Port Jefferson: Long Island Museum
Even though we have visited Long Island a few times, we actually have never visited the LI Museum. As it turned out, they were between exhibits in the main museum areas and doing some renovating, so only the Carriage museum was open to the public. Because the whole museum was not available, the entrance fee was waived. The carriage museum shares the history of transportation before the automobile.
The carriages are house in a large building which has 3 floors. Most if not all are real carriages and vehicles that were donated to the museums. They are not replicas. I found that to be really neat as often items, larger items like these are lost or in terrible shape.]
There were all kinds of carriages spanning over the course of a couple centuries and it was really interesting to see how different carriages were used for different occasions. I have read many stories taken place in the 1800 and 1900s so it was nice to see how my imagination match or didn’t match the actually vehicles.
My favorites were the sleighs! Wouldn’t it be fun to go on a sleigh ride on a wintery day?
This fancy firetruck below was really incredible. It was used in parades.
You can tell the difference between a fire truck used in reality versus the parade one below: one is really just merely decor!
One last one to share: while many carriages displayed were used by middle and upper class, this was one donated from a prince in Europe. I do not remember which country, but it was from a small country near Germany if I recall correctly (might have been Bavaria though).
We enjoyed the grounds of the museum too. There is a schoolhouse and a couple other buildings in pretty good shape as well as an old, small cemetery.
We definitely enjoyed our visit. We weren’t too upset that the other parts of the museum were not opened to the public even though we enjoy the occasional art museum.
A bientôt!
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10 Comments
Kathrine Eldridge
The museum looks so interesting! Love these pics from the surrounding grounds.
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
mimifce
Yes! It was so green on Long Island!
Marsha Banks
I didn’t know there were two different kinds of fire wagons. The fancy one really is fancy! Love the yarn bombed tree!
https://marshainthemiddle.com/
mimifce
It was a neat museum!
jodie filogomo
What a cool place and score for having the admission waved.
Xoox
Jodie
mimifce
Always helps especially with our family size.
Jennifer
This museum looks interesting!
Jennifer
https://curatedbyjennifer.com
mimifce
It really was.
Leslie Susan Clingan
Oh, my gravy…first, the tree. Is that a crocheted ‘blankie’ for the tree? During Covid I made one of the trees in our park a ‘wishing tree’ and invited people to tie ribbons to its branches and make a wish. Someone kept adding bits of crocheted squares to the tree. I loved it!! Your museum tree is amazing!
And the museum. Like you, I would love a sleigh ride in any of those sleighs. There would need to be snow on the ground and cocoa after the ride, though. I am a sucker for a Cinderella carriage so the blue one would work just fine for that.
Very fun excursion. Thanks for sharing.
mimifce
We are so similar! Yes, that was pretty neat with the tree! I loved it.