Steamboat Era Museum

Name: Steamboat Era Museum
Address: 156 King Carter Drive, Irvington, VA, 22480, US
Telephone: +18044386888
Price range: $
Rating: 4.5

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Irvington, VA
Steamboat Era Museum

Located in historic Irvington, VA
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To preserve and celebrate the Chesapeake Bay's steamboat heritage by showcasing authentic artifacts and engaging stories illuminating how these vessels transformed commerce, community, and daily life during America's golden age of steam navigation.

09/03/2026

Wharf Wednesday 9/2/2026 Urbanna – Steamboat Wharf

The town of Urbanna is located on the left bank of Urbanna Creek just above its mouth. The Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) in 1910 reported about 400 residents. Today there are about 510. At the time of the ACE inspection, there were 11 wharves! Webbs and Marsten’s Wharves were used as small boat landings. Smith’s was a pile structure in poor condition with a warehouse and oyster house but it wasn’t used as a shipping point when reviewed by the ACE.

Randolph Highland Wharf was owned by the Urbanna Manufacturing Company and was in fair condition. The wharf had a warehouse almost as large as the wharf itself. The pier even had a good steel industrial track, but the wharf wasn’t in use. Larry S. Chowning’s book Image of America Urbanna noted that Urbanna Manufacturing opened in 1901 and closed in 1912. The building became the Urbanna Beach Hotel.

The irregularly shaped steamboat wharf was 226’ in length and in good condition. It had two frame warehouses and a small jib crane. Steamers docked six times a week and delivered or picked up 25 passengers. Besides people, the steamers brought in 45 tons per week of merchandise, groceries, fertilizer and hay. Weekly outgoing freight averaged 35 heads of stock, 50 coops of fowl,100 crates of eggs and 300 pieces of miscellaneous items.

Mr. C.S. Burton owned and operated the steamboat wharf and owned about 300’ of waterfront. The wharf was open to all vessels. The wharf’s length of 226’ allowed steamers over 200’ long (MIDDLESEX, LANCASTER, and RICHMOND) to dock. Steamers at the wharf are: POTOMAC, ANNE ARUNDEL, and LEXINGTON.

08/31/2026

Sunday on a Steamboat 8/30/2026 JOPPA

In 1885, Harlan & Hollingsworth in Wilmington, DE, built the steamer JOPPA for the Maryland Steamboat Company. She was 190’ long, 30.5’ beam and 8.5’ depth of hold with an iron hull and a sidewheel. Her interior décor, including the fifty-seven staterooms, used mahogany, French oak veneers and bird’s eye maple. A newspaper of the time said, “In place of old time stained glass skylights…has white ground glass beautifully tipped in ruby.” And she had electric lights.

For most of her Chesapeake Bay career, JOPPA ran on the Choptank River, stopping at 18 wharves. In the 1880s and early 1890s, the Choptank Steamboat Company had steamer CAMBRIDGE on the river, and of course, JOPPA and CAMBRIDGE frequently raced.

JOPPA also carried excursionists to the amusement parks Bay Ridge and Ocean City and was used as an additional freighter during the fruit and oyster season. In 1885, she hauled 4,000 boxes of peaches and on another run, 3,500 boxes.

In June of 1885, JOPPA was involved in a fatal accident. The 120’ long steam yacht Gleam was returning to Baltimore from Annapolis, and off Seven Foot Knoll, Gleam was run down by JOPPA and almost cut in two. Four passengers and the captain and crew were rescued by steamer SUE and taken to Baltimore. Unfortunately, the owner of Gleam, Mr. T. Harrison Garrett, drowned. When the Gleam was struck, he grabbed the bow chain of the JOPPA but fell overboard.

JOPPA was included in the sale of the Maryland Steamboat Company to the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic Railroad Company (BC&A) on 20 October 1894. BC&A moved JOPPA from the Choptank to the Wicomico River. Bankrupt in 1923, the BC&A became part of the Baltimore and Virginia Railroad (B&V). They dropped the Wicomico River route in 1929 and JOPPA was laid up then sold in 1930 when she became a diesel-powered freighter.

08/27/2026

Wharf Wednesday 8/26/2026 Robinsons, Glebe, Pitts & County (Urbanna Creek)

The Army Corp of Engineers’ (ACE)report on Urbanna, which they spelled “Urbana,” Creek noted the creek was 4¾ miles long and entered the Rappahannock River, about 18 miles from the Chesapeake Bay. The creek was difficult to navigate because of a sharp bend and a spit of land with a shoal extending into the channel.

