Richardson Maritime Museum Sees Bright Future

The exhibits of the Richardson Maritime Museum sit crowded in the top floor of the red brick building on Byrn Street in Cambridge. They await their moment to once more face the admiring public as they did at the old Dorchester National Bank Building on High Street. And that moment may be closer than some people think.

“My goal is to have it before the end of 2025, to have us at least open one day a week with volunteer docents to do that,” said Debbie Usab, executive director of the Richardson. “We have a docent manual, but it’s not appropriate to this exhibit. So, to refurbish the docent manual, I have a history intern who is going to be graduating, and this is their internship, and they’re going to be working on that docent manual.”

A new manual is necessary because the museum will be considerably altered from its earlier form. Not only will the main space be different, but there is also the Boat Works next door, which the staff calls “the living museum” because vintage vessels are worked on there. That’s a component the founders of the endeavor probably didn’t envision when they started.

Back in the early 90s, a group called the Committee of 100 was formed to try to revitalize Cambridge by bringing in tourism, and they knew they needed to have some kind of “draw.” Fortunately, a number of people had maritime artifacts that had belonged to the renowned boatbuilder Jim Richardson, and they made those artifacts the basis for a museum of the maritime history of Dorchester County. The bank building downtown was donated along with private funds, and the Richardson Maritime Museum was begun in 1992.

Years later, they acquired part of the property on Byrn Street. Someone else had the other part of the property, next to the waterfront. The museum’s board of directors took out a substantial mortgage to purchase that part of the property. The Earl Brannock Maritime Museum was placed in the red brick building when Earl donated his artifacts and archives to the Richardson in 2013. By 2019, they were dealing with the cost of maintaining the bank building, the red brick building, and the Boat Works.

“It just made more sense to sell the bank building because we really wanted this campus to be our main location,” explained Usab. “Covid happened along with that.”

Everything was photographed, inventoried, and cataloged. But, because of the pandemic, no one could go to Byrn Street to begin work on any of it. During that time, they let their executive director go because there was no more funding for that position. They were able to pay their other bills to keep the endeavor from folding, but they couldn’t move forward.

“And,” said Usab, “we kind of just sat.”

However, something they weren’t able to pay was the heavy debt on the property and had no idea how they ever would. Meanwhile, Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc., was proceeding with plans for the Cambridge Harbor project. By 2023, the CWDI board was very nervous about the condition of the museum, which they felt was a vital part of their vision. The board feared that the Richardsons’ debt would force them to sell the property to a developer who would put new housing on it.

“So, they worked with us and with the private mortgage person who we owed money to, to kind of negotiate down that debt and purchase the property for what was owed, leased the property back to us for a dollar a year, gave us funds to try to get us more than just paying the electric bill,” said Usab. “Also, their executive director at that point became the CWDI board appointee to our board and helped with beginning the beginnings of a strategic plan and getting us really refocused on where we needed to be.”

The Richardson’s board received a private donation to fund the hiring of Katie Clendaniel for a contractual short-term position to help with the business plan and operational plan and to get some events going. Her contract ended in January 2024, at which point the board held their annual meeting and elected Usab to be chair. They also had another board donation to help them hire a bookkeeper, and Usab stepped up to also take on the role of executive director.

“Earl and Shirley Brannock were my second parents,” said Usab. “Earl walked me down the aisle when I got married 34 years ago. I promised him on his deathbed that I would come back onto the board and do whatever I could to make sure that his legacy continued. So, I’m not here for me, you know, I’m not here because this is–I wouldn’t say it’s not fun. It is. Some of it is fun. I was a teacher for 24 years and so I’m used to, you know, talking in front of a class.”

While she admittedly has little knowledge about the actual vessels, Usab does know how to facilitate a group of people to get an outcome. She hopes to build a more diverse board of directors and to generally get more people involved, especially as committee members. She’ll even take people to do short-term projects, because then they may decide they want to take on more as a board member. There are, in fact, two new board members–Natalie Chabot and former state senator Addie Eckardt. Usab is currently negotiating with someone else to join the board in July.

“We really need to be strategic about, as every board needs to be, as to what type of person you have on your board,” she explained. “[We have a] lot of people working on boats on our board, and that’s great because we need that historical reference and that knowledge. But we also need an accountant and we need a lawyer and we need, you know, somebody who has financial knowledge. So those are people that we’re still looking for.”

Meanwhile, Usab is working on grant applications and preparing for upcoming events like the Legends of the Sequoia reunion dinner and the Second Annual Boatyard Bash. It’s a lot of work, but she has high hopes for the future success of the Richardson Maritime Museum.

“I think it’s a huge value to the community,” she said confidently.