Schermerhorn Row, South Street Seaport Museum — Attraction in New York

The South Street Seaport Museum is an amazing cultural institution, and an absolute “must visit” attraction of Manhattan, New York.

Located in Manhattan’s South Street Historic District, the museum was founded in 1967, and does a wonderful job on preserving and showcasing the history of New York as a major world port city. It contains an impressive collection of artwork, artifacts, galleries, and a fleet of historic ships.

In August of 2024, I brought and treated my wife and myself for a visit of the South Street Seaport Museum and we both thoroughly enjoyed our time there!!!

During our tour, we learned that the South Street Seaport played an integral role on New York’s maritime activities in the 18th and 19th centuries by serving as bustling hub and trading port, and connecting New York to the global market. The museum’s numerous exhibits feature images of sailers docking their ships at the South Street seaport, unloading their cargo and trading with local businessmen and merchants. The prolific amount of trade that trade that occurred at the South Street seaport would undoubtedly transform New York to a major commercial and maritime center, and contribute to its economic development.

In addition to the exhibits, my wife and I also had the pleasure of seeing and visiting the museum’s historic vessels. We had fun exploring the “Wavetree” an iron-hulled three-masted full-rigged cargo ship that was built in England in 1885, and had successfully sailed around the globe at least three times. When visiting the Wavetree, we were able to view and takes pictures of the ship’s numerous sections ranging from the quarterdeck (where the ship’s steering wheel is located), the saloon (which likely served as the captain’s living room), and the ship’s vast cargo hold.

The highlight of our visit to the South Street Museum was our guided tour and ride on the Tugboat W.O. Decker. This ship dates back to 1930 and is considered to be New York’s last surviving wooden tugboat. Both my wife and I found this ride to be quite exhilarating because we loved the boat’s rapid sail on New York Harbor, and enjoyed the spectacular views of New York’s major attractions ranging from the One World Trade Center, the Statue Of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge. The ship’s crew also did a great job on briefly discussing the history of the Tugboat W.O. Decker, other historic vessels, and the rich and storied legacy of the New York’s maritime heritage.

Both my wife and I would love to thank the South Street Seaport Museum for providing us with a very delightful and educational experience, and highly recommended for everyone to visit and explore this outstanding...

As others have stated, this "Museum" is actually divided into a few sections. There are a few ships to tour and two actual museums all within about 2 city blocks of each other. The Wavertree is the largest of the ships and was a Cargo ship. You can walk freely there and check out the ship which was interesting but it did not have any demonstrations which would have been nice. The other ship included in the "Museum", the Ambrose, only gives guided tours at certain times, so be sure to check ahead of that schedule. There is also boats that you can take a ride on, the Schooner Pioneer costs about $30 and includes "Museum" admission. I believe the ride time is about 2 hours and sails around the island of Manhattan. The two buildings that are part of the museum are closeby on Fulton and Water streets. The first on Fulton street is more like a standard museum and although it is two floors, there isn't much in there. There is a gift shop there though. It was enough to kill about 30 mins after reading all exhibits. The second building on Water Street is the printing company. It was cool to see the old printers there and the sole staff member there was very knowledgeable and gave us a mini tour of the machines. She said that staff members regularly do demonstrations but they were short staffed that day. Overall it was nice but I felt could have been more. One good thing to note is that though adult admission is $20, all children under 9 area free. So if you plan on bringing a little one or two, it may be worth your while. Also the boat ride comes with free admission to the "Museum" which I also think is a good deal. There are a few garages in walking distance as well as some meters ($4.50 per hour). You can also snag some free street parking if you drive a bit north and...

While the South Street Seaport Museum is very small inside and everything can be read in 30 minutes (which I did,) the standout of the museum are the two ships that you can take guided tours on for free.

The whole museum was free on the day that I visited.

My husband and I went on 2/19/2022 and toured both the Wavertree and the Ambrose Guide Ships. Both ships are very different and if you could only tour one ship, go with the Wavertree.

The Ambrose is a tour of a guide ship, which is a ship that acts sort of like a lighthouse to guide ship's past low or rocky spots and into NY harbor. Before seeing the Statue of Liberty, people coming to the US would have first seen the lights of the Ambrose.

The Wavertree is a large metal cargo ships but with traditional sails as that we associate with pirate ships and Peter Pan. The hull is overwhelmingly large once you get in and many people were saying "wow!" once we climbed stairs down into the bottom of the ship.

This is a free museum but it's not appropriate for small children as it's exclusively reading based inside and the ships are not accessible for strollers or wheelchairs, and are generally not safe for kids who run around and...