Connecticut River Museum

Connecticut River Museum
Established 1975
Location Essex, Connecticut, USA
Type Maritime museum
Website http://www.ctrivermuseum.org/
Steamboat Dock Site
Location Main Street, Essex, Connecticut
Area 0.8 acres (0.32 ha)
Built 1813
Architectural style Georgian
NRHP Reference # 82003768[1]
Added to NRHP April 1, 1982

The Connecticut River Museum is a U.S. educational and cultural institution based at Steamboat Dock in Essex, Connecticut that focuses on the marine environment and maritime heritage of the Connecticut River Valley.[2]

The three-story Connecticut River Museum is located in a restored 1878 steamboat warehouse,[3] which is now the only one of its type remaining on the river, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[4] The museum opened to the public in 1975, with Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso as its first paid member and ex officio patron. The core of its collection came from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, which provided the museum with a loan of nautical artwork, navigation equipment and maritime-related artifacts.[5]

Replica of the Turtle

The museum's main and third levels offer changing exhibits, while its second level is home to a permanent exhibition on shipbuilding, which includes historical maps and models of steamboats and exhibits on the piscine species in the Connecticut River.[6]

The museum's collection also includes a full-scale replica of Turtle, the first American submarine, which was constructed in Essex in 1776 for use against the British in the American Revolution.[3] The museum property also includes a boathouse and a research library. In December 1995, the museum was given a triangular 1-acre (4,000 m2) waterfront property, valued at US$910,000, in the neighboring village of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, by Bill and Victoria Winterer, who were among the museums co-founders. The property is used as a waterfront park managed by the museum.[7] In 2011 the museum caught fire. They had to rebuild part of it.

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ “Connecticut River Museum,” Frommer’s
  3. 1 2 “Southeastern Connecticut,” Baltimore Sun
  4. ↑ "NRHP nomination for Steamboat Dock Site" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
  5. ↑ “Connecticut River Museum History,” Connecticut River Museum (About Us), 1999
  6. ↑ “A River Teeming With History And Wildlife,” Hartford Courant, August 19, 2004
  7. ↑ “Old Saybrook Property Donated to Essex Museum,” Hartford Courant, December 29, 1995
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Coordinates: 41°21′06″N 72°23′06″W / 41.3518°N 72.3851°W / 41.3518; -72.3851

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