Senator Collins Dedicates New Auditorium at Acadia National Park

Date: August 6, 2007
Contact: Jim McKenna, 207-288-8733

Today, Senator Susan M. Collins dedicated the John G. Moore Auditorium as part of the Schoodic Education and Research Center (SERC) at Acadia National Park.  The newly constructed auditorium is the result of a partnership among the National Park Service, State of Maine, and Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment to provide state-of-the-art meeting and teleconferencing at SERC. 

The National Park Service acquired the former navy base at Schoodic in 2002, and established SERC to promote the understanding and protection of park resources, and advance related research at the regional, national, and international levels.  Senator Collins was instrumental in securing initial funding for SERC through the Department of Defense to convert the former navy commissary to the Moore Auditorium, improve information technology, and establish Acadia Partners for Science and Learning as the National Park Service’s nonprofit partner at SERC.  Acadia Partners for Science and Learning supports research and education in the park, and manages lodging, dining, and meeting facilities at SERC.  The Moore Auditorium will provide auditorium seating for 125 people and additional meeting rooms for 85 people.     

John G. Moore was a Maine native and Wall Street financier who purchased most of the Schoodic Peninsula in the 1890s.  He constructed a road to the top of Schoodic Head, which offered spectacular views of the peninsula and nearby islands.  Moore died in 1898 shortly after its completion, but the road proved to be extremely popular with local residents who traveled to the peninsula to picnic, pick berries, or enjoy the scenery.  Moore’s heirs donated the land at Schoodic to the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations in memory of John G. Moore to be used as a public park and for other uses, including the “promotion of biological and other scientific research.”  The Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, in turn, donated the former Moore property (2,050 acres) to the National Park Service as part of Acadia National Park in 1929.