Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum won’t open this summer, but work continues on extensive remodeling project

The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras Village won’t be opening to the public in the summer of 2023, but steady progress has been made on the massive transformation of the 7,500-square-foot exhibit space.

“It’s a major undertaking, and we have to make sure everything is correct as we go forward,” said Joe Schwarzer, Director of the North Carolina Maritime Museum System.

The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum first opened to the public in 2002, and since then, very little work has been done to remodel or update the museum space.

Though the prospect of a remodeling project had been floating around for some time, in May 2021, the museum received a $4.1 million grant from the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to conduct an overhaul of the Hatteras village site. Months later, Dare County and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau stepped in with an extra $500,000 in funds, which the state then bolstered with an additional $400,000, resulting in a total of $5.1 million to bring the remodeling project to life.

Construction bids started in late 2021, and a contractor was selected in June 2022, with the work officially beginning in the winter of 2022/2023.

The footprint of the museum, which includes 5,500 square feet of gallery space and 2,000 square feet of lobby space, will remain the same. But the exhibits and displays themselves will evolve in a way that will effectively double the number of artifacts that can be shown in any given year.

In the new design, exhibits will be rotated every six months or so, with treasured artifacts coming out of the on-site storage area to be showcased in interactive displays.

“The exhibits are changing completely and will be structured in a way so we can rotate more freely. We’ll have things on display in six-month intervals, so that the museum is always fresh and new,” said Schwarzer in an earlier interview. “We’ll be able to share all the things that people have donated that we haven’t been able to display yet, which is going to be great.”

The original 6,000-pound bronze and crystal first-order Fresnel lens from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will also have a new location in the museum, and contractors reached a milestone in May when the lens was delicately taken part in order for work to continue. A team of specialists was hired to take apart the more than 170-year-old fixture, and they’ll return later in the year when it’s time to resemble the iconic lens.

“It seems funny to put that much emphasis on the lighthouse lens, but that’s a historically rare object. It’s one of a kind, and it’s been part of Outer Banks history forever,” said Schwarzer. “So, we want to make sure that when we put it back, it’s safe in its new home.”

Right now, the remodeling project consists of a series of moving parts. Work is being conducted by a main architect, a main contractor, and roughly 7-8 subcontractors in distinctive fields.

“All these various groups specialize in what they do, and all that work needs to be coordinated,” said Schwarzer. “There’s a lot involved here, but it’s all moving forward.”

Stakeholders are hopeful that the museum will be able to reopen by the end of the year, but in the meantime, the focus is on doing all the work as perfectly as possible, so that the remodeling will last for the museum’s lifespan.

“This is not for the faint-hearted, and it’s a little bit tricky to have all the steps in place. For example, we need to reschedule getting the lens back in, and that will have to happen before we do the carpet and put down some of the initial exhibit pieces,” said Schwarzer. “But the quality of the work is excellent. We’re getting this done right the first time.”