Above the town of Urbanna were three landings. Robinsons Landing was about 1½ miles up the creek on the right bank. Heading towards Urbanna was Glebe Landing and then Pitts Landing. The County Landing was just above the Urbanna Bridge. Mrs. E.A. Chowning owned Glebe and rented it to Mr. R.A. Carlton; the owners of the other landings weren’t noted. The landings were open to all vessels.

None of the four landings had incoming freight. The ACE only reported on Glebe Landing having 24 dockages in a year. The landings shipped out a total of 2,700 railroad ties, 958 cords of wood, 200 piles, and 2,525,000 board feet of lumber. All loading was done by hand and an unimproved wagon road led to Urbanna. The nearest railroad was West Point, 18 miles away.

The County Landing did not charge wharfage rates, but the others charged 8 or 10 cents per cord, 10 cents per 1,000 feet of lumber and 1 cent per tie. 10 cents are $3.50 in today’s money.

08/25/2026

The Robison Family are opening their historic home at beautiful Lawson Bay Farm for all of us this year at Boots and Barbecue. 🏡

The rich history of Lawson Bay Farm will be a main feature of this year's event thanks to tours of the expanded colonial home and a demonstration by the Steamboat Era Museum on the life of Captain Hansford Bayton, a successful African American businessman and steamboat captain who once owned the property.

To read more about the history of Lawson Bay Farm visit our website: https://nnconserve.org/2026/08/24/look-back-in-time-at-lawson-bay-farm-and-look-forward-to-boots-and-barbecue/

Sign up for our e-newsletter 'Ear to the Ground' for more like this delivered to your inbox: https://nnconserve.org/news/subscribe/

08/24/2026

As the 15th Irvington Crab Festival approaches, we are happy to announce an inaugural beer truck sponsor!

Bragg & Company are steadfast supporters of the museum, from our 2nd Saturday Speaker Series to speaking engagements on Bay FM radio. We deeply appreciate their commitment to the community and the Steamboat Era Museum’s educational mission.

Tickets for the Irvington Crab Festival are going quick, so get yours today: steamboateramuseum.org/events/crab-festival/

08/24/2026

Sunday on a Steamboat 8/23/2026 A Tale of Two AVALONs

The Maryland Steamboat Company, in 1882, had the steamer AVALON built at Harlan & Hollingsworth in Wilmington, DE, for a cost of $100,000 ($3,273,700 today). The iron-hulled steamer was 190’ long, 30.5’ beam, a depth of hold 8.5’ and had a 22’ diameter sidewheels. The cylinder was 40” in diameter with a 10’ stroke. She carried 225 passengers, and it was advertised as having four water-tight bulkheads for safety.

AVALON left Baltimore on Tuesday and Friday at 5PM for the Piankatank and Great Wicomico Rivers and Dividing and Dymer’s Creeks. She also ran excursions to Ocean City by carrying passengers to Salisbury where they met the train to Ocean City. AVALON carried a variety of freight – fish oil, wheat, hogshead of to***co, vegetables of all kinds, especially peaches, and livestock.

Even with an iron hull, AVALON’s superstructure was wood and on September 4, 1887, she caught fire at Freeport Landing, the last wharf on the Piankatank River. It was thought a spark from the smokestack ignited the upper deck. The loss was estimated at $90,000 but insurance was only $60,000. Her iron hull was salvaged and converted into a coal barge.

Immediately the next year, the Maryland Steamboat Company contracted with Harlan & Hollingsworth for…AVALON. She was the same size and construction as AVALON 1882. She also ran the same Piankatank River route from 1888 to 1894, when she was sold to the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway (BC&A). In 1928, when the BC&A went bankrupt, AVALON 1888 was sold to the Baltimore and Virginia Steamboat Company. In 1929, she was purchased by George W. Brown, the owner of Brown’s Grove, a Black park, and reconditioned as an excursion steamer. The final sale, in bankruptcy, to the Federal Hill Steamboat Company in 1937 and converted to a barge in 1940.

08/19/2026

Wharf Wednesday 8/19/2026 Wharton’s and Ocran on Dymers Creek

Wharton’s was about 1.25 miles above the mouth of Dymers Creek and was owned by Wharton Fisheries. The wharf was in good condition with a small jib crane for lifting coal and a fish bucket conveyor. 12 fishing vessels docked a week and delivered 3,557 bushels of raw fish, 31 tons of coal and one barrel of oil. Outgoing freight was 29 tons of fish scrap (guano) and 15 barrels of fish oil.

