Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
1 Intrepid Plaza | Hell's Kitchen | built 1930
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1981
Zachary Fisher's foundation takes the carrier Intrepid from the Navy for a museum
On April 27, 1981, the Navy transferred the retired aircraft carrier Intrepid to a nonprofit led by the developer Zachary Fisher. The idea had begun with a group called Odysseys in Flight, which wanted to rescue a warship from scrapping. Converting the top two decks cost $22 million, paid with $2.4 million in gifts, $15.2 million in tax-exempt bonds and $4.5 million from the federal housing department. Fisher gave more than $25 million to the museum over his life.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1982
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum opens at Pier 86
Towed to Pier 86 in June 1982, the carrier had a trial opening on July 4 and welcomed the public on August 3. It was the second aircraft carrier in the country turned into a museum, after the Yorktown. Visitors found aircraft, spacecraft and an exhibit on early carrier history, though several hangar halls and the theater were still unfinished. About 50 paid staff and 100 volunteers ran the place.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1983
The museum dedicates a Hall of Honor for Medal of Honor recipients aboard the Intrepid
On December 10, 1983, the Intrepid Museum Foundation opened a Hall of Honor, the first archive in the country devoted to Medal of Honor recipients. The Medal of Honor Society also moved its offices into the carrier. The addition came sixteen months after the museum opened at Pier 86, when its directors had been forced to delay payments on the museum's debt.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1985
The museum's foundation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Attendance fell far short of forecasts. The museum drew 450,000 visitors in 1984, nearly half the 800,000 it needed to break even, partly because no subway line served the pier. In 1985 the Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for Chapter 11 protection, reporting $28.4 million in debts against $16.5 million in assets. Managers kept the doors open and hired an advertising agency, and the ship was named a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1987
Investigators say the Westies gang skimmed ticket money at the Intrepid
On April 3, 1987, federal and city investigators disclosed that the Westies, a Manhattan gang, had siphoned money from the Intrepid museum. Members of Longshoremen's Local 1909 who worked as ticket sellers took box-office receipts, and other members held no-show jobs, with most of the money passing to the gang's leaders. Executive director Wayne Schmidt put the museum's loss at several hundred thousand dollars at least, and five ticket sellers had been dismissed on March 13.
Source: The New York Times
- 1988
The museum begins hosting Fleet Week events on its decks
In 1988 the Intrepid began hosting annual Fleet Week events, a tradition that was still going in 2023. Over the years the carrier has staged tug-of-war, cooking and arm-wrestling competitions, a Flight Deck Olympics and displays of ships. Fleet Week sits alongside other recurring programs on the carrier, including Kids' Week and the Night to Remember benefit.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
The missile submarine USS Growler opens to visitors beside the Intrepid
The submarine USS Growler, a Grayback-class boat that had carried nuclear Regulus missiles, reached the museum under tow in late 1988 and welcomed visitors the next May. The destroyer USS Edson joined her in July 1989. Zachary Fisher paid for the additions, hoping the two ships would draw back visitors, since the museum had few who came twice.
“…was towed to the museum in late 1988 and opened to the public the next May…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
The flight deck becomes a 3,300-seat arena for Goodwill Games boxing and wrestling
During the 1998 Goodwill Games, the Intrepid's flight deck was temporarily converted into a 3,300-seat stadium and hosted boxing and wrestling bouts. The museum had reopened in February 1998 after the first minor renovation in its history, which added two new exhibits. Other events on the deck in the 1990s included memorials, benefits, ceremonies, parties and weddings.
“The museum's flight deck was temporarily converted to a 3,300-seat stadium during the 1998 Goodwill Games, when it hosted boxing and wrestling bouts.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Professional boxing debuts on the flight deck, and a light heavyweight leaves the ring on a stretcher
Professional boxing made its debut on the Intrepid's flight deck on June 26, 2001. In the main event, Victor Polo of Colombia won the IBF Intercontinental featherweight title with a unanimous 12-round decision over David Toledo. Earlier, light heavyweight Beethaeven Scottland was knocked out in the tenth round by George Jones and taken by stretcher to Bellevue Hospital, where a state athletic commission doctor said he had possible bleeding on the brain.
Source: The New York Times
- 2001
The museum becomes an FBI field headquarters after the September 11 attacks
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the museum shut its doors and served as a temporary field headquarters for the FBI during its investigation. Part of the flight deck was cleared to make room for a temporary helicopter landing area. The museum reopened after five weeks and put on an exhibit remembering the victims. A footbridge linking it to the east side of 12th Avenue was finished in May 2003 at a cost of $11 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2003
A retired British Airways Concorde sails up the Hudson to the Intrepid's pier
On November 25, 2003, a Concorde recently retired by British Airways arrived at Pier 86 aboard a rusty barge towed up the Hudson River. The jet was to be displayed there on a 260-foot barge. At the welcome ceremony American speakers dominated the dais, Miss U.S.O. sang the national anthem, and the fifth speaker was the first British one. Afterward two British tourists paid their admission and found the jet alone on the pier, surrounded by empty chairs.
Source: The New York Times
- 2007
The museum tells the owner of its Iwo Jima flag-raising sculpture to take it away
On July 31, 2007, with the Intrepid docked on Staten Island for an overhaul, museum officials said they had declined to buy the five-ton Iwo Jima sculpture on display since 1995 and asked its owner, Manhattan mortgage banker Rodney Hilton Brown, to remove it by September. Sculptor Felix de Weldon had made the cement-and-plaster model in the 1940s, when it was used to promote war-bond sales, before the bronze Marine Corps War Memorial went up in Arlington in 1954.
Source: The New York Times
- 2008
The Intrepid reopens after a $115 million renovation that was delayed at the start by a stuck ship
The carrier closed on October 1, 2006, to be towed to a dry dock in Bayonne, New Jersey. On November 6 her propellers stuck in Hudson River mud, and the Navy and Army Corps of Engineers spent $3 million removing about 39,000 cubic yards of sediment before tugs moved her on December 5. Pier 86 was rebuilt and the ship got new hull work and interior repairs. She returned in October 2008 and the museum reopened on November 8, after costs of $115 million to $120 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2012
Space Shuttle Enterprise goes on display in a new pavilion at the museum
The museum announced in May 2011 that it would receive the test shuttle Enterprise, and took title that December. The spacecraft was flown to JFK Airport in April 2012 and barged to the museum in June. It went on view in the Space Shuttle Pavilion on July 19, 2012. Hurricane Sandy damaged the shuttle that October, and the pavilion stayed closed until July 2013.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Intrepid MuseumWikipedia
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