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Summer & Fall (June - October) Wednesday through Sunday,10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Winter & Spring (November – May) Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 to 5:00.

See how wooden vessels were built. See and feel the actual tools that built them. Learn the lost art of the mold loftsman. Bore a hole. Caulk a seam. Relive history through dioramas, full-scale construction displays, hands-on exhibits, video presentations and a real schooner - all at The Essex Shipbuilding Museum. The home of so many of Cape Ann's best kept secrets.

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8am - 4pm daily.

The largest of the Refuge's islands, the 135-acre Choate Island supports myriad birds and mammals including deer, fisher, coyote, and otter. The spruce forest planted in the early 20th century attracts golden crown kinglets and sharp-shinned hawks, while Choate Island's grasslands provide critical habitat for bobolinks and Savannah sparrows. Gulls, sanderlings, and sandpipers feed along the Island's shore.

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Open: June 1 through October 15
Wednesday through Sunday
Tours at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

In 1937, the Littles purchased this 18th-century farmhouse overlooking the Essex River as a family retreat and place to entertain. They restored it carefully, trying to preserve original 18th-century finishes and carefully documenting their work. In more than 50 years of collecting, they sought works of strong, even quirky character, and in particular favored objects with their original finishes and New England histories.

They decorated the house for visual delight rather than historic accuracy. The result is rich in atmosphere and crowded with collections of things -- primitive paintings, redware, painted furniture, stacked Shaker boxes, weather vanes and decoys -- that have since come to define the country look.

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Daily, Dawn to Dusk

The Cox Reservation, owned by the Essex County Greenbelt Association, consists of two parcels: a four-acre woodlot on nearby Lufkin Street and the 27 acres of upland, salt marsh, farmland with house and barn, and river frontage on Eastern Avenue. The views from the larger parcel east toward the salt marsh, the Essex River, the back of Crane Beach, and Castle Hill and Choate Island are magnificent. The Greenbelt headquarters and staff offices are located at the Cox Reservation, as well as many Greenbelt events throughout the year.

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Open year-round, daily, sunrise to sunset

While most of Stavros Reservation protects more than fifty acres of salt marsh, its most popular feature is White's Hill, a coastal drumlin that offers panoramic views of Crane Beach, the Crane Wildlife Refuge (Choate Island), and Halibut Point. A half-mile loop trail leads through an open field and enters the woods at the base of White's Hill. It climbs gradually to a field at the crest of the hill and then loops back down the hill through a thicket of Devil's walking stick, broken only by a small hillside clearing that offers views over the salt marshes to Castle Hill.