Friday, June 11, 2010

Friends of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum Hosts Its First Open House

OGUNQUIT—
On Sunday, June 6, 2010, the Friends of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum held an open house to welcome members and the public to the 2010 exhibition. In spite of very stormy weather, the event was attended by almost 100 guests and members of the Friends, as well as a number of celebrated political names such as Barney Frank, Congressman from Massachusetts, and Chellie Pingree, Congresswoman representing Maine’s first district in Washington.
This year, the Friends of the OHM used the open house as the occasion to present to long-time curator, Barbara Woodbury, and her husband, Peter Woodbury, a bronze plaque dedicated to their long and devoted stewardship of the Ogunquit Heritage Museum. Without the Woodburys, it is likely that the Museum would not have survived and thrived as it has since its inception in 2002.
Highlighting the Ogunquit Beach this year, the Museum posted photographs from the earliest days of the beach, along with an historical recounting of how the beach was saved from private development and kept as a public park for use by the public today.
On view in the same room are clippings and photos of the storm of 1978 that sent the Lobster Bar crashing against the bridge and out to sea. Also featured is Isabel Lewando’s coverage of the repair of the dunes by the Army Corps of Engineers, and the subsequent battle fought by SCROD (the organization formed to challenge the work carried out by the ACE and return the dunes to their former state). Of special note are the 1900s photographs taken and preserved by Florence Whittier Tyler.
In the Museum’s Art Room, there are numerous artists’ renderings of the Ogunquit Beach, along with a very powerful oil by Channing Hare of Richard Perkins at the beach.
The Architecture Room this year is dedicated to an exposition of the construction of Dunelawn, its history as a hotel for more than 30 years, and its eventual conversion into the present-day Dunelawn Condominiums.
As in the past, a refurbished fisherman’s shack has been assembled by the Museum to illustrate the paraphernalia and necessities of early fishing life in Perkins Cove.
Visitors to the Museum will be welcomed from Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free, though donations are greatly appreciated. The Ogunquit Heritage Museum is located at 86 Obed’s Lane in Ogunquit. For more information, please contact the OHM at (207) 646-0296.