Herreshoff Marine Museum Receives “Save America’s Treasures” Grant to Complete Restoration of the General Burnside Building

 Bristol, RI – December 20, 2022. The Herreshoff Marine Museum has received a Save America’s Treasures grant of $413,709 from the National Park Service (NPS) in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services for Phase 3 of the Burnside Building Rehabilitation Project.

The building, located on the HMM campus at 22-26 Burnside Street, was originally built in 1860 by Ambrose Burnside as a firearms manufacturing plant. It was sold to John Herreshoff in 1870, and it became the Machine Shop at the iconic Herreshoff Manufacturing Company where many of the company’s advanced and innovative steam engines as well as a broad variety of other parts for the 2,000+ boats that were built by HMCo. In 1892, the building was expanded with the addition of an “annex” on the south side that tripled the size of the Machine Shop. 

This annex is the focus of Phase 3 which encompasses restoration of the building’s 200+ windows as well as work on trim, siding, and the building’s foundation. The project will commence in Spring 2023. There is also a plan in place to renovate the building’s interior for use as a combination of new exhibit space, the STEM boat shop, and commercial space for blue economy companies as part of the Herreshoff Blue Innovation Center.

“The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company campus and its historic buildings are important elements in Bristol’s rich maritime history,” said Herreshoff Marine Museum President & Executive Director Bill Lynn. “We’re thrilled to have this support for the Burnside Building Rehabilitation Project, and we’re looking forward to working with NPS and RIHPHC to make this building the centerpiece of HMM’s new Blue Innovation Center and something our community can be proud of.”

Save America’s Treasures, funded through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), provided $356 million to more than 1,326 projects between 1999 and 2020. Requiring a dollar-for-dollar private match, these grants have leveraged more than $500 million in private investment and contributed more than 16,000 jobs to local and state economies.  

“Through private and public investments, the Save America’s Treasures program supports community-based preservation and conservation work on some of our nation’s most important collections, artifacts, structures, and sites for the benefit of future generations,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams. 

Established in 1977, the HPF is authorized at $150 million per year through 2023 and has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, tribes, local governments, and non-profit organizations. Administered by the NPS, HPF grant funds are appropriated by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources and history.

About the Herreshoff Marine Museum

The Herreshoff Marine Museum, located in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, is a maritime museum dedicated to the history of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company and the America’s Cup. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company (1878-1945) was most notable for producing fast sailing yachts, including eight America’s Cup defenders, and steam-powered vessels. The museum, situated near Narragansett Bay on the grounds where the manufacturing company once stood, has a collection of over sixty boats including Nathanael Greene Herreshoff’s CLARA, built in 1887, Harold Vanderbilt’s TRIVIA, and the 1992 ACC yacht, DEFIANT.