Essex Shipbuilding Museum, Essex, MA

 6/19/21

After leaving the Hammond Castle, we drove to Essex to visit the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. This is still a working yard where restorations and repairs are done, so it’s kind of an organized chaos. The inside portion of the museum is nicely done and one of the ladies in there gave us a short tour of what they have. She also suggested that we visit the school house around the corner and down the street for more shipbuilding information, tools and history.

Back in the day, 1800’s, Essex was a shipbuilding mecca. The Essex River made the location ideal for boats and ships of all sizes. The river was deep enough that a full-sized ocean-going ship could be launched floated downriver.

The inside Museum

Phil says this is old ship wood that the museum has salvaged from ships that can't be repaired and to be used in ships that can be repaired

This was once a school house, maybe even a church at one time, the little building below is the "Hearst House". It is now an extension of the Shipbuilding Museum.

The grave yard behind the school house. Someone has gone through this grave yard and cleaned all of the stones.