Image courtesy of Portland Museum

By KERRY SMITH

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – City Museum in downtown St. Louis is serving as a model of inspiration for the Portland neighborhood, just two miles northwest of downtown Louisville.

AHOY – Adventure House of You – is a $4 million immersive children’s museum project that will break ground this summer.

Billed as a museum for children and operated by children, AHOY will feature active play, an indoor and outdoor space, paying tribute to the heritage of Louisville’s West End.

The vision for AHOY began more than seven years ago, when transplant resident Danny Seim, a father of two young children, relocated to Louisville. Seim noticed that the facade of a long-abandoned 3,000-square-foot Victorian-style house just six feet from the active Portland Museum was falling into disrepair. Rather than let the building’s face crumble, Seim decided to paint it – not knowing who owned it. He bought paint, scaled a 40-foot extension ladder and went to work.

Portland residences noticed the work, including the building’s owner, who offered to sell the structure to Seim. Seim managed to get the property ownership of the Victorian house transferred to the museum. That’s when the official seeds for a future children’s museum took root.

The project will progress in four planned phases, according to Portland Museum board members. A total of $1.3 million has already been raised to support the project, with plans to create an endowment and apply for additional grants.

AHOY will feature exhibits based on the 1937 flood, artistic renderings of culture assets of the area, Falls of the Ohio and fossils and a tribute to Mary Millicent Miller, the first female steamboat captain in the U.S.