Hours & Directions
Visit us! Our museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am-5pm.
Wondering about the weather? Hudson Valley Weather has accurate, up-do-date, local weather for the entire Hudson Valley.
Wondering about the weather? Hudson Valley Weather has accurate, up-do-date, local weather for the entire Hudson Valley.
Admission
|
Adults: $9.00
Seniors (62+): $6.00 Children (18 & under): $6.00 Family Rate (2 adults & children under 18): $25.00 Children 5 years & younger: FREE Veterans & Active Duty Military w/ID: FREE HRMM Members: FREE CAMM Members: FREE |
The Museum offers discount admission days on special holidays. Discount admission is $2 off each admission level or $5 off the Family Rate. Check our calendar for special discount days.
The museum is self-guided. If you would like a guided tour, please visit our Group Tour and Education pages. |
Bank of America Museums on Us - First full weekend of every month. Present your active Bank of America, Merrill or Bank of America Private Bank (U.S. Trust) credit or debit card for one free general admission (cardholder only).
Blue Star Museum - Free admission to veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their families including National Guard and Reserve.
Library Passes - Many Hudson Valley libraries offer HRMM museum passes to their patrons. Patrons can check out a pass, show it when they arrive to the museum to enjoy free admission, then return the pass to their library. Not all libraries participate, so call or visit yours to see if passes are available.
Blue Star Museum - Free admission to veterans, active-duty military personnel, and their families including National Guard and Reserve.
Library Passes - Many Hudson Valley libraries offer HRMM museum passes to their patrons. Patrons can check out a pass, show it when they arrive to the museum to enjoy free admission, then return the pass to their library. Not all libraries participate, so call or visit yours to see if passes are available.
Accessibility
The Hudson River Maritime Museum is accessible to visitors with limited mobility. The museum store and West Gallery may be accessed via ramp on the street side of the building. In order to visit the East Gallery and Green Room, guests must exit the building through the gift shop and continue up the ramp to the back entrance. A staff member or volunteer will be happy to meet you at that door. Those walking with a cane or walker may also want to consider this route as there is a short flight of three steps from the West Gallery to the hallway that accesses the rest of the museum.
Working animal companions, when identified as such, are allowed throughout the building.
Working animal companions, when identified as such, are allowed throughout the building.
Directions
NYS Thruway (I-87) Take Exit 19. At traffic circle take the third exit for Route 587 South to the traffic light. From the right lane, take the second exit onto Broadway. Keep going straight to stay on Broadway. You will enter a residential area and go down a hill. Broadway takes a sharp left turn at a traffic light to go down to the Rondout District. Follow Broadway to the bottom of the hill. Bear left. The museum will be on your right.
Route 9W from the South (Poughkeepsie, New Paltz, Mid-Hudson Bridge) Cross bridge over Rondout Creek from Port Ewen. At the bottom of the hill turn left at the traffic light onto Garraghan Drive. At the next traffic light (Broadway) turn left, follow to the bottom of the hill. Bear left. The museum will be on your right.
Route 9W from the North (Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge) Take the first exit after the bridge. Turn left at the end of the ramp onto Rt. 32, following Rt. 32 South until it intersects with Rt. 9W (traffic lights). Turn left onto Rt. 9W South, following to the second traffic light. Turn right onto Garraghan Drive at the traffic light. At the next traffic light (Broadway) turn left, follow to the bottom of the hill. Bear left. The museum will be on your right.
Look for the grey and dark green Kingston Home Port and Education Center and the 1898 black and red steam tug Mathilda dry-docked within the museum courtyard along the Rondout Creek. The museum is the two story brick building adjacent to the courtyard and the entrance is through the museum gift shop on the street side of the building.
Look for the grey and dark green Kingston Home Port and Education Center and the 1898 black and red steam tug Mathilda dry-docked within the museum courtyard along the Rondout Creek. The museum is the two story brick building adjacent to the courtyard and the entrance is through the museum gift shop on the street side of the building.
Parking
Free parking is available in the municipal parking lot across the street or you may use the metered street parking in front of the museum. Metered parking is free after 6 pm and on Sundays.
Alternate Directions
Many wonderful festivals and special events occur on the Rondout Waterfront throughout the year, but often these events will result in the closure of Lower Broadway. To get to the museum on an alternate route, please follow the directions below.
From NYS Thruway (I-87): Take Exit 19. At the traffic circle take the third exit for Route 587 South to the second traffic circle. From the right lane, take the second exit onto Broadway. Keep going straight to stay on Broadway. Turn left onto Delaware Ave. (at Stewart's Shops), keep right to stay on Delaware Ave (do not get on 9W), Follow Delaware Ave. down the hill, then take a sharp right on to Abruyn Street. When Abruyn Street ends at East Strand Street, turn right. This is the road the museum is on. Free municipal parking is available in the lot between Ole Savannah and the Trolley Museum, in the lot across the street from the museum, and under the bridge. Metered street parking is also available, and is free after 6 pm and on Sundays and holiday Mondays.
