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Harbor History Museum officially launches its Maritime Gallery

Posted on April 26th, 2025 By: Vince Dice

Some 100 years after it was launched, the historic purse seiner Shenandoah officially settled into its forever home on Saturday.

Harbor History Museum hosted a grand opening of its new Maritime Gallery, home to the Shenandoah, the Thunderbird Hull No. 1 and a host of other vessels connected to Gig Harbor’s history as a center of fishing and boating.

The gallery opening was the culmination of a quarter-century of effort, planning and fundraising that began when Tony Janovich donated Shenandoah to the museum in 2000.

The doors to the Maritime Gallery at Harbor History Museum officially opened on Saturday, April 26. Photo by Vince Dice

‘This mess’

Shenandoah has been at its current location since 2008, which was before the museum building even opened in 2010. The 65-foot fishing boat sat exposed to the weather until the museum began enclosing the gallery in 2023.

The boat wasn’t in great shape when it arrived at the museum site. It got worse.

Museum board member Dennis Hardman told the crowd assembled for the grand opening that former congressman Norm Dicks toured the museum not long after it opened. When Dicks saw the Shenandoah, he asked his tour guide, “What’re you gonna do with this mess?” Hardman remembered.

Shipwright Riley Hall speaks to someone inside the Shenandoah during the grand opening of the Harbor History Museum’s Maritime Gallery on April 26, 2025. Photo by Vince Dice

The museum restored the boat to its former glory, most recently under the leadership of Executive Director Stephanie Lyle and shipwright Riley Hall. The Shenandoah now bears little resemblance to the mess Dicks toured, or to the in-progress restoration project Gig Harbor Now wrote about in 2023.

Centennial of launch

The museum timed the gallery opening to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Shenandoah’s launch at Skansie Shipyard — just up the road from the current museum location — in 1925. Nobody knows exactly when Shenandoah launched, but researchers are pretty sure it was in April 1925. The museum long ago planned to open the gallery on the centennial of Shenandoah’s launch.

“Not everything is done” at the gallery, Lile said. “Not because we’re not on top of it, but because we want you to come back.”

Descendants of the fishermen who operated Shenandoah — the Janovich and Bez families — helped Lile and Gig Harbor Mayor Mary Barber cut the ribbon the new gallery.

“This gallery is a wonderful addition to the museum but even more so to the city itself,” Barber said. “The museum has always drawn visitors to our city and this new gallery will draw even more.”

Stephanie Lile, members of the Janovich and Bez families and Gig Harbor Mayor Mary Barber cut a ribbon outside the Maritime Gallery of Harbor History Museum on April 26, 2025.