The Spot: Dive into Maritime Heritage at the East End Seaport Museum
Neighboring the North Ferry to Shelter Island in the historic village of Greenport is a small, seaside brick building with a blue sign that reads “East End Seaport Museum.”
Perhaps you’ve noticed it, or maybe you’ve wandered inside for a brief moment — relief from the summer heat, but spending time exploring the rich, maritime heritage found within its walls is the real only way to go, especially with children.
Meet the newest edition of The Spot: The East End Seaport Museum.
Once home to the Greenport Long Island Railroad Station, this one-room museum, adorned with a catwalk second floor and a small (yet delightful) children’s room, displays countless exhibits that tell the story of the East End’s maritime history.
Each time I’ve visited this museum with my own children we’ve spent hours exploring every nook often going back to each display, replica, and artifact for a second and third look.
Our most recent visit was no different. We learned about Long Beach Bar Lighthouse, known locally as “Bug Light,” talked in depth about shipbuilding, got up close with a working lighthouse light, and dove deep into a conversation about sharks with the museum’s current exhibit, “All About Sharks.”
We all asked questions and searched for answers, many of which we found detailed on the walls of the museum in interesting and digestible formats.
In the children’s room, we built nautical flags for each of our names, played an ocean animal version of “What am I ?”, explored natural and manmade sea treasures, and spent over an hour digging in the museum’s augmented reality sand table. (Although the sandbox was not up and running during this particular visit, we’ve been able to this incredible educational tool during past visits learning about erosion, rising sea levels, tides, and navigation.) And, there was no way we were leaving the room without a spin on the captain’s wheel!
We capped our visit by learning about and interacting with fish in the museum’s 850-gallon aquarium — some of the fish following my children’s fingers as they traced the tank.
The museum staff was pleasant and warm and quickly engaged with my children asking them questions about some of the sea life we were discovering as well as simply playing alongside them.
While there is no fee to explore the museum, we gladly left a donation on our way out to thank the Marine Foundation for making this seaside museum possible. Every family living on, or visiting Long Island’s East End should experience this spot.
The East End Seaport Museum is currently open Wednesday through Monday from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. For more information, visit eastendseaport.org. https://www.eastendseaport.org/