Welcome to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes
Where is the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes? The Marine Museum has moved from the Kingston Dry Dock site at 55 Ontario St. to a new site at 53 Yonge St., at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, Kingston. The museum ship Alexander Henry is no longer on display.
Why did the Marine Museum move? The Marine Museum was founded in 1975. Originally located at 55 Ontario St. at the first federal dry dock on the Great Lakes, the Marine Museum closed its doors at the site when the federal government sold the property, ending the previous lease arrangement of forty years. The museum vacated the property in August 2016.
The City of Kingston generously provided free storage of the collections and office and exhibit gallery space at its building at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, beside the Kingston Marina Office. The collections have been safely placed in storage.
What’s next? The Marine Museum will remain open at the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour location and continue to maintain the collections until a new building large enough to house a new and innovative Marine Museum is found in Kingston. This will likely take several years.
In the meantime, the museum will is open with a new exhibit in a reduced gallery space and will provide community outreach programming to local schools and the Kingston community and continue to fulfill our mission. Admission to the new museum gallery is FREE!
To read more about our Strategic Vision for an exciting new museum, click here.
