(May 2007) NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Admissions up 483 percent and gift shop sales up 202 percent - these are statistics any museum would envy. The reason for these numbers is the new USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News. The totals are for the first month of operation (March 9-April 9) versus the same dates last year.

The $30 million facility opened March 9 amid great fanfare and with national media coverage. The date marked the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads between the ironclads USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) selected the Mariners' Museum in 1987 as the repository for all artifacts recovered from the wreck of the Monitor. NOAA oversees the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, located off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

This writer visited the Monitor Center on a Saturday a month after its opening to see how it was doing. One more statistic says it all. At the end of the day, Cynthia Jones at the ticket desk said they had 954 visitors that day instead of the 230 or so they would have had a year ago.

Getting ready for the opening day was quite an experience for museum workers. "The only event I can compare it to in magnitude is the recovery of the turret in 2002," said Justin Lyons, public relations director. "We literally engaged almost our entire staff and volunteers to pull off a series of world-class events, beginning with the donor gala on Thursday, March 8, and ending with an amazing fireworks show Saturday, March 10."

Wearing a variety of hats was a common task for Lyons and others. For the donor gala, he helped check guests' coats, then changed into jeans to accompany other workers placing directional signs all over the museum grounds. Two hours later he was back in his suit to hand coats back to the donors as they left the gala. It almost became an all-nighter when workers left at 1:30 a.m. only to return three hours later to prepare for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Chief curator Anna Holloway remembers how the staff became like family after working long hours together with no days off for weeks at a time. "So we looked out for each other, played pranks on each other and by the end got really punchy and silly."

Case in point: Holloway colluded with collections manager Jeanne Willoz-Egnor on the morning before the opening to place a rubber rat in the recreated cabin of the Monitor's captain after they concurred that the officers' quarters was "lacking in its rodent quotient." The rubber rat saw action previously on the Jamestown replica ship Susan Constant when both women worked there. "It seemed fitting that he would continue his career on the Monitor," Holloway added.

Visitors really like the new facility according to every staff member interviewed for this story. The response from the public has been overwhelmingly positive. Lyons said, "We consistently find people who planned on spending two hours at the museum, spend an entire day."

An interesting aspect of the Center's video presentations is how they appeal to all ages. The tale of the Monitor's sinking is told in the first room of the Center where this writer observed a packed room with adults and children alike transfixed by the dramatic tale, which ends with the Monitor's red signal lantern finally disappearing beneath the roaring waves in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

Universally acclaimed is the Battle Theater's "Ironclad Glory," a gripping 13-minute presentation about the clash of the ironclads. Almost everyone interviewed for this story mentioned it as a highlight of the Center. "I've seen a few burly men wiping their eyes during it," Holloway noted of the emotional reaction some viewers feel.

"The Battle Theater puts everything into perspective," Lyons said. "From that point on everything you've seen makes sense and it leaves you with a desire to continue on and see the rest of the story."

The visitor's experience in the Monitor Center depends on a variety of sophisticated audio-visual technology working properly. Aside from a few minor kinks, it apparently held up well in the first weeks.

Some of the surprises for the Center staff, instead, have been people's reactions to certain things. "Real people don't always interact with the exhibition space as we anticipate," remarked David Dwyer, museum vice president and executive manager of programs.

An example is how some visitors have gone backwards through certain exhibits. "Some of the audio and visual cues that we thought would elicit a specific behavioral response did not have that effect," Dwyer noted.

The Monitor Center features two video games: Age of Sail, and Design an Ironclad. Not only do kids crowd around the screens, but adults, too. This writer's wife wanted to try Age of Sail, but there were too many kids watching and waiting to play. She then saw a grandfather eagerly helping his grandson at Design an Ironclad, trying to come up with a ship design that would win approval from the finicky ironclad board members on-screen.

Some visitors were confused by the full-scale replica of the turret as it was found on the ocean bottom. It is upside down, covered with shells and other marine encrustation, and is the same rusty orange color as the original turret. The only difference is that one-third or so of the replica is missing so visitors can walk inside it.

"A lot of people were thinking that this particular thing is the real turret, where the actual is over here in the next building," said docent Eric Jeanneret.

Jeanneret, in a wheelchair wearing a Union sailor's uniform, loves his part-time work at the Center as a historical interpreter. "They let me play here - I've got a real job in Virginia Beach," he chuckled.

The museum will be kept fresh for repeat visitors in the changing exhibits area. Holloway is working on an exhibit about the CSS Alabama, featuring the ship's Second National pattern ensign - never displayed before.

Many visitors are surprised to find such a large museum in the Hampton Roads area, rather than in a large city like Washington, Atlanta or New York, according to Dwyer. "There is, of course, no better or more appropriate place for a USS Monitor Center to be in the world."

He said a quote from the Monitor's surgeon, Grenville Weeks, kept going through his mind in the months leading up to the Center opening: "So long as we are a people, so long will the Monitor be remembered and her story told to our children's children."

"We had the great privilege of fulfilling Weeks' promise by telling the stories and preserving icons for future generations," Dwyer observed.

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