To historian Vicki Gold Levi, Atlantic City has always been a “living history,” a seaside location with so much happening that few had the foresight to document and analyze the city’s past.
“Miss America always happened, the hotels were always there, the Boardwalk was always there, the rolling chairs were always there, the exhibits were always coming in,” Levi said. “You only think of preserving something when it’s gone, and nobody was thinking of preserving (Atlantic City’s pastimes) until (they were) gone.”
Levi and other history buffs hope the city doesn’t make the same mistake when it comes to preserving what remains of the city’s history.
The site that has housed the Atlantic City Historical Museum for nearly three decades could be in jeopardy because it is located at the city’s deteriorating Garden Pier on the Boardwalk.
In May 2009, the city administration temporarily closed the museum, along with its neighbor, the Atlantic City Arts Center, after a visual inspection by an engineering firm alerted officials to dangerous corrosion and decay beneath the pier.
The site reopened about two weeks later, only to close in November after a major rain storm caused further damage and reopen months later. While safety issues threaten the pier, the city lacks money to fund improvements. The ongoing structural issues leave open the possibility of future museum closings, which could eventually cut into the building’s attendance figures.
“We want to make sure people know we’re still there, that we’re not permanently shut down,” said Herb Stern, vice chairman of the museum’s executive board.
Stern said interest in the museum has not been an issue. He said the site welcomes about 35,000 people each year, with the highest traffic in the summer months. Officials with the museum said exact numbers were not available.
An uncertain fate
Advocates of Atlantic City’s Historical Museum say they want it maintained but also insist that Atlantic City’s history cannot properly be conveyed through the four exhibits the museum showcases.
“We should really have a huge museum,” Levi said. “I mean, we’re grateful for what we have, but it could be a much bigger, better, more fascinating place.”
However, before improvements are considered, the pier’s future needs securing.
And while the museum’s future is linked to the pier’s fate, the life of the pier is also tied to its neighbor, an unfinished $2.6 billion casino project.
Revel Entertainment Group’s mega resort, incrementally taking shape across the Boardwalk from the pier, has meant lots of discussion — and little action — regarding the fate of Garden Pier and the city’s historical museum.
Revel officials have previously said the city wanted $6.5 million for rights to the pier, with plans to demolish and rebuild it. However, Revel has countered that it should get the pier for free, arguing that demolishing and rebuilding the pier should be enough benefit to the city.
Revel recently applied to a state tax program that would allow it to redirect future property taxes from the city to fund various improvements near the casino site. Chief among those improvements is $6 million earmarked to demolish the pier’s rear portion, its most dangerous section, and repair and upgrade the museum and the art center.
The application must have city approval. The process that has lagged while state officials determine the details for the tax program, Revel attorney Nicholas Talvacchia said.
“We don’t know what our fate is going to be because so many things are up in the air,” said Allen “Boo” Pergament, another local historian and loyal contributor to the museum.
Kevin DeSanctis, Revel’s chairman and CEO, said it is in the best interests of the city and Revel to do what it takes to maintain the current operations at the pier — both culturally and economically.
“The historical and the arts centers should ultimately be a part of whatever happens with the city,” DeSanctis said. “But to do all that, the back of the pier has to come down, and we hope to get some aesthetic improvements in the front. We want to get to that sooner rather than later.”
Failed attempts to sell
Garden Pier, constructed in 1913, got its name from the ornate flowers that once decorated the now-deteriorated concrete pilings on the 1,500-foot pier’s far end.
The city has owned the storm-lashed pier at the Boardwalk and New Jersey Avenue since 1944. City government took ownership several months before a hurricane washed away a grand ballroom that once stood at the end of the pier.
Since then, the city has made several failed efforts to transfer the pier to private or corporate hands and get it rehabilitated. A plan to sell the pier was floated in 1989, and again 10 years later, when City Council rejected a plan to give the pier to casino developer MGM Grand Inc.
When sale attempts failed, the city continued to financially support the pier.
The museum has one permanent exhibit and three rotating ones. The permanent exhibit is called “Playground of the World” and is a history of Atlantic City, including an old rolling chair and a Mr. Peanut costume, Levi said.
One temporary exhibit is a video called “Boardwalk Ballyhoo: The Magic of Atlantic City,” Levi said. Guests can sit down to watch it on a large screen. The Al Gold Photography Gallery is now showing examples of art deco in Atlantic City from the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. The Gail Stern Memorial Exhibit currently has newspaper editions of historical events.
The city owns the building and donates its use to the historical museum, Levi said. The staff is paid by the city.
“We’re not a revenue producer,” but get a lot of visitors during the warm-weather months, Levi said, adding that the museum serves as another destination for visitors to the resort.
Admission is free, but the museum makes some money selling books, calendars and artifacts in the gift shop, Levi said. It raises other funds by obtaining grants and from special donations from the public and board members.
The museum had $15,754 in income in 2008, including $3,500 in government grants, $2,173 in direct public contributions and $8,170 in program service revenue, according to its form filed with the New Jersey Charitable Registration Directory. It had $23,589 in expenses, consisting of $18,784 in management expenses and $4,805 in program expenses.
Levi co-founded the museum with Anthony Kutschera and the late Florence Miller in the early 1980s, opening within the Atlantic City Art Center before moving into its own building soon after.
“Atlantic City is not like Las Vegas, an anomaly that rose in the desert,” Levi said. “We have strong historical roots in the fabric in American history.”
Possible moves
Officials in Mayor Lorenzo Langford’s administration say the city recognizes the city’s rich history and the need to preserve it.
“They are doing a wonderful job,” Business Administrator Michael Scott said of the museum. “I personally support it, the mayor personally supports it and we are looking forward to making sure that they have a line item within our budget, as long as it’s possible. We’re behind it. It’s a part of Atlantic City.”
Stern said the museum’s staff awaits further developments in talks between the city and Revel, but is meanwhile preparing alternatives.
He said the museum’s executive board members have had discussions about moving to various places in Atlantic City, including Boardwalk Hall, Gardner’s Basin, the Absecon Lighthouse, which has funding problems of its own, and the Atlantic City Free Public Library.
Others have talked about moving the museum and the arts center to the city’s Ducktown section near Dante Hall Performing Arts Center to be included with the latest expansion of The Walk, a popular retail and entertainment district that occupies the blocks at the foot of the Atlantic City Expressway. Dante Hall is in negotiations with The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey to help run the operation, due to a budget crunch.
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