What's Up at the Custom House?

May 25, 2025

#StandUpForScience #Museums4Science

What a week!

Photos, above, from left: Seal Watch, Jibboom Club #1,National Maritime Day

The Custom House is Open Thurs.- Fri. 1-5 PM,

Sat. 10 AM-5 PM, Sun. 1-5 PM.

tonight -- Sunday, May 25, 6-9 pm



Open Mic at the Museum

Co-hosted by Kenny 'Doc' Frazier and Christina Corcoran, our monthly open mic welcomes music, poetry, prose, stand-up, or just state what is on your mind. Show up at 5:45 and get on the list! Open to all ages and abilities for fun & camaraderie. It's a friendly crowd! Admission is by donation.



The Open Mic at the Museum Facebook page streams Open Mic live and posts many of the individual performances from past sessions. Sponsored by Kozmik Music Services. 

Saturdays, Sundays, & by appointment year-round

a popular destination for more than a century.

Visit Inside NL Harbor Pequot Light

Visit Long Island Sound's oldest and tallest lighthouse.

We offer Harbor Light tours every Saturday & Sunday at noon. Climb 116 steps up into the lighthouse lantern. The views are spectacular!​ Tours for up-to five people take approximately 40 minutes. Sign up today.

To book a custom tour, send us an email. Photo: Christina Corcoran.

This week at the Custom House

Very busy at the Custom House...

The weather's played havoc with our plans. Rough seas kept the seal watch closer to shore than to the seals! We thank the Black Hawk for revising our tour to head east for a close pass by state pier, EB, and the lighthouses. Photo, above.

Thursday's hard rain forced the National Maritime Day ceremony over to the museum: no problem. Nice as it was at the CH, everyone missed the setting by the Merchant Marine memorial, and luncheon at Scott's.

There's still a lot still to resolve before the high season begins. Boat issues have delayed our clean-up work at Ledge Lighthouse (volunteers please stand by). Boat availability and grant questions have prevented our scheduling -- & pricing -- of summer tours. Plan for our newsletter to answer all these questions in another week or two.

Our NL Local-History & Landmarks program is now ending it's 16th year. Jim Flood, right, has been helping educator Christina Corcoran with busloads of third graders at the museum. They'll be visiting Fort Trumbull before the school year ends.

A sudden withdrawal of NEA funding left the CT Lyric Opera scrambling. They'll now present AMISTAD, the Opera by Anthony Davis in a pared down version -- not at the Garde with a full orchestra, as originally planned, but out-of-doors on the Custom House Pier. It will be a pay what you will event at 7 PM on June 14. A panel discussion will follow at the Custom House!

Photo: representatives of CT Lyric Opera visited last week.

--Susan

New London's 16th annual Pre-Memorial Day Candlelight Vigil will be held on Parade Plaza Sunday, May 25, at 7:30 PM.

The Connecticut Sea Music Festival takes place next weekend in downtown Essex.

National Maritime Day & Luncheon Thursday, May 22, 2025

USMMAAF-CSC together with the American Merchant Marine Veterans and Naval Armed Guards Associations annually hold this service to promote our maritime history & the potential of NL's magnificent port. Due to the rain, they moved the ceremony from the memorial at Ft. Trumbull to the Custom House. Thanks to Capt. Scott's Lobster Dock, Thames River Greenery, & the Washington St. Coffee Shop for helping with the luncheon.

Visit the Museum Shop!

Who else has wind-sock fish?!

The NL HarborCam is your 24/7 eye on the harbor, with 7.3M views since July 2019! Photo, right: happy to see the sun Saturday morning.

We post video, events, and articles of note on Bluesky. @customhouse.bsky.social

Visitors at the museum: photos, below, clockwise from upper left: a family from China; a visitor who works at EB; Ferguson Museum director Pierce Rafferty; Jennings School third-graders!