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The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe a week after the...

The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe a week after the devastating November 2023 fire. The grant is a step toward raising $24 million needed to develop the museum and rebuild, the museum's executive director said. Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas

Plans to build a Shoreham museum honoring the life and work of legendary inventor Nikola Tesla received "a major shot in the arm" when state parks officials announced a $500,000 grant for the project, a museum official said Thursday.

The grant, announced Dec. 23 by the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, helps the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe get that much closer to raising the $24 million it needs to develop the museum and rebuild after a November 2023 fire destroyed the inventor's 1901 laboratory, museum executive director Marc Alessi said.

The science center had raised $14 million, almost two-thirds of what's needed to fund the project, from public grants and private donations before the state grant was announced, he said.

“A grant like this is a major shot in the arm for us," Alessi said in a phone interview. "It helps reinvigorate the efforts and it helps bring attention to what we’re doing.”

Plans to restore Tesla's lab, where the Serbian American pioneer of alternating current worked for several years in the early 1900s, already were well underway before the fire, which gutted the 10,000-square-foot brick structure. The fire damaged the building's roof, chimney and domelike cupola, causing estimated damages of more than $3 million, Newsday has previously reported.

The fire's cause is "undetermined," Brookhaven Chief Fire Marshal Christopher Mehrman said Thursday in an email, adding he "cannot rule out contractors utilizing torches for hot work,” such as cutting and welding too close to combustible material.

The fire halted construction that had begun months earlier, and an insurance dispute delayed resumption of the work, Newsday previously reported. The Tesla center subsequently received $40,000 from its insurance carrier and remains in litigation with the contractor's insurance carrier, Alessi said. 

Plans for the science center include a $4.5 million visitors center, the museum, science labs and a business incubator.

In Shoreham, Tesla built a 187-foot-tall tower in an early experiment with wireless communication. He was forced to abandon the lab when investors pulled out, and the tower was demolished in 1917, according to the Tesla museum website.

The state parks and recreation office said in a statement that the Tesla grant would help "to enhance the site as a premier educational and cultural destination. The restoration includes structural repairs, roof reconstruction and exterior restoration to protect and celebrate this iconic landmark."

Alessi said the state grant matches an earlier $500,000 grant from the National Park Service. That leaves Tesla officials several million dollars short before they can resume construction, he added.

“This half a million helps chip away at that, but besides the fact that it’s very helpful, a grant like this is not easy to get,” he said. “We have been trying to get back into construction mode throughout 2024.”

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