Irvington, Virginia, once a bustling center of steamboat traffic, now celebrates its heritage with the Steamboat Era Museum on the Rappahannock River. When the museum opens for the season at the end of the month, it will debut two new exhibits to the public.
Before Irvington was known by its name today, it was called “Carter’s Creek Wharf” to designate the steamboat wharf on Carter’s Creek. Irvington sprang up around the activities and life that came from the weekly arrival that the Baltimore and Norfolk steamboats brought to the wharf on Carter’s Creek. The town’s maritime transportation heritage led to the 2004 founding of the Steamboat Era Museum.
The museum opens its 2025 season on March 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and is free of charge to the public on that first day. The steamboat era on the Chesapeake is considered a golden age of transportation and the museum highlights the boats and culture of that time period.
Gus S. Kasper, executive director of the museum since 2023, said that the museum has two new exhibits this year. “Life on the Old Bay Line – A Legacy of Chesapeake Bay Travel” and “Painting the Steamboat Era – Capturing a Maritime Legacy”, which is composed of paintings of the boats from artist of those times.
The “Old Bay Line” was the nickname for the Baltimore Steam Packet Company’s route between Baltimore and Norfolk, which ran for 122 years. The line carried passengers and cargo, and was known for its cuisine, high-end service, and fine accommodations, according to Jack Shaum, author of 122 Years on the Old Bay Line. It was the last steamship company running in America when it finally ended operations in 1962.
The centerpiece of the Steamboat Era Museum is the rebuilt pilothouse of the steamboat Potomac built in 1894. After the Potomac was damaged in a collision in 1936, she was converted to a barge to carry wood to the West Point, Virginia, paper mill. Before she was stripped to her hull, the shipyard owner salvaged the pilothouse for use as a beach house at White Stone.
After the museum obtained ownership, a five-year restoration has brought the pilothouse back to pristine condition and it sits in the middle of the museum floor.
The museum covers the era of steamboats on the Chesapeake from 1813 to 1962 when the last steamers plied Bay waters. However, much of the focus is on Irvington’s own steamboat era, from the 1820s to the end in the 1930s. The August Storm of 1933 destroyed many of the wharfs, and Virginia Senator Harry Byrd’s 1932 “Byrd Road Act” shifted the maintenance and building of secondary roads away from counties to the state. Both were a knife to the heart of a fading Chesapeake Bay steamboat era.
“The steamboat is a binding piece of history that created an economic lifeline between the states of Virginia and Maryland,” said Kasper. “It is an important part of the history of transportation on the Chesapeake Bay and our museum focuses totally on bringing that history to life.”
The museum is open Friday-Monday from March 28 to May 29, expanding to Thursday-Monday during the summer. Learn more about visiting the Steamboat Era Museum here.
