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Connecticut River Museum

Established	1975
Location	Essex, Connecticut, USA
Type	Maritime museum
Website	http://www.ctrivermuseum.org/

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.

The three-story Connecticut River Museum is located in a restored 1878 steamboat warehouse, which is now the only one of its type remaining on the river, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 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.

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.

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. The museum property also includes a boathouse and a research library. In December 1995, the museum was given a triangular 1-acre (4,000 m) 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. In 2011 the museum caught fire. They had to rebuild part of it.

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Middlesex County, Connecticut
• List of maritime museums in the United States

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. “Connecticut River Museum,” Frommer’s
3. ^ “Southeastern Connecticut,” Baltimore Sun
4. "NRHP nomination for Steamboat Dock Site". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-11-29.
5. “Connecticut River Museum History,” Connecticut River Museum (About Us), 1999 Archived 2007-11-29 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
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

External links

• Connecticut River Museum
• Flickr images

41°21′06″N 72°23′06″W / 41.3518°N 72.3851°W / 41.3518; -72.3851

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Lists by county	Fairfield Hartford Litchfield Middlesex New Haven New London Tolland Windham
Lists by city or town	Bridgeport Greenwich Hartford Middletown New Haven Southington Stamford West Hartford Windsor
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks
Keeper of the Register History of the National Register of Historic Places Property types Historic district Contributing property

• Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
• Georgian architecture in Connecticut
• Transport infrastructure completed in 1813
• Buildings and structures in Middlesex County, Connecticut
• Essex, Connecticut
• Museums in Middlesex County, Connecticut
• Maritime museums in Connecticut
• Science museums in Connecticut
• Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums
• National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Connecticut
• Water transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places
• Connecticut River