They’ll worry about the PBY Catalina later.
For now, leaders of the PBY Memorial Foundation PBY-Naval Air Museum are relieved to have a new home for their naval history museum, which they believe will provide easier access to attract more visitors and lead to bigger things in the future.
The museum will be moving off the Seaplane Base at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station to the old Whidbey Furniture building on Pioneer Way in historic downtown Oak Harbor.
After months of negotiations, the PBY Memorial Foundation secured a five-year lease this month, giving the museum a new home that is expected to be open to the public in June.
The museum will remain open at its current location on the Seaplane Base until about mid April then will shut down until the transition is complete.
“This will be much more accessible, especially for tourist traffic,” said Wil Shellenberger, president of the PBY Memorial Foundation. “One thing I’ve always preached is there’s no one attraction on Whidbey Island that is the reason people come here. They come here for the overall Whidbey experience. We want to enhance that. We want to give them something to learn and to come and see part of Whidbey history while they’re here.”
The foundation chose the site on Pioneer Way after learning that a spot it had hoped to relocate to on Highway 20 wouldn’t be available for at least two years, Shellenberger said.
The foundation needed to act quickly because its five-year lease with NAS Whidbey expired at the end of April.
Shellenberger said the foundation enjoyed a good relationship with NAS Whidbey and would have remained at that site for the time being, however, Department of Defense guidelines prevented a contract renewal.
Ultimately, the PBY Memorial Foundation’s long-range plan is to build a hangar-style museum on an off-base site more accessible to the public.
The site on Pioneer Way is a temporary home until funding can be raised to purchase property. A site on Highway 20 is still the target.
“It’s going to take some time, and we need to build support in the community for what we want to do in the long run,” Shellenberger said.
“Our strategic plan is to operate a self-sustaining museum on Pioneer Way and to build resources and build a credit track record so we can be credit worthy and buy property. We have the design and vision for a hangar-style museum where we would put our plane inside. We would like to have a couple buildings for exhibits and room to expand to obtain additional aircraft that flew out of Whidbey Island.”
The building at 720 S.E. Pioneer Way will not be converted to house aircraft, however, remodeling will take place to make room for exhibits, some that couldn’t be displayed on the Seaplane Base due to space limitations.
The Pioneer Way site will encompass 4,500 square feet of room compared to 2,800 at the old museum site.
There are several other benefits to the off-base site, Shellenberger said.
The museum may now charge admission, accept donations and operate a much larger gift shop. That couldn’t be done on base, Shellenberger said. Admission will be $5 with $1 discounts for seniors, military and groups of 10 or more.
“Off base, we can run a much more robust gift shop,” Shellenberger said. “It will be set up where people can visit the gift shop without going into the museum. We’re hoping to generate revenue from the gift shop.”
The PBY Memorial Foundation, established in 1998, is dedicated to the preservation of the PBY Catalina and Seaplane Base artifacts, as well as items throughout American military history.
In 2010, the foundation acquired the PBY Catalina that currently rests near the Naval Heritage building.
The foundation is working on different possible plans to relocate the aircraft closer to the new museum site, Shellenberger said.
“Right now, the focus is on getting the first major move done,” he said.
