Once upon a time, Washington was a renowned center for shipping, trade, boat building and commerce.

Those glory days in the city’s past are now celebrated and commemorated in a storefront museum located on South Market Street, near Harding Square and the Washington waterfront.

The Historic Port of Washington Museum project began during the summer of 2014 in order to raise awareness of the city’s maritime history. Two months later, the tireless group of volunteers heading up the project launched an exhibit at the North Carolina Estuarium. In March 2015, after assembling a larger collection of artifacts and materials, organizers officially opened the museum.

Now, exhibits, video and oral histories, and a collection of donated or loaned artifacts guide visitors through the heyday of the city’s history. Highlights include the railroads that served Washington, the flywheel at Havens Gardens, the Coffee Caboose, the Sharpies work boats, the Pamlico Point Shoals lighthouse, the Fowle warehouse, Moss Planing Mill Company, the local temperance movement, James Adams floating theater and the schooner “Friends.” Countless vintage photographs document several topics, including the devastation left behind by the hurricane of 1913.

Completed projects include the creation of a mural depicting Washington’s waterfront circa 1900 and a collection of ship models. Museum volunteers hope to continue to expand the collection of artifacts, a goal aided by a number of pieces from the estate of the late Elizabeth “Bee” Fowle Morton.

Members of the museum’s executive board include chair Rick Zablocki, vice chair Ray Midgett, secretary Micki Zablocki and treasurer Billie Mallison. The museum is presently open Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“We can also make appointments for special tours,” Rick Zablocki noted. “And if we get more volunteers we can offer more hours.”

For more information about the museum project, email contact@hpow.org. The project’s website can be found at www.hpow.org. Historic Port of Washington also has a Facebook page.