Efforts to restore a First and Second World War-era battery site in Cape Breton and turn it into a war memorial park got a big boost Wednesday.

The federal government pledged nearly $400,000 for the project, buoying hopes that it will someday become a reality.

The battery has stood guard over Sydney Harbour for more than a hundred years and it was long forgotten for a while.

Wednesday, the Chapel Point battery site in Sydney Mines received $390,000 in federal funding for its restoration as part of an ambitious war memorial project.

“This is a critical milestone, the momentum that we need to get the remaining funding and get the first phase done,” said Brian Ferguson of the Atlantic Memorial Park Society. “Once we get that first phase done, we will have this project moving forward very, very aggressively.”

The Atlantic Memorial Park, as it’s being called, would be complete in five years.

The site needs a lot of work, starting with the removal of graffiti.

In the words of project proponents, they're looking to create “a seaside journey of remembrance that brings Canada’s military history home.”

Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking was on hand for the announcement.

“We’re kick-starting this restoration,” Eyking said. “So there's a lot of work to it. There's going to be rails done, a new roof. It's going to be very attractive. It's going to be good for not only the local community, but also tourism.”

The site's military involvement goes back as far as the U.S. Civil War.

It served as a battery command post during the First and Second World Wars.

“We’ll have memorials there,” said Ferguson. “We’ll have a major monument facing Vimy. We'll have a replica of Vimy's battlefield. We'll have a whole story for Canadians to be able to understand."

Efforts have been made for years to restore this historic old site, but Wednesday’s funding announcement makes it seem, to many, all that much more concrete.

“I not only think it's going to happen, with this announcement, it is going to happen,” said local historian Rannie Gillis.

Gillis says it's rare to see such old war infrastructure still standing like this.

“Heritage Canada states it’s one of the best-preserved sites on the Atlantic seaboard,” Gillis said. “So that’s quite an accomplishment.”

Perhaps an even bigger feat would be turning these crumbling ruins into a cliff-side place of remembrance.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.