This is a self guided tour museum. It covers from pre-history original inhabitants up to the 20th century. If you want to learn about the islands history you should stop here. It is free and accepts donations too. Make sure to stop by and support them!

Ventured off the cruise ship, with low expectations of such a heavily tourist dependent stop. We were one of three ships, so we didn't hold out much hope. We found this by accident, as it doesn't appear to feature on any tourist map. Tucked away at 7 Frontstreet, this unassuming building had the most interesting and enthusiastