The Center celebrates Gloucester's historic relationship with the sea. Here you can watch a boatbuilder shape a traditional wooden dory, handle seastars and sea urchins in our touch tanks, sound a vintage foghorn, learn about life aboard a schooner 100 years ago, and watch underwater footage of the fabulous creatures that inhabit the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary just three miles offshore.

Located at the heart of the city's working waterfront, we offer the most extensive public access to Gloucester's industrial harbor. From the Main Pier, enjoy panoramic views of Ten Pound Island, Rocky Neck, and the State Fish Pier, as well as an ever changing parade of draggers, trawlers, tugboats and pleasure boats departing from and returning to the inner harbor.

We launch our 2010 season on Saturday, May 22nd and will remain open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm through October. Admission is $5/adults. $2/children, with a maximum charge of $10 per family.

Gorton's Seafoods Gallery. “Fitting Out,” the first exhibit installed in the new 2nd story gallery overlooking Gloucester Harbor, focuses on the shoreside industries that supported the local fishing fleet at the dawn of the 20th century when over 80 businesses operated in the Harbor Loop neighborhood: sail lofts, spar sheds, icehouses, chandleries, cooperages, blacksmith shops, a foghorn manufacturer and more. Chart your course to the Grand Banks. Try your hand at rope making. Experiment with the interactive marine railway model. Watch vintage film footage of fishing schooners at sea.

Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Exhibit.You don’t have to get wet or board a boat to explore New England's only marine sanctuary. This new exhibit at GMHC offers a virtual window into the 842-square-mile stretch of open ocean and seafloor which includes more than one hundred shipwrecks. The exhibit uses state-of-the-art technology, including video monitors, touch screen computers, and an illuminated 3-D model, to explore the different aspects of the sanctuary with an emphasis on the creatures who live there and the shipwrecks that lie on the seafloor. Here you’ll become familiar with discovering the secrets hidden far beneath the ocean’s surface.

Sea Pocket Lab. This outdoor aquarium/marine display features exhibits focusing on the plants and animals that populate Cape Ann coastal habitats. It also includes rocky shore and sandy shore tanks, a lobster tank, a clam flat, and several touch tanks where visitors can handle sea creatures.

Sarah Fraser Robbins Marine Education Center.This facility features six Lexcam digital microscope assemblies, each wired to its own computer terminal with flat screen. Students who participate in GMHC's marine science education programs are introduced to live organisms invisible to the naked eye (which they collect in local waters), projected on 17” monitors. They might watch a sea anemone sting its prey or observe the development that takes place within a fish egg. In the course of their investigations, they will develop their data collection, analytical, and presentation proficiencies. The new science lab accommodates 12 students at a time; the adjoining auditorium provides additional classroom space, enabling instructors to divide students into small groups

Dive Exhibit. Diver Paul Harling's collection features equipment ranging from the homemade rig he used when he made his first dive in 1949 to contemporary helmets produced by Morse Diving, the oldest manufacturer of diving equipment. Stop by to see Paul's newest acquisition, a gleaming Helium Hat manufacted by Morse in 2004. Weighing in at 120 lbs., this innovation was first used to salvage the submarine Squalas, which sank 15 miles offshore from Cape Ann on her maiden voyage, May 23, 1939. This type of diving gear was the first to use mixed gas (helium and oxygen), which is still in use today.

Siren Song. Known as a pilot gig, this 28 foot long fixed seat single oar wooden rowing craft was built in the 1980's by local boatbuilder Larry Dalhmer. It is rowed by members of the Gloucester Gig Rowers and often used in the Heritage Center's youth programs. Her construction was commissioned by a group of women who wanted to establish gig rowing in Gloucester. Siren Song's design is based on a Cornish Pilot gig, but has some differences: She is built of plywood, with an oak keel and flat, mahogany gunwales. She is 29 feet long, rather than 32 feet.

Burnham Brothers Marine Railway. Built in 1847, this is the oldest continuously operating marine railway in the country. An interpretive display explaining how the railway hauls vessels up to 350 tons out of the water for repair and maintenance is located on the observation deck, which affords excellent views of the work taking place.

Boathouse.Up until 2000, ice for the fishing industry was manufactured and stored in this cavernous building. Today it used for the maintenance, restoration and construction of wooden boats. GMHC boatbuilding classes are taught in the boathouse.

Mill Building. The mill building houses the machinery that runs the Burnham Brothers Railway, the oldest continually operating marine railway in the country and GMHC's major source of operating revenue. The mill building is a beautiful 19th century brick structure of historical significance.  The basement houses the machinery that operates the railway. The street level floor houses the Dory Shop and connects to the observation deck, where visitors can watch the work taking place on the railway below.

Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center

23 Harbor Loop

Gloucester, MA 01930

978-281-0470

 

http://www.gloucestermaritimecenter.org/