The main museum building is a large brick structure that for many years functioned as the town's electrical peaking plant. The building is now used to house the Cape Charles Museum and features permanent and temporary exhibitions that highlight the unique history of the town. In addition, the museum also serves as the welcome center for visitors to the town of Cape Charles.
In front of the Bloxom Station sits a small white building. This building is known as the “Jetty House” because of its original location on the north jetty of the Cape Charles Harbor. If you peek inside the door of the Jetty House you can see objects and tools similar to those that may have been kept inside the building during its use.
Beside the main museum building to the west, stands the Bloxom Station, a reconstructed railroad passenger station. The Station houses the majority of the archival and artifact collections held by the Cape Charles Museum. The Museum's collection consists of thousands of photographs, documents, and objects that tell the stories and help preserve the history of Cape Charles.
Located behind the main museum building, positioned on the railroad tracks, is one of several railroad cars owned and maintained by the Cape Charles Historical Society. This caboose was built in 1948 and had a long and colorful history prior to it becoming part of the Museum's outdoor exhibits.
This structure was the elevated deckhouse of the car float, or bay barge, originally named the Captain Edward Richardson. The vessel was built by New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company (PRR). It was launched in December 1948. The Captain Edward Richardson was over four hundred feet long and over fifty feet wide. Its deck was equipped with four railroad tracks designed to hold thirty-two forty-foot freight cars. The vessel was built to be towed by a tugboat across twenty-six miles of water between the harbors at Cape Charles City and Little Creek, Virginia. Its original deckhouse included a pilot house with steering gear, as well as a galley, captain’s quarters, and bunking facilities for a crew of five.
Unfortunately, this car is no longer on site. In May 2021 Canonie Atlantic informed CCHS that in preparation for sale of the rail yard the track on which these two cars sat had to be cleared. As our siding was not long enough to accommodate them, we opted to sell them to a private railroad collector in Goshen VA where they will join his fleet of cars, which he plans to develop into a railroad museum. We have retained the photos and descriptions for general interest.Behind the flatcar sits our rare, steam-era former Southern Railway low-side gondola car originally built by Pullman in 1938. This car was a workhorse designed to haul and transport bulk goods. The gondola car came to the Museum in 2018 when the Bay Coast Railroad (BCR) ceased operations in Cape Charles.
Unfortunately, this car is no longer on site. In May 2021 Canonie Atlantic informed CCHS that in preparation for sale of the rail yard the track on which these two cars sat had to be cleared. As our siding was not long enough to accommodate them, we opted to sell them to a private railroad collector in Goshen VA where they will join his fleet of cars, which he plans to develop into a railroad museum. We have retained the photos and descriptions for general interest.Behind the boxcar is a 100-ton flatcar supported by six-wheel trucks. It was manufactured during the 1950s for the US Department of the Army. It was built by Magor Car Corporation, a builder of all types of railroad freight cars, originally located in Clifton, New Jersey. Magor produced thousands of rail cars for US military use during both World Wars, and later exported rail cars to Europe under the Marshall Plan.
Behind the Bloxom Station is a double-walled, 10,000-gallon, circa 1950s tank car made for the US Amy by the General American Transportation Corporation (now GATX) in Chicago, Illinois. When it operated on the Eastern Shore Railroad (ESHR), predecessor of the Bay Coast Railroad (BCR), it was painted Black, like most US tank cars, and numbered #9487.
Located in front of the Nickel Plate caboose, is a baggage car once used by the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad. This car was built in the 1930s to carry passenger luggage, as well as ship large items, mail, and packages for the U.S. Postal Service and the Railway Express Agency (REA).
Behind the tank car is a circa 1950s, fifty-foot, general-service boxcar, an example of a standard design widely used since the 1940s and commonly seen on American railroads through the 1980s. It has a single sliding door on each side; the door at the end of the car was added later. This boxcar was likely acquired by the Eastern Shore Railroad (ESHR) in the 1980s.
Directly behind the Bloxom Station is a 90-ton diesel locomotive that came to us in 2018 when the Bay Coast Railroad (BCR) ceased operations in Cape Charles. Like other railroad stock, the locomotive had been built to last. Throughout its 60-year working life, it was bought and sold by various railroad companies, each time acquiring a new name, “model designation” and paint job as well.
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The Cape Charles Museum and Welcome Center opened in 1996 and is dedicated to preserving and presenting to the public the history of Cape Charles and surrounding areas. The Museum is owned and operated by the Cape Charles Historical Society. It is the hope of the Historical Society that inspiration from the richness of its past will help guide Cape Charles' renewal and growth.
