Elevating the Collection: The Campaign to preserve and protect the living heritage of the Shore Line Trolley Museum

Urgent Message about Hurricane Irene

The Shore Line Trolley Museum has been important to the spirit of historical preservation since 1945, and maintains the original operating trolley line which has connected East Haven and Branford since 1900. As the third largest trolley museum in the United States, it has been a key part of the East Haven and Branford communities for more than 65 years.

The Museum was founded to preserve the unique heritage of an endangered species -- the trolley car, and its collection of nearly 100 vintage vehicles.

The Museum's collection consists of a variety of passenger-carrying, electric streetcars as well as related vehicles such as railway maintenance cars, rapid transit cars, interurban cars, and electric and fossil-fuel buses. Antique vehicles from many parts of the country are represented, including several cars which actually ran on the Museum's historic line during the trolley's golden era.

To prevent catastrophic damage to the invaluable Shore Line Trolley Museum collection, we must immediately advance our plans to construct two buildings above the salt marsh floodplain. Because of the low elevation of most of the Museum property, most of our trolley cars are at risk of severe water damage from the frequent  nor’easters and other major storms.

The campaign is named “Elevating the Collection”  because not only will we build two buildings at a higher elevation, but also to elevate the living heritage that this ‘Made in the USA’ collection embodies.

Our campaign will raise $2 million.