Commission members decide on Hunley's new home

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Members of the state Hunley Commission decide Thursday to make North Charleston the permanent home for the Confederate submarine.

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The commission has spent about two years deciding where to build a $40 million museum to display the vessel. It voted 7-2 to locate the museum in North Charleston.

The Hunley sank with its crew of eight on Feb. 17, 1864, after sinking the Union blockade ship Housatonic off Charleston. The sub was raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab at the old Charleston Naval Base.

The panel also had considered Charleston and Mount Pleasant. But North Charleston had the edge, offering $13 million to fund a state-of-the-art museum on the banks of the Cooper River.

Since the cities made their initial bids, Mount Pleasant withdrew $7 million of the $8 million it offered to build at the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum. City officials withdrew their money last winter and publicly criticized the commission for taking so long to decide.

Charleston, which offered about $5 million, dropped plans for a solo Hunley museum on the waterfront and instead offered to display the sub in the Charleston Museum.

Charleston Sen. Glenn McConnell, chairman of the Hunley Commission, has said North Charleston's $13 million bid could be too good to pass up. He's said there was a possibility of getting federal grants for redevelopment of the old Charleston Naval Base, where North Charleston proposes building.

The state Legislature still must approve the recommendation of the commission.

--From the Friday, February 13, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle