Visitors to the Cape Fear Museum of History & Science will notice a huge difference the moment they enter the museum's new facility at 230 Grace St.
“We’re basically doubling our exhibit space ... and we are tripling our education space," said Kate Baillon, museum director, during a media tour Thursday of the new location.
The new museum is scheduled to officially open to the public Tuesday, Aug. 18.
"This is so much bigger, so much more than our previous space, and we did a lot with our previous space. But everything has been reconceived," Baillon said.
The facility is part of Project Grace, a partnership between the private, Wilmington-based development company Cape Fear Development and New Hanover County to redevelop a county-owned block into a new museum, new main branch of the New Hanover County Public Library and potentially private residential and commercial space. The 95,000-square-foot public portion of Project Grace cost $77 million, but the finishing touches for the Grace Street museum alone, designed by architecture firm LS3P and built by Monteith Construction, cost $21.5 million of the total.
The new three-story museum includes:
- Cape Fear Stories: An interactive exhibit spanning two floors that describes the history of the people of the Lower Cape Fear;
- a 60-seat planetarium/immersive theater that will project shows on history and science, in addition to celestial objects;
- Port City Play: An area for children to play, including the two-story, lighted Live Oak Climber (pictured at right), a theater designed to be reminiscent of Thalian Hall, where they can put on their own productions, and a wall dedicated to allowing them to create their own exhibits;
- Science Matters: Hands-on exhibits and a gallery that aim to emphasize "the importance of science in understanding and changing the world," according to the museum's website;
- artifacts from basketball legend Michael Jordan, who graduated from Laney High School;
- Curious Nature: An outdoor learning gallery that highlights nature and environmental stewardship through a water-play exhibit (pictured below) and more; and
- a traveling exhibition gallery with 5,000 square feet. The first exhibit is Amazing Pollinators, a game-based survival adventure that mixes "fascinating stories with urgent messages about pollinators, the critical work they do and their importance to people and planet. It will be on view through January 2027," according to a county news release.
“We’ve really worked hard to bring history and science together," Baillon said.
Officials designed the third-floor Science Matters exhibit with the help of local experts, including those at the University of North Carolina Wilmi
ngton, GE, Corning and the Brunswick Nuclear Plant, she said.
“At our last facility, we focused mainly on the history. We didn’t have very much room for the science exhibits," Baillon said. "Here, we have added in a lot more science.”
The existing Cape Fear Museum at 814 Market St. closed at the end of 2025, but it has remained in use as a research facility, exhibition design and fabrication workshop and collections management complex, county officials have said.
The new main library branch section of the project
opened in October last year. Cape Fear Development will also be building private portions of Project Grace, which may include a mix of residential and commercial space. That development will occur on the site of the old main library on Princess Street, which is on the other side of the Project Grace block from the new museum and new library.
