Marco Historical Museum Adds Finishing Touches To Impressive Lobby Project

As workers complete the lobby of the Marco Island Historical Museum, Pat Rutledge and Austin Bell can’t help but beam with pride.

“We’re very excited to put the finishing touches on the whole museum,” Austin Bell said Wednesday morning of the lobby redesign. Bell is the Marco Island Historical Society’s curator of collections. “We did the three permanent exhibits, starting in 2014. Now we’re able to tie it all together with the lobby, which will serve as kind of a table of contents of what you can expect to see in the rest of the museum.”

The finalization of the lobby completes an 11-year project for MIHS CEO Pat Rutledge.

“We had our ribbon cutting in 2011,” Rutledge recalls, “but there really wasn’t anything here until Austin joined the Marco Island Historical Society. That’s when our first exhibit came to life. Austin’s done all of our exhibits. He was our first official employee. All of the galleries and the windows and doors are thanks to Austin - his participation in what the museum became."

"Functionally we wanted this space to perform better,” Bell said. "So we moved the information desk to give a little more logical flow to it. We wanted it to be more warm and inviting.”

A pioneer-era fishing skiff is the centerpiece of the lobby redesign.

“We’re able to highlight our skiff,” Bell said, “and add exhibits into the lobby as well. We’re able to tell stories that we weren’t able to tell in, say, the pioneer or modern exhibit, we’re able to tell in this new, reimagined space. The skiff is really the thing that got the ball rolling on the lobby. It’s what we designed everything around.”

Rutledge is thankful for what she calls a public-private partnership.

“Once again this is happening because of the really successful public-private partnership we have with Collier County and the community of Marco Island,” Rutledge said, motioning to the new donor wall at the lobby entrance. "Look at that wall. These are all people from Marco Island who really care about how we tell our stories. The partnership with the county is what really gave us the funding to go forward with our plan to finally finish the museum.”

Bell appreciates the continuity that working with the same vendor over the years provides.

“We’ve been really, really fortunate to work with the same company, Creative Arts Unlimited, on all of the exhibits and the lobby,” Bell said. "They’re a pleasure to work with and they do an outstanding job.”

Paul Teachout’s skiff was donated to the museum during the pandemic. Teachout was a fisherman in Goodland who left the skiff behind. The skiff was meticulously restored in-house. In addition to the skiff, a model of the famous Mississippi River paddleboat, the Rosie O’Shea, will be featured, along with an oil painting of the iconic tour boat that was a centerpiece of the island for many years. Myrt Rose donated both items to the museum.

Bell couldn’t be happier to see the museum completed in such an attractive way.

"This is kind of the bow on the whole thing,” Bell said.