Molly Kool's childhood home being rebuilt

The childhood home of Molly Kool is being rebuilt near the entrance to Fundy National Park as a way to honour North America's first female seafaring captain and draw attention to Alma, N.B.

Kool, a native of Alma who diedin February 2009 at age 93 in Bangor, Me., was born in Alma.The fishingvillageison the Fundy shore in southern New Brunswick and is home to roughly 300 people.

The project is designed both to honourKool and attract visitors drawn to her pioneering spirit.

Ken Kelly, president of the Fundy Beautification and Historical Society, said the organization thought preserving Kool's childhood home was the right thing to do.

"There's going to be a museum aspect to this but there's also going to be an attraction side of this," Kelly said.

"It will be a major attraction to the area. It will complement the Fundy Trail. It will complement the park. It will be a major attraction for people to come to."

The house is believed to have been built in the 1850s and was disassembled last November.

The work of putting it back together on a new foundation began on Tuesday near the western entrance to Fundy National Park.

Dan Reagan is leading the team reassembling beams and posts from the house.

The process of putting back together such an old home has proved challenging for the project team.

Reagan said part of Kool's house was held together by hand-made pegs, which were an odd size. So he said all of the pegs had to be redrilled so they would be a consistent size.

Daughter of sea captain

Kool, whose father was a Dutch sea captain, earned her master mariner's certificate from the Merchant Marine Institute in Yarmouth, N.S., in 1939.

'She was a woman who plowed the way for other women to enter into various occupations which were thought as being only masculine.' Mary Majka, president, Albert County Heritage Trust

That accomplishment made Kool the first licensed female sea captain in North America and only the second woman to do that job in the world.

Kool spent five years as a sea captain before moving to Maine and getting married.

Last July, Kool's ashes were taken out in a lobster fishing boat and scattered just a few nautical miles off the coast of Alma.

'Our hero'

Mary Majka, president of the Albert County Heritage Trust, initiatedthe project of rebuilding Kool's house.

Majka said Kool was hailed as a hero during her lifetime.

"Later on, she was sort of forgotten in a way. So what we hope to do isrevive the memory of that very courageous and very special woman," Majka said.

"We call her our hero."

The building will eventually be turned into a tourist and heritage attraction called The Captain Molly Kool Heritage Centre. It's slated to open next July.

The reconstruction project is expected to take until October. Majka said she hopes all the artifacts and furnishings will be in place for an official opening next summer so Kool will be properly remembered.

"She was a woman who plowed the way for other women to enter into various occupations which were thought as being only masculine," Majka said.