Wayne and Loraine Hamilton Donate Building to Penobscot Marine Museum

Wayne and Loraine Hamilton Donate Building to Penobscot Marine Museum

for New Education Center

Searsport, Maine, February 10, 2014 – Wayne and Loraine Hamilton have donated the former

Hamilton Marine Seine Loft on Route One in Searsport to the Penobscot Marine Museum as

a home for the museum’s new education center. Contractors have renovated the front of the

building to create a boat building workshop, and last week, the newly-named Hamilton Learning

Center opened its doors to host an intensive eighteen-week boat building class for Searsport

District High School students, taught by master builder Greg Rossel.

"We are so thrilled to see this building used to promote education, Searsport and the Penobscot

Marine Museum, three causes that we strongly believe in," said Wayne Hamilton, after the gift

was finalized last December. "Loraine and I hope this boat-building class is the first of many

programming collaborations between the school and the museum."

The museum is currently engaged in raising funds to renovate the remainder of the 7,000 square

foot building, and working with Searsport District High School and other organizations to

develop further educational programming. "Loraine and I hope other donors will take up our challenge to contribute to this project and help promote education and building skills for the future by learning about our rich maritime heritage," Wayne said.

Wayne grew up in Searsport and fished in Penobscot Bay. He has served as Searsport harbor

master for many years and also helps deliver and pick up Penobscot Bay pilots from ships

transiting the bay. The Hamiltons bought the Seine Loft in 1982 as a base for their marine

supplies business, Hamilton Marine. Eventually the company outgrew the space and moved to

its current location in 1990. Hamilton Marine, which now has five stores throughout Maine, has

used the Seine Loft as storage since then.

This is the fourth year that Penobscot Marine Museum has partnered with the Searsport District

High School and Rossel to present this class in which the traditional art of boat building is

interwoven with academic objectives to create a multi-disciplinary learning experience. Students

work with Rossel and a dedicated core of community mentors to build two Joel White-designed

shellback dinghies, which they launch in the spring in Searsport Harbor.

Building boats is a Maine tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Maine’s resource-based

economy depended on the exportation of fish, lumber, ice, granite, and other products, and

the state’s waterways and miles of ocean coastline were the highways by which these goods

were sent around the world. Virtually every small town on the Maine coast was involved in

boatbuilding and Maine’s reputation for fine design and craftsmanship continues today. By

building a traditional wooden boat, designed by the premier Maine designer Joel White, high

school students carry on a long-standing art form, gaining not only appreciation of the history of

that art, but also its application in today’s world.

“The Hamilton Learning Center provides an ideal site for this and other related educational

opportunities,” said Penobscot Marine Museum Director Liz Lodge.  The boat-building program integrates this traditional art form with curriculum standards. Rossel works with teachers from Searsport District High School to identify and incorporate math and science concepts into the boat building process. Over the course of building the dinghies, students apply these concepts to practical situations. Math concepts, from measuring and ratios to more complicated geometry and algebra, are reinforced during the boat building process. Building a viable boat which actually floats makes it clear why these concepts matter. During the course, students also learn specific woodworking skills and practice creative problem-solving and team building skills that impact their lives well beyond the conclusion of the program.