Update for October 2025
Just Add Water?
The museum building in transition
Only 3 months ago we re-opened the first half of the former museum building at Fort Worden.
We’ve already welcomed more than 3,200 public visitors to the new exhibits.
Summer campers and now school groups have been trying out the space, while we continue to add features, activities and even furniture. The Portico and Gift Shop have enjoyed bold and refreshing changes as well.
The most recent cause for celebration is the successful moving of the central aquarium tank and two other large tanks from the pier building to their new home across the street. The newly polished, buffed, and cleaned tanks fit just as we’d hoped.
Over the next few months, the museum classroom will be transformed into an aquarium exhibit focused on our incredible kelp forests and some of their inhabitants. Of course it’s not as easy as just adding water. New tank stands, life support equipment, storage, plumbing, electrical work, painting and of course interpretation are all part of this ambitious project. Look for more detailed updates on the website in the coming weeks as changes take shape.
If you haven’t had a chance to visit yet, please stop by to see how we’re doing. Peer into a microscope, listen to some local birds, choose your favorite marine invertebrate shell, find your way from the headwaters of the Elwha River to the Strait of Juan de Fuca on our 3D model, or watch fantastic underwater video of the Salish Sea. We’re open Fridays – Mondays, with a schedule change coming in November.
A big thank you to everyone who has supported this project so far: individual donors, foundations, federal agencies, Washington State Parks, PTMSC staff, our exhibit developer and designer, and many talented volunteers.
Update for July 2025
Building 502 at Fort Worden (formerly the Museum) is coming right along, and exhibits on the “dry side” will be opening in the next couple of weeks. If you have been in the park, you may have seen the recently refreshed Portico and window photos.
The exhibit project has been enriched by several local artists and craftspeople. You’ll hear more about them and enjoy their incredible work very soon.
Grant Hawley from Imagine Visual Services installing the new welcome sign in the Portico.
This felted octopus was custom created by volunteer Patt Roche.
This remodel project is supported by private funders and grants. We’re happy to report that our federal grant from the Institute for Museums and Library Services was reinstated, and we received the first half of that funding this week.
Update for April 2025
Inside, fresh paint on the walls and trim give everything a new look, while the staff is dialing in choices for tanks and tank stands.
Here are a couple of other clues to changes you will see when the new exhibit is complete:
Bruce Carlson, who designed the downtown Store’s beautiful desk, chooses the best wood for cabinetry in the new exhibit.
Prototypes of new graphics peek out from the windows.
Update for March 2025
“Keep the baleen and keep the skeletons,” was the overwhelming request of the staff and volunteers when planning began for the remodel of the museum building.
With Hope the orca happily rearticulated, attention has turned to the intricate mount making for some of the natural history collections that will be on display for visitors and available for students to use in classes and camps. You’ll find some of them in surprising new places when we reopen.
Update for February 2025
Work is well underway to transform the exhibits in building 502. A highlight of the project so far was having Lee Post, master bone articulator, in town for a few wondrous days to help make adjustments to Hope, the orca skeleton he first helped PTMSC to construct for display in the building. Her flippers were repositioned and her entire spine is now attached in a graceful new attitude. Working with Lee were AmeriCorps members Hillary Sanders and Kelly Kingdon, and several other volunteers and staff, including Gabe Meyer.
Update for January 2025
In Building 502, formerly the Museum
In a highlight of the remodel project so far, Lee Post traveled from Homer, Alaska to help reattach Hope the orca’s tail and reposition her flippers and spine. Since its initial articulation, the tail has hung separately from the rest of the skeleton, as otherwise it was a danger to the heads of visitors and vulnerable to inquisitive hands.
Post, master bone articulator, led the initial articulation of Hope in 2011. This month-long process was highly unusual in how much of the work was carried out not by scientists but by community members, who lent their time and many diverse skills to the Orca Project. You can read more about the project here.
Ric Brenden attaching vertebrae to the tail support structure.
