Houston Maritime Museum Reopens Where City’s History Began

For decades, Houston turned away from its history as a shipping giant to focus on the moon and stars and become Space City. As H-Town returns to its original identity linked to the bayous, the Houston Maritime Museum is there to celebrate the culture of the waterways. 

The new East River multi-use complex rises fresh and pristine on the verdant shores of Buffalo Bayou just over a mile from Allen’s Landing where Houston was founded. The gentrification of the East Side continues to creep brilliantly, transforming poor and sometimes abandoned parts of the city along the often-treacherous waterways into homes, businesses, and community spaces.

The Houston Maritime Museum calls the second-floor home, a far cry from when it started in 2000 as shipbuilder Jim Manzolillo’s model boat collection in his personal condo. The museum has been on-and-off-again closed for several years preparing for the new space. And it was definitely worth the wait. Not only is the museum space gorgeous, it’s surrounded by some of the same shipping interests that continue to make Houston a transportation hub. The Port of Houston offices will be located next door in 2026.

Though small compared to some of the city’s other museums, the Maritime Museum is incredibly elegant, easily the fanciest of Houston’s little quirky museums (or maybe the quirkiest of the fancy museums). There’s an incredible view of downtown if you’re lucky enough to miss the daily thunderstorms that have dominated the summer. On the other bank of Buffalo Bayou, you can see a series of abandoned silos, which offer just a touch of gritty industrialism.

Margaret Kidd, president of the Houston Maritime Museum, points to the silos on a brief tour, remarking how they are a visual reminder of how important industry and shipping are to Houston. 

“Look at the port,” she says. “It’s over $900 billion, close to a trillion worth of trade, and a bulk of that supports Houston. Years gone by and the city and the port are reconnecting. This is the same phenomenon you see in cities like New York or San Francisco or London. Any major world city where trade helps drive the development of the city, so it is now with Houston and the redevelopment.”

Kidd knows shipping like the back of her hand. As a professor of supply chain logistics at the University of Houston, she lives and breathes international maritime trade. The new version of the museum reflects her wonderfully. While the museum is still dominated by the impressive model ship collection, it also highlights the way shipping has built Houston. Panels explaining the sheer magnitude of the Port of Houston’s effect on the American economy dominate one wall. Houston shipping’s contributions to the war effort in World War II takes up another. The city was literally founded because the bayous provided easy access to widespread shipping, giving farmers and craftspeople a way to export their wares.

During the twentieth century as the oil boom exploded, the port and Houston shipping grew as well, creating thousands of well-paying blue-collar jobs. When the oil bust came, those jobs dried up, leaving most of the city east of US-59 a depressed area ignored by the rest of Houston.

Over the past decade, Houston has been trying to reconnect the city. EaDo (East Downtown) has steadily brought art galleries and new businesses eastward. The Houston Parks Board’s Bayou Greenways project treats the bayous as connections between parts of the city, adding trails that lead to parks and the sports district.

East River, for all its upscale appearance, takes community seriously. The Maritime Museum may be out of the way if you consider it in relation to the museum district, but it’s already drawing people from the nearby neighborhoods. 

“We are literally part of Houston’s past, present and future,” says Kidd. “Our mission is to educate people about the opportunities in maritime and what better place than to be right here on the on the Bayou? When I come on Saturdays or Sundays to do some work in the museum, and especially when there’s an event going on outside, you see so many people. These are not people coming from downtown. I mean, they’re people coming from 5th Ward, and they’re making their way over whether they walked or they drove.”

Part of the Maritime Museum’s identity will always be corporate. The space regularly hosts business luncheons and presentations. Reception tables are a semi-permanent part of the décor, and the breathtaking view is a selling point for the bigwigs wanting a cosmopolitan shindig. 

But the other part remains a museum dedicated to the people. Kidd is working on an exhibit highlighting the role of the Virgo, a ship that brought Vietnamese refugees to Houston after the Fall of Saigon. 

Kidd is also quite proud of the small children’s area, where kids can learn about Bayou wildlife, tie nautical knots, and play with a bespoke wooden train set-up modeled on Houston itself. From the days of early European exploration to satellite driven modern shipping, the Maritime Museum does its job highlighting what shipping meant for the city, an aspect many of us have long forgotten.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in Rotterdam [Netherlands],” says Kidd. “You go to Rotterdam, the largest port in Europe, and there’s high rise condos next door. The people and the city are in the same place. They are working together to make the city a better place, and the port plays an active role. We’re standing on history. I hope people come to explore.”