Chesapik Bay Maritime Museum will renovate the building in honor of black entrepreneurs – newspaper

St. Michaels – The Sea Museum of Chesapik Bay will rehabilitate a historical structure in its campus and rename it to the Coulborne & Jewett Education Center with the support of $ 242,000 from Maryland through the Afro -American Inheritance Program.

In maintaining and improving the simple Victorian residence, which has recently served as its museum store, the museum aims to share the story and celebrate the legacy of the black company Coulbourne & Jewett Seafood Company, which was once the largest employer at St. S

In the early 20th century, entrepreneur William HT Kulburn lived in the home of the Navy Point, on a short walk from the innovative company he owned with his business partner Frederick Jeet.

William Kulbourne and Frederick Jeet were among the most seafood packages in the region to specialize in crab meat, and they created a crab meat evaluation system that is still used by the seafood industry today.

While the history of the Coulbourne & Jewett seafood packaging company is shared elsewhere on the CBMM campus, its connection to the history of this building is largely unspoken. This will change with the addition of outdoor interpretation signs, describing in detail the history of these pioneer entrepreneurs and workers who made their livelihoods at Navy Point, while emphasizing the historical connections between black communities and bay.

“As we learned more about our former museum shop, we have learned the unique opportunity for us to share a vital part of the local history with our community,” said the vice president of the Museum of Education and Interpretation Jill Ferris. “We want to honor Coulbourne’s heritage, Jewett and many black packaging workers who make their livelihood here with our care for this historical structure and the stories that will now help us tell.”

Awarded last month by the Maryland Commission on African -American History and Culture and the Historical Trust of Maryland, the funding of grants will go to the external renovation of the building, which was built around 1875 as the residence of Miller for an adjacent board.

This phase of the project involves repairing or replacing the siding of the building, unicopter windows and a roof, and work is expected to start later this year.

The short phases will focus on interior renovation to comply with its rearrangement as an educational space.

“This is an exciting next step for our campus,” said the president and executive director of the Kristen L. Grinway Museum. “We are glad that we can improve our mission by applying this new educational space while honoring and enhancing the very important historical history of Coulbourne & Jewett. We are grateful to governor Wes Moore and his administration for their support to help revive the project. ”

CBMM has initially completed modernization to allow its educational team to start using the building last summer. In addition to increasing the indoor space for summer camp suggestions, the new space was used by Rising Tide after-School Program and other youth education initiatives, including field trips and home school programming.

“The long-term vision is the Coulbourne & Jewett education center to become a living training center as the main CBMM space for public and student programming with group accommodation capacity larger than the typical classroom,” the museum said in a press release. S