Ocran was much larger, with four wharves, all owned by Bellows & Squires, Inc., one of the principal fish scrap processing plants in the Northern Neck (there were a total of 12). The busiest was the fish wharf, which had 18 vessels dock weekly. It was in fair condition and was lit by acetylene gas. It had three fish-bucket conveyors that raised the fish from the vessels' holds and dumped them into tanks in the factory building. In a week, the vessels delivered 13,946 bushels of fish. Outgoing shipments were 96 tons of fish scrap and 135 barrels of oil.

Fishing steamer Joseph F. Bellows (SP-323), built in 1912 by E. J. Tull, Pocomoke City, MD, was acquired by the Navy from Bellows and Squires, Inc., in May 1917. She was outfitted as an armed minesweeper, assigned to the Virginia coast. Post-war, she served as a tender and supply ship until sold in 1919. Richard Covington’s book Northern Neck Fishing Steamers Go to War covers this and other fishing steamers and the impact of WWI on the industry. https://shop.steamboateramuseum.org/northern-neck-fishing-steamers-go-to-war-hard-cove.html

The steamboat wharf was in good condition with a small oyster derrick and a warehouse. Five weekly dockages delivered $673 in hardware and general merchandise ($23,168 today). Fish, oysters, farm produce, and berries worth $308 ($10,603 today) were shipped out weekly. Only seven passengers arrived or departed. The yearly gross income of this wharf was $800 ($27,540 today), and it was open to all carriers.

08/17/2026

🎵We are happy to announce that Jumbo Lump Daddy & the Backfin Boys will be back by popular demand at the 2026 Irvington Crab Festival🎵!

Come enjoy live music, plenty of crabs, community (and beer!) on September 19. Your ticket purchase supports the Steamboat Era Museum's educational mission and community programming.

Get your tickets today: steamboateramuseum.org/events/crab-festival/

08/16/2026

Sunday NOT on a Steamboat 8/16/2026 Baltimore’s Steamboat Strike

Steamboats were the life blood of the Chesapeake Bay and her river front communities. What would happen if there weren’t steamboats on the Bay? Well, in 1906, all these towns and villages found out.

In 1890, monthly wages were captains $100 - $3,670 today; engineers $80 - $2,936 today; pursers $50 - $1,835 today; deckhands $18 - $660 today; and waiters $12 - $440 today.

The captains and officers of the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic Railway Company and the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia Railway Company belonged to the union Masters, Mates and Pilots, Rescue Harbor #14. On June 29, 1906, union representatives presented a new wage scale to Mr. Willard Thomson, an official of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the parent company of the two steamboat lines. He refused to recognize the committee. The same union representatives again presented the proposal to him on September 16. A group of captains and mates even tendered their resignations, but Thomson refused to accept the resignations.

On October 2, steamers B.S. FORD, ENOCH PRATT, ANNE ARUNDEL and POCOMOKE didn’t leave Baltimore at their scheduled time. This was a Monday, and by Friday, the steamers that were out on their runs when the strike began, had returned to Baltimore and remained there. More than 20 steamboats stayed.

This was during the winter wheat seeding time, but fertilizer wasn’t delivered. Villages and towns began to run out of groceries. Perishable farm products and seafood remained on country wharves and spoiled. Regardless of the difficulties in obtaining supplies, local townspeople respected the officers and were sympathetic to the strike. Independent steamboats such as GRANITE CITY and VESPER and fish steamers, including Irvington resident Captain Messick’s EMILY A. FOOTE, began to deliver goods. Sailing craft and powerboats also assisted.

Nine days later, a six-hour long hearing was held before the State Bureau of Statistics and Information, and the officers stated their grievances. Captain Herbert A. Bohannon, stated he was “making $60 a month plus board on the steamer and he was master of a 180’ steamboat (CALVERT) valued at thousands of dollars.” On October 12, Mr. Thomson and union representatives reached an agreement and the strike ended. The captains’ wages were increased from $100 to $125 a month, depending on their routes and seniority. Mates also received increases. (Chesapeake Circle by Robert H. Burgess, Cornell Maritime Press, Inc., Cambridge, MD)

Address

156 King Carter Drive
Irvington, VA
22480

Telephone

+18044386888

Website

http://www.steamboateramuseum.org/, https://steamboateramuseum.org/events/, https://steamboateramuseum.org/donate/, http

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