Corpus Christi, TX

Corpus Christi's waterfront includes a museum whose arrival required a sustained local campaign. The aircraft carrier USS Lexington reached Ingleside in January 1992 before being formally transferred by the Navy in June and moved to North Beach later that month. It opened to visitors in October and was dedicated on 14 November 1992. The transformation of a naval vessel into a public museum gave the city a new way to present maritime and military history. The ship's spaces and exhibitions place that history within an actual working structure, making the vessel itself the principal object through which visitors encounter the past.