Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, NY

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School and Group Tours are available other times by appointment. We welcome camps, school groups, tourist groups, bike and bus tours and others by appointment. Cost is $7/person for an hour-long visit. For schools, we offer a curriculum on the rescue of the barge by a clown and juggler and how goods were transported prior to today’s bridges and tunnels.

Visitors can also learn about our harbor geography, rise and fall of the tides, guess the color of the water and more. The visit ends with a juggling performance by Showboat Captain David Sharps.

Our youngest visitors are our biggest fans. Our favorite quote:

"How do you keep up with yourself? You must be very tired" Hugh, Peter and Mary (4-18-2000).

Welcome to the Waterfront Museum. Our mission is to provide waterfront access, and promote historic preservation. We foster an understanding of the NY Harbor as a waterway carrying commerce and commuters as well as a means for culture and recreation. The Museum shares these common goals with other ship-oriented, educational movements. Come aboard! This fall we complement our tours of the museum along with tales of our recently completed voyages this summer. We encourage early reservations to ensure we can accommodate your group as our museum is becoming a favorite among School, Camp & Senior Group Museum Tours continue year round. We ask that you consider becoming a sponsor and DONATE to our historic preservation efforts. To donate by mailing a check, download and print our latest newsletter. The next time you happen to be in Red Hook during our Open Hours, be sure to stop by as simply vising the historic floating barge museum supports our goal to preserve maritime heritage. The Museum is constantly collaborating and making great contributions to maritime history and the Red Hook neighborhood. Tug & Barge tours in 2009 & 2010 have traveled to ten ports of call and have attracted over 18,000 visitors visit to the historic vessels. Town docks in Hoboken, Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 6, Manhattan’s Hudson River Park Pier 84, Poughkeepsie, Hudson, Cold Spring, Kingston and Waterford's Tugboat Round-up bustled with barge tours, tug trips, showboat performances, contradances, lectures, discussions, recycled objects art workshops, music and theatre. The museum supports 1) creating and maintaining docking facilities for historic/educational vessels along the shores of our water highways and 2) develop a network of traveling tugs, barges, fireboats, sloops and other floating stages that will serve to raise the public's awareness of the history and ongoing daily significance of water highways to our lives today. Send us your e-mail to receive museum updates: School and Group Tours are available other times by appointment. We welcome camps, school groups, tourist groups, bike and bus tours and others by appointment. Cost is $7/person for an hour-long visit. For schools, we offer a curriculum on the rescue of the barge by a clown and juggler and how goods were transported prior to today’s bridges and tunnels. Visitors can also learn about our harbor geography, rise and fall of the tides, guess the color of the water and more. The visit ends with a juggling performance by Showboat Captain David Sharps. Our youngest visitors are our biggest fans. Our favorite quote: "How do you keep up with yourself? You must be very tired" Hugh, Peter and Mary (4-18-2000).		Movie by PS 10's Ms. Cyphers' fourth grade class.
Visit the barge during our Open Hours for Free Boat Tours on Thursdays 4-8pm and Saturdays 1-5pm or by appointment for groups. Our permanent collection includes a 97 year old wooden covered barge and a visit aboard to see the bells and gongs for tugboat communicating, rope cannon, showboat captain’s attire, the ever-popular ball machine by George Rhoades, and much more. During the summer of 2002, the museum completed a critical Drydock Project to repair the last surviving railroad barge and protect it from further damage from wood-eating shipworms.
We ask that you consider becoming a sponsor and contribute to this preservation project. [ Click Here ] for project details. We invite you to contact us for information about our education programs or visit our links of resources. The Municipal Arts Society of New York awarded the Waterfront Museum its 2003 Certificate of Merit for the work we have done to make life better in NYC. The United Nations designated the Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge #79 the “Regional Craft of the Year of the Oceans ’98” for its efforts in opening up access to waterfronts for the general public within the NY Harbor. Since 1994, the Waterfront Museum has docked at off Conover Street in Red Hook. Special thanks to Greg O'Connell and Kings Harbor View Associates for creating a this wonderful walkway and garden and for offering the Museum a long term homeport for our programs and operations. The Museum is especially grateful to Red Hook's John Quadrozzi, Jr. of Gowanus Industrial Park, Inc. for offering us temporary dock space in the Gowanus Bay from 2002-2005 while we built our current facility. We accept contributions and reservations by credit card, Website Sponsored by