BAR HARBOR – The Abbe Museum will open its new downtown location in late September as scheduled. However, a new exhibit detailing the lives of Wabanaki women through the ages will not be opening until early 2002 due to construction delays.

Although construction will be completed by early September, the museum’s new heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems will need several months to clear the air of gasses, fumes and particles that may remain from construction, Abbe Development Director Sharon Broom said Tuesday.

Many of the artifacts slated for the “Four Mollys: Women of the Dawn” exhibit are being borrowed from private collections and museums throughout the United States and Canada, so the museum wants to assure lenders that the new temperature- and moisture-control systems are fully operational before the fragile items are installed, according to Abbe Museum Director Diane Kopec.

The air quality is not a danger to human health, in fact, many of the materials used in the building’s construction were selected for their lack of fumes, she said.

However, the museum has guaranteed a moisture shift of only 2.5 percent from the ideal 55 percent figure, and a temperature change of only 1 F from the 70 F preferred temperature.

The systems have been turned on, but while construction continues, conditions will fluctuate, Kopec said.

Loans of sensitive artifacts are contingent on ideal conditions, so the Abbe has elected to run its environmental control systems for three full months before installing the items.

“Conservators are very conservative,” Kopec said. “We need to take the best care of these collections.”

However, two new exhibits will be installed in time for the museum’s grand opening, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 29.

The first, “Wabanaki: People of the Dawn,” will be located in the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Gallery near the new museum’s entrance. A three-dimensional timeline mounted on the wall will explore 12,000 years of American Indian culture in Maine, using photographs, illustrations, contemporary items and reproductions of more delicate pieces.

The museum will also mount a show of prints by Martin Neptune, a contemporary Penobscot photographer. The exhibit will be Neptune’s first major gallery show, although his photographs have appeared in several publications and in previous Abbe exhibits.

The grand opening celebration will also include demonstrations of Maine American Indian arts such as basketry, drumming, singing and storytelling.

The new downtown Abbe at 26 Mount Desert St. will be open year-round to complement, not replace, the circa 1928 trailside museum that will continue to operate seasonally at Sieur de Monts Spring in Acadia National Park, according to Broom.

For the past 15 months, workers have transformed an 1890s building on Mount Desert Street into the new downtown Abbe, a 17,000-square-foot facility with spaces for display, storage, education and archaeological research.

The $4.6 million project boasts several additions to the original structure, including the “Circle of the Four Directions,” a silolike tower designed to reflect the importance of the circle in American Indian cultures. The tower, which was funded by a donation from John and Ruth Overton, made in memory of his mother Joan Blair Overton, will house a ground-floor learning lab, as well as exhibit space.

For more information about the Abbe’s grand opening celebration, contact the museum by phone at 288-3519, by e-mail at abbe@midmaine.com, or visit its Web site at www.abbemuseum.org.