Allison Hunt runs a museum built around two aging World War II warships, and her agency is expected to earn much of the money to keep them up.
Hunt is executive director of the Patriots Point Development Authority, the state agency that runs Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant. Its board has approved a plan to move the destroyer Laffey to a new berth on the other side of the museum’s main pier, The Post and Courier reported Oct. 27. Museum officials say the move will end a costly routine of tearing open the pier each time the ship needs to leave for repairs.
Once the Laffey is in its new berth, future moves should be considerably easier and less disruptive, Hunt said, according to the newspaper. She also said preventive work and the ship’s generally good condition should make its coming trip to the shipyard shorter and less expensive. The Laffey’s last major dry-docking, in 2009, was a $9.2 million restoration, the newspaper reported.
Paying for the ships
The Laffey’s $3.8 million, 10-year dry-docking will be paid from the agency’s capital reserve fund, The Post and Courier reported in April, when the ship closed to visitors to prepare.
“Ships require dry dock regularly, and it is Laffey’s time for a shave and a haircut, as they say in the Navy,” Hunt told the newspaper then.
She also explained how the agency pays for such work.
“The state gives us the tools to make that money, gives us the ships and the property that enables us to be able to run the business and be self-sufficient in that,” Hunt said. “That works, and is why we can use our operating funds to do this.”
The property matters. Patriots Point plans to use Patriots Annex, a 20-year, $500 million development of hotels, dining and shops that Bennett Hospitality is building around the museum, to help pay the growing maintenance bills for the Yorktown and the Laffey, The Post and Courier reported in 2025.
From fundraiser to director
The agency’s board unanimously selected Hunt as executive director on Jan. 27, 2023, with a March 1 start, according to the museum’s announcement. For five years before that, she led the USS Yorktown Foundation, the nonprofit that raises money for exhibits, scholarships and programs at the museum, and served on the museum’s leadership team.
Over her career, she has been executive director of several philanthropic organizations and held leadership roles in public-private partnerships and business development groups in North and South Carolina, the announcement said. She holds master’s degrees from the University of Georgia and Bristol University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia, and she was selected for Joint Base Charleston’s honorary commander program in 2020.
“Having been associated with Patriots Point for a number of years, Allison has a deep understanding of our mission, our museum and our real estate component,” board Vice Chairman Wayne Adams said in the announcement.
The foundation is the museum’s designated fundraising arm, Hunt told The Post and Courier in July 2025.
“All of our resources go toward staff and the maintenance and upkeep of the ships,” she said.
Fewer visitors, bigger plans
The museum draws more than 300,000 visitors a year, but attendance was down about 10% so far in 2025, The Post and Courier reported that August. The authority passed a more conservative budget in June 2025.
“Our visitor numbers softened this past year, and all indications are that this industrywide trend may continue,” Hunt said in the newspaper’s August 2025 report. “In response, we have built the budget with baseline numbers necessary to be sure our costs are covered and to guard against potential shortfalls.”
She pointed to the competition from the city’s beaches and restaurants. “But, we have to keep investing in ourselves,” she said.
The biggest investment on the drawing board is a $5 million master plan for the Yorktown. It calls for moving the ship’s entrance, reworking all three hangar bays with digital displays and a catwalk, and restructuring tour routes, the newspaper reported. The Yorktown Foundation hired Beverly Hardin as executive director last fall to lead the fundraising campaign for it.
“The ship is our largest artifact,” Hunt said in August 2025. “While other museums have to try to re-create the experience, when you’re here, you are inside the artifact, living it.”
To mark the Yorktown’s 50th year as a museum ship, Patriots Point rolled admission back to the original $2 for one day in January, The Post and Courier reported. Standard admission was $28 for visitors ages 13 to 61.
No date has been set for the Laffey’s move, which still needs dredging permits. The museum expects to close for about two weeks when the pier is opened, according to The Post and Courier.