From 9W heading north: From Port Ewen after crossing Rondout Creek, take a right at the light onto Murray Street, then turn right onto Delaware Ave and go down the hill. Take the sharp right onto Abruyn Street. When Abruyn Street ends at East Strand Street, turn right. This is the road the museum is on. Free municipal parking is available in the lot between Ole Savannah and the Trolley Museum, in the lot across the street from the museum, and under the bridge. Metered street parking is also available, and is free after 6 pm and on Sundays and holiday Mondays.
From the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge: Exit bridge for Kingston/Route 32, then turn left onto 32 South. Turn left onto 9W South, then exit at Delaware Ave. or Murray Street and follow the directions above.
From the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge: Exit bridge for Kingston/Route 32, then turn left onto 32 South. Turn left onto 9W South, then exit at Delaware Ave. or Murray Street and follow the directions above.
Historic Rondout Waterfront District
The Hudson River Maritime Museum is located on the Rondout Creek in the Rondout area of the city of Kingston, New York. Rondout was formerly a village separate from Kingston and the most important port between New York and Albany in the 19th century during the heyday of the Delaware & Hudson Canal from 1828 to 1898. Coal was brought to Rondout from Honesdale, Pennsylvania 108 miles over the D&H Canal. The coal was transferred at Island Dock on Rondout Creek into larger boats and towed down the Hudson to New York City and other ports. Coal was the fuel of choice in the steam era of the 19th century, powering everything from factories to steamboats.
Many immigrants flooded into Rondout after the opening of the D. & H. Canal to work on the canal, the coal depot, the boats, and in supporting industries. The immigrants, mostly German and Irish, quickly set up a busy community with homes, churches, schools and businesses of many kinds. Among the supporting industries was the Cornell Steamboat Company, consisting of up to 62 tugboats at one time. This large fleet towed barges of coal and many other materials on the Hudson River to New York and other ports. Eventually Cornell had a virtual monopoly of towing on the Hudson River and employed hundreds of workers on their boats and in their workshops along the Rondout Creek.
Hudson River passenger steamboats docked at Rondout and some, like the famous Mary Powell, the Queen of the Hudson, called Rondout their home. A ferry crossed the Rondout to Sleightsburg, and another left Rondout to cross the Hudson to Rhinecliff.
Prosperity continued in the Rondout area through the 1920s, but began to decline in the Depression of the 1930s. Boatbuilding of naval vessels for World War II greatly revived the Rondout area in the 1940s as three shipyards operated with large work crews.
The real decline set in during the 1950s with industries closing and businesses moving elsewhere. During the late 1960s the rundown waterfront area of Rondout was subject to the destruction of an Urban Renewal project leaving a mostly empty neighborhood.
Around 1980 a renaissance began with new businesses, including the Hudson River Maritime Museum, coming to Rondout. Slowly new homes were built in historic style and the neighborhood revitalized.
Today that renaissance continues and visitors, many on boats, come to enjoy the waterfront of our historic neighborhood. We hope you will enjoy your visit to our picturesque waterfront.
Many immigrants flooded into Rondout after the opening of the D. & H. Canal to work on the canal, the coal depot, the boats, and in supporting industries. The immigrants, mostly German and Irish, quickly set up a busy community with homes, churches, schools and businesses of many kinds. Among the supporting industries was the Cornell Steamboat Company, consisting of up to 62 tugboats at one time. This large fleet towed barges of coal and many other materials on the Hudson River to New York and other ports. Eventually Cornell had a virtual monopoly of towing on the Hudson River and employed hundreds of workers on their boats and in their workshops along the Rondout Creek.
Hudson River passenger steamboats docked at Rondout and some, like the famous Mary Powell, the Queen of the Hudson, called Rondout their home. A ferry crossed the Rondout to Sleightsburg, and another left Rondout to cross the Hudson to Rhinecliff.
Prosperity continued in the Rondout area through the 1920s, but began to decline in the Depression of the 1930s. Boatbuilding of naval vessels for World War II greatly revived the Rondout area in the 1940s as three shipyards operated with large work crews.
The real decline set in during the 1950s with industries closing and businesses moving elsewhere. During the late 1960s the rundown waterfront area of Rondout was subject to the destruction of an Urban Renewal project leaving a mostly empty neighborhood.
Around 1980 a renaissance began with new businesses, including the Hudson River Maritime Museum, coming to Rondout. Slowly new homes were built in historic style and the neighborhood revitalized.
Today that renaissance continues and visitors, many on boats, come to enjoy the waterfront of our historic neighborhood. We hope you will enjoy your visit to our picturesque waterfront.