Permanent Home For Tall Ship Providence Underway In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Tall Ship Providence, a replica ship that was brought to Alexandria for tours and sails, will get a permanent home on the waterfront.

The Tall Ship Providence Foundation announced that Tall Ship Providence will be permanently installed at the new Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center at Alexandria's Waterfront Park. It is expected to be open for tours in mid-June.

The heritage center is named after the late Sen. John Warner, a veteran who served as U.S. Secretary of the Navy as well as five terms as a U.S. senator in Virginia. In 2021, he died of heart failure at age 94 in Alexandria.

Tall Ship Providence is a replica of the first ship authorized to serve in the Continental Navy that was built for the 1976 American Bicentennial. It has appeared in various tall ship festivals as well as movies, including two "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. The Tall Ship Providence Foundation, founded in 2017 to restore and display the ship, brought it to Alexandria in 2019. It initially hosted events like tours and sails. In 2022, it crossed the Potomac River to spend time at DC's Wharf, according to Alexandria Times.

Now it will return to Alexandria at the Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center, which will make a floating dock and two cottages with an education center, naval history theater, ticket office and gift shop.

The permanent home for Tall Ship Providence is currently being built at marine construction company Cianbro in Baltimore. It will be floated to the permanent location at Waterfront Park in mid to late April. Waterside construction and preparations were expected to begin in early April.

Tours will be launched by the Tall Ship Providence Foundation in mid-June during the Portside in Old Town Summer Festival. The festival is scheduled for June 16 and 17 at Waterfront Park.

Once the permanent home is open, Tall Ship Providence will have historical tours, public sails, specialty sails, private charters and venue rentals.

Stay up to date with the opening at tallshipprovidence.org.