break even. Attendance had been negatively impacted because of the lack of nearby public transit, and the museum struggled to raise money despite increasing its ticket prices. Nonetheless, the museum planned to expand by 1984; it had received $250,000 from the Astor Foundation for classrooms and conference rooms, and the New York state government gave $850,000 for historic preservation. Film and television executive Stanley Abrams was named as the museum's president in June 1984.The Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1985, declaring $28.4 million in debt and $16.5 million in assets. Only about a third of the museum's revenues came from admissions, with the remaining two-thirds coming from grants, donations, or fundraisers and other such events. Nonetheless, museum officials planned to continue normal operations and launch a campaign to attract visitors; Lawrence Sowinski, the director of exhibits, described the museum as "too valuable a resource to close". Advertising firm McCann-Erickson was hired to promote the museum, running cheap advertisements in newspapers, on the radio, and in New York City Subway cars. The state also provided $1.024 million for the museum in its 1985 budget, though ultimately the museum got $850,000. Intrepid was officially designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and its annual allocation from the state was raised to $895,000 that year. Investigators announced in early 1987 that members of the Westies gang had engaged in racketeering, stealing $100,000 to $120,000 annually from the Intrepid Museum.
During the late 1980s, the museum had 400,000 annual visitors; its low attendance was attributed to competition from more popular tourist attractions. Additionally, the museum was the only major point of interest on the rundown Hudson River waterfront, in part due to delays in the construction of nearby developments such as Javits Center. The Intrepid Museum Foundation presented a reorganization plan to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in July 1987, in which nearly half of the museum's $28.4 million debt would be forgiven, but creditors would only receive a portion of their claims. After successfully exiting bankruptcy proceedings, the museum planned to display a submarine alongside Intrepid. Fisher funded the addition of two permanent exhibits in the late 1980s, at which point Intrepid had 39 aircraft., a that carried nuclear Regulus missiles, was towed to the museum in late 1988 and opened to the public the next May., a that was the last all-gun destroyer in the United States Navy, was displayed at the Intrepid Museum starting in July 1989. At the time, the museum had few repeat visitors, and Fisher hoped that Growler and Edson would attract returning patrons.
1990s
The outbreak of the Gulf War in the early 1990s caused interest in the Intrepid Museum to increase; at the time, the museum was displaying an exhibit on the Gulf War. By early 1991, the museum recorded 5,000 visitors on a typical weekend, more than twice the previous year's weekend patronage. The Intrepid Museum received $900,000 from the state, $350,000 from the New York City Board of Education, and $60,000 from the city government annually. All of this funding was eliminated in 1992, forcing the museum to fire a quarter of its staff, and two young men formed the Intrepid Museum Society and raised money through various events. The Intrepid Museum held numerous fundraisers and received $1.1 million from numerous city and state agencies between 1992 and 1996. Despite this, the museum continued to struggle to remain solvent; the Village Voice wrote in 1996 that "the continued taxpayer subsidies seem hard to justify". Although the museum rented Pier 86 from the city for $252,000 annually, it paid no rent between March 1995 and October 1997.To raise money, the museum tried to acquire the decommissioned amphibious assault ship in 1994, berth her next to Intrepid, and use Guadalcanal as a heliport. Although the United States Senate approved the plan, residents of the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood objected to the fact that the heliport would cut off their access to Pier 84. That year, the museum received part of a $1 million appropriation earmarked for the restoration of the in Baltimore. The museum remained unprofitable, recording a $1 million loss in 1996. Annual revenue from ticket sales totaled $3 million, less than half of the museum's budget; donations and event rentals covered the rest of the budget. Agencies that had loaned planes to the Intrepid Museum, such as the Air Force Museum Foundation, expressed concerns that the museum was incapable of properly maintaining the aircraft. After the Guadalcanal plan was canceled in early 1996, the Intrepid Museum launched an advertising campaigns to attract patrons; previously, most of its publicity came from word of mouth and public service announcements.
Retired Marine Corps General Donald Ray Gardner replaced Sowinski as the Intrepid Museum Foundation's president in September 1996. Gardner laid off staff, sharply restricted expense spending, deaccessioned some costly artifacts, and reduced the number of planes on exhibit. Gardner also planned to add electronic kiosks to attract children, as well as develop an endowment fund. U.S. President Bill Clinton approved $13 million for a renovation of the Intrepid Museum in late 1997, over his staff's objections to the project; at the time, the museum had 500,000 annual visitors. The next year, Gardner closed the Intrepid Museum for a minor renovation, the first in its history; the museum reopened in February 1998 with two new exhibits. The city waived $600,000 in unpaid rent, as well as future rent payments for Pier 86, in late 1998 after Fisher donated to mayor Rudy Giuliani. By then, the museum received hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from the Navy, the state, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
In mid-1999, retired Marine Corps general Martin R. Steele took over as the Intrepid Museum Foundation's president and began planning 15 modifications to exhibits and 17 construction projects, including a $5.25 million renovation of the flight deck. Steele wished to attract students and increase annual patronage to 1.2 million, and he installed interactive kiosks within a year of taking over. Restaurant Associates took over the museum's food service the same year to accommodate the high number of after-hours parties and events at the Intrepid Museum. The Intrepid Museum constructed a new visitor center at 46th Street and 12th Avenue that year. In addition, the museum planned to improve Pier 86, build a 245-seat theater, and erect a pedestrian overpass on 12th Avenue.