exhibits

a Two Story Adventure

Of the mansion’s twenty-six rooms, fifteen are open to the public to explore.  The Polson’s exhibits broadly reflect life on Grays Harbor from pre-contact Native American settlement to the highly industrialized world of the modern day. Since undertaking a complete interior restoration of the mansion between 2020 and 2024, museum staff and volunteers have transformed the museum’s permanent exhibits with a fresh look, rich content and professional presentation.

Current featured exhibits include Made in Grays Harbor, an evolving display in the first floor sun room devoted to featuring durable goods made here long ago and currently.

Maritime Grays Harbor focuses heavily on the once robust shipbuilding industry that made the vessels that carried the lumber cut here to ports world wide.

The Spectacular Vanishes: When Horses Left the Harbor takes an in-depth look at the transition period between 1900 and 1930 when Harborites ditched their horse and bought a Flivver.

The grand staircase leading to the second floor features an eclectic display of gems from our collection including a railroad track cycle that served the Polson Logging Company, historic firearms, maps, prominent building remnants, and more.

Upstairs you'll see an extensive exhibits on logging and sawmilling, highlighted by the 160-square-foot HO gauge Little Hoquiam Railroad. The hall of panoramas is a visitor favorite as well as the lavish dressing room looking over the Hoquiam River. After the model railroad, a favorite for kids is the Polson's daughters' childhood doll house, newly illuminated to show off its lavishly furnished rooms.

The Hall of Panoramas showcases our most impressive panoramic photographs detailing our county’s communities and industries.

Spruce, Foxglove, & Motorships: Grays Harbor and the Great War details Grays Harbor’s World War I efforts in the woods, on the homefront and on the waterfront.