By Sarah Faidell

Some might say collector of the curious and circus businessman P.T. Barnum has had his fair share of bad luck. Barnum had three museums in the mid-1800s in Bridgeport, Conn. and they all burned down to the ground. The Barnum name is a central part of life in Bridgeport, and when the historic P.T. Barnum Museum on Main Street was severely damaged by a tornado in 2010, it was another stroke of bad luck for Barnum, but not the end.

Director of the museum Kathleen Maher said that initially, she believed it would be able to rebuild within a few years, but that timeframe has been extended.

“It needs millions and millions of dollars of historic preservation work and we have been working diligently to put all of the information and the reports and the schematics together so we can heal the historic building,” said Maher.

Although the original museum building is closed, the spirit of P.T. Barnum lives on, especially on April 1.

Kathleen Maher held a press conference that promised to unveil a “never before seen discovery” that would be housed at the museum. When the curtains pulled back to reveal a centaur skeleton out of mythological tales, some younger patrons questioned the coincidence of the discovery with the date on their calendars.

“I find this hard to believe, really, that something like this was discovered. Since it is April Fool’s Day it could be a phony,” said 15-year-old museum volunteer Jack Ferreira.

Hoax or authentic discovery, Maher says the whole point is getting people curious and into the museum.  Maher said events like the unveiling of the “centaur” help keep the museum relevant as it undergoes extensive renovations.

“We had about a hundred people in the museum today to look, to wonder, and to really celebrate the future of the Barnum Museum,” said Maher.

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