What started as a model ship-building hobby for military veteran Joe Frangiosa, Jr. has turned into a full-scale occupation and the new Nautical History Gallery & Museum.

Located in the historic Dick Laub NTC Command Center, 2640 Historic Decatur Road in Arts District Liberty Station, the 800-square-foot The Nautical History Gallery and Museum is curated by Frangiosa. His exhibition showcases carefully constructed displays of realistic miniature naval ship models, as well as a collection of other naval artifacts and historic period antiques.

The gallery is a panoramic history of the U.S. Navy, its ships, and how they have evolved over time from the Revolutionary War period, through the Civil War, into the Spanish-American War, then World War I, and World War II, including the beginning of naval aviation.

It is a “working” museum, as onsite you will see model ship builder and curator Frangiosa in action working on his latest project. He has built every ship on display and is happy to share the history of each and every museum element.

“I need to create,” said Frangiosa when asked about his inspiration adding “This is a forever gig, something to leave.”

Of how his hobby successfully morphed into a museum, Frangiosa said, “America loves miniatures and modeling.”

Youth especially are “smitten” by Frangiosa’s hand-created miniature gallery figures. “Kids are just bouncing around the room like crazy,” he said. “They love the figures because they are made to railroad-model scale and it makes all the ships seem alive. I paint model railroad people to be sailors, which makes the ships come alive with hundreds of figures. The kids pick up on that and love the dollhouse miniature feel of the room. It is really a tribute to the kids. It adds a very fun and inviting ‘toyish’ feel to the whole place.”

Frangiosa joined the Navy at 19, becoming an aviation boatswains’ mate, and spent his four-year career on the U.S.S. Roosevelt. His term on the ship took him to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, Caribbean, and many other places which allowed him to visit more than 13 countries. He said he missed the Navy and wanted to go back, but it was not selecting prior sailors, so he finished his 20-year career with the U.S. Marines.

Of his “calling,” Frangiosa noted: “You can’t plan something like this.” He added he is inventing his craft as he goes. “I make my models now from photographs and drawings, which is called storyboarding. I read about them in books, then find all the different stuff you put around it (models), getting pieces like basswood from hobby stores.”

Frangiosa pointed out that one model leads to another. “Each time I make a model, it is like practice for the next one,” he said. “Every time I try to do it a little better.”

After retiring from the military, Frangiosa started “tinkering” with his ship models at home. “I was always finding artifacts, like cannonballs, in antique stores,” he said. “I would buy them and plop it next to the models. So eventually I had these really associative stories around the models themselves.”

Frangiosa started out exhibiting his ship models in a tiny rented space in a nautical history gallery in La Jolla. “I kept building in there and the space kept getting smaller and smaller,” he said.

Now, with the acquisition of his new Liberty Station museum space, Frangiosa is able to truly create his own nautical world. “I make the backdrops look like the hull of a ship, put portholes in the picture so it looks like you are on a ship looking out and seeing a view,” he said.

About 600 people have visited the Nautical History Gallery & Museum since it opened on Feb. 1. Admission is free and Frangiosa wants to keep it that way. But donations are strongly encouraged, and there is a place on the museum’s website where people can contribute.

“Right now I can’t hire staff, but if I get enough donations the museum could be open every day,” Frangiosa said concluding it is part of his mission to “give back from my military service. This is an open time capsule. Everyone is loving it and thanking me for putting this together, doing the history.”

Para más información visite https://sandiegomuseumcouncil.org/museums/nautical-history-gallery-museum/.

NAUTICAL HISTORY GALLERY & MUSEUM

Where: The Historic Dick Laub NTC Command Center, 2640 Historic Decatur Road, Building 200, Suite 108 in Arts District Liberty Station.

Contact: 619-366-2469.

Hours: Wednesdays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Mondays and Tuesdays.