The tail is attached to Hope, completing the skeleton.
Banner photo image: Lee Post working with Hope’s spine.
PTMSC staff, working to realign the spine to allow the tail to rest higher.
Hope now rests as a completed skeleton, far above the hands and heads of future exhibit patrons! Lee Post was ecstatic to finally complete this skeleton. He had help from a few of the original articulation volunteers, and also from volunteer Ric Brenden, and PTMSC staff and AmeriCorps members.
PTMSC volunteers with Hope’s original articulation, Linda Dacon and Libby Palmer, helping with the tail reattachment.
PTMSC staff and AmeriCorps member with Lee Post and the finished tail.
An Aquarium update
In the Aquarium on the pier, the restoration projects and animal husbandry continue.
In the pinto abalone satellite nursery, a restoration project with Puget Sound Restoration Fund, the current abalone group passed their health inspection! This annual testing ensures that the juvenile abalone aren’t introducing diseases when they are released in the spring.
Also exciting, grunt sculpin eggs started hatching! The babies were released to join the plankton just as they would if hatched in the wild.
Part of the work by the Aquarium team is planning and preparing for tanks in Building 502. From Ali, Aquarium Curator:
We are getting a head start on biological filtration! These ceramic spheres are home to beneficial bacteria that transform harmful ammonia waste into nitrites and nitrates. Known as biological filtration, this is an essential component of all aquarium systems. Establishing enough bacteria can take months, especially in cold water. By nurturing a colony of bacteria even before our systems are in place, we hope to speed the process along.
Update for December 2024
It was an emotional day on December 1, the last open day for the Museum and the Aquarium. And an exciting day as well, as we look forward to the Summer reopening of the remodeled Museum building (with a new name, still to be decided!).
In preparation for the remodel, the gift shop inventory was moved to the downtown Store and the former Museum exhibits were carefully removed and homes found for many of them. The newly-cleared space was thoroughly cleaned and the floors freshly sealed in preparation for the next phase of the remodel.
Originally part of the glacier exhibit, the miniature Port Townsend has found a new home.
The storm drain tunnel structure being removed.
The glacier, removed from the wall.
The orca skeleton, Hope, ready for work on reattaching its tail.
Update on Fort Worden Hospitality
As you have probably heard, Fort Worden Hospitality has ceased operations at Fort Worden State Park as of January 16. FW Hospitality managed food service, lodging, and facility rentals at the Park, among many other responsibilities they stepped in to help with over the past months. This is an unhappy outcome for all of us at Fort Worden who worked closely with Hospitality and relied on their services and assistance, as well as for the larger community.
In response, Washington State Parks is making comprehensive transition plans to lead operations on the Fort Worden campus. While they will not take over management of lodging and food services, these plans include helping all of us on campus continue our programs with as little interruption as possible.
Most importantly, Fort Worden State Park will keep welcoming visitors and remain the vital resource to our community that it has long been.
For PTMSC, there will be some unavoidable adjustments to spring events, and we appreciate your patience while we work on alternative plans as necessary. In the meantime, our biggest project remains on track – the remodel of building 502 (the Museum building on shore). We continue to work with State Parks leadership and staff on modifications both indoors and out to serve visitors and students at Fort Worden over the next several years. We’ll begin sharing photos and stories of the transformation very soon.
Although the Aquarium building on the pier is closed to the public, staff and volunteers are taking excellent care of all its denizens this winter, and our conservation, education and citizen science programs and projects continue with a deep sense of purpose as we head into this year.
PTMSC is grateful to be part of the Washington State Parks Fort Worden community, with its dedicated staff, rangers, and leadership. We are fortunate to be part of a supportive campus community of creative, problem-solving nonprofits who make Fort Worden unique and vibrant.
Find out about our full calendar of upcoming Winter and Spring events on our Public Programs and Events webpage, and check back for updates on the building 502 remodel and other PTMSC news right here. As always, thank you for being the heart of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.