On a bright and sunny Saturday morning, the outdoors were calling and we were up for a new adventure. Mama Nomad had found something called the Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville, Indiana. I thought…hmmm…steamboat museum? But, it was something we had never encountered and we are always up to explore new things. So, we hopped into Ebony and away we went.
Took us about an hour and a half, but we got there with relative ease. We crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky into Indiana and the museum was a few blocks from the bridge. We passed Jeff Boat, the largest inland ship builder in the United States, along the way. We later found out that this was actually the original Howard Shipyard. You guessed it. Same Howard that the museum is named for.
The museum is actually located in the Howard’s original home at 1101 East Market Street Jeffersonville , IN. The home is a Romanesque Revival mansion built in 1894 and has around 22 rooms in it. You will see it in the pictures, but there seemed to be a lot of foreign architectural influence in building the mansion, especially around some of the doorways. Also, many of the light fixtures came from the 1893 World’s Fair; with both gas and electric lighting available in the same fixture.
On the first floor, each room is decorated as it would have been during the occupation of the home by the Howard Family. This includes the kitchen, sitting room, parlor, dining room, study and more.
Mens Parlor
Kitchen
Dining
Music
Library
When you go upstairs you actually get to see models of boats, images of steamboats, tools used to build them and other memorabilia. We even saw the door to a state room. I have traveled on many cruise ships, been on board naval vessels and other boats. During all of that time I never knew why they were called state rooms. Well, it is because before people could read as well, they painted pictures of states on the doors; hence the term “state room.”
We also learned that one year the river overflowed and filled the house up to the 13th step. One member of the family would actually leave in a boat to get supplies and row the boat through the front door and up onto the stairs. We learned that a bakery downtown continued to bake bread and sell it out of a second story window to people in boats. Talk about dedication!
We also learned why steamboats were so important. They allowed for upriver commerce. Before steamboats, you could only float down river. Now, you could bring crops from the south and transport it upriver to the north. And return with coal from the north and deliver it to the south. It really opened up the world of commerce to grow the economy in the US.
Howard Shipyard built quite a few famous steamboats, including the General Jackson, Robert E Lee and the Mississippi Queen. They were even contacted to provide boats to the gold rush in Alaska. During the full swing of steamboats, it seemed like the Howard Shipyard was involved in most steamboat construction.
I honestly never knew just how important steamboats were to the growth and expansion of commerce and trade within the United States. This was a big eye opener and I loved the tour. The museum is quite affordable at $7 per adult and $5 per child (6 to college). Our docent was very knowledgeable about the home, the family, the business and the history and importance of the steamboat. She even recounted stories from her youth of visiting the house before it was a museum. If you are near Louisville, Kentucky / Jeffersonville, Indiana, stop in to the Howard Steamboat Museum, learn a little about steamboat history and tell them The Nomads from Living Nomad Style sent you. Safe Travels.
