By Carol McCracken (Post # 489)

The Portland Harbor Museum has announced that as of June 1, it closed its Congress Street exhibit hall for good. This move comes as a part of merger plans between “PHM” and the Maine Maritime Museum, “MMM”, Bath.

In a letter to members, dated May 28, PHM Director Mark R. Thompson, indicated this merger and the closing of the Portland Museum were necessary to “ensure that its core mission – the preservation and dissemination of Portland Harbor history -would survive the economic downturn.”

Thompson will remain employed by MMM as its regional director for southern Maine. He will be able to devote himself to the task of scheduling programming in and around Portland. “Our outreach to schools in southern Maine will increase. We will offer a regular series of lectures, walking tours and excursions….we intend to place exhibits at different locations throughout the commnity – a ‘museum without walls'”, the letter said.

Prior to its move to Congress Street, PHM was located in the Cannon Repair Shop, at Spring Point on the SMCC campus in So. Portland. (Formerly, SMTC campus.) Thompson could not be reached for comment.