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Old Third District Courthouse
Photo: Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Every day 9AM-5PM. Free national park volunteer and ranger-led tours last approximately one hour and step off from here at 10:30AM, 12:30PM and 2:30PM every day in July and August.
The Old Third District Courthouse in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, is located at the corner of Second and William streets. It was built in 1853 by Russell Warren in the Greek Revival architectural style, as the home of the New Bedford Institute for Savings, a local bank. After the bank moved, the Bristol County courts came in. They, too, eventually outgrew it and moved elsewhere in the city. Since the creation of New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park in 1996, it has been used by the National Park Service (NPS) as the park's visitor center.
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A chapel immortalized in Herman Mellville's Moby Dick as the "Whaleman's Chapel" in a scene where a fire-and-brimstone sermon is given from a bow-shaped pulpit. Such a pulpit only existed in Melville's imagination and finally a mock-up had to be built in 1961 just to satisfy disappointed tourists. The pew where Melville sat when he visited in 1840 is marked. The walls of the chapel list the names of area fishermen who have died.
Includes a full scale whaling ship, lots of artifacts, and extensive displays on the history of the whaling industry and the biology of whales in general. Also notably hosts a yearly event where people read Moby Dick aloud from cover to cover.
Home of whaling merchant William Rotch, Jr. built in 1834. Designed by Richard Upjohn, the House is one of the finest surviving examples of residential Greek Revival architecture.
A huge collection of antique and art glass from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, to the golden age of Victorian New England glass making (with particular emphasis on New Bedford's world famous glass studios of Pairpoint and Mount Washington), to 21st-century glass artists from around the world. The gift and consignment shop has an ever changing selection of antiques and unique glass in every price range, plus books (great gift shopping for the not easily impressed). Library and resource room with more than 8,000 volumes available for research. Free expert glass identification done every Monday, a great way to find out more about heirloom and hand me down glass pieces.
Daily 10AM-4:30PM (summer F Sa until 6:30PM). Adult $6, senior or student $4.50, child 3-12 $3, under 3 free, family $16.