Museum Breaks Ground And Changes Name

Downtown Mobile Gulf Quest Hoping the name is easier for tourists to remember the National Maritime Museum will now be called GulfQuest.

by Chad Petri

Published: Thu, April 09, 2009 - 12:57 pm CST Last Updated: Thu, April 09, 2009 - 1:52 pm CST

We're one step closer to having a national museum in downtown Mobile. Officials broke ground on the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico Thursday morning. Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Senator Richard Shelby and other dignitaries were in town to welcome the new facility. They raised a flag and did a traditional "keel laying" rather than the more common first shovel-full of dirt ceremony. The museum's also changing its name to "GulfQuest.” Organizers say that'll make the 38 million dollar building easier to remember for tourists.

“We're totally interactive with a few artifacts so you'll come in and there will be dynamic things to do for kids, for adults, for school groups for all audiences,” says museum executive director Tony Zodrow. The museum won't open until 2011. Officials say it will bring five million dollars a year in economic impact to our area.

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Wait4Me Says:

Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 6:36 pm

9 million a year? WOW we do need more moonpies, we need enough so the city and county can remove ALL their taxes and then we can really enjoy the benefits of the mighty pie of the moon. Maybe the new “Mobile Paddle and Pedophile” museum would bring in a lot of revenue, with wax figures (no inappropriate positions) of Herman “Paddler” Thomas and Steve “Predator” Giardini, to start with. More to come from our esteemed elected and judicial system I’m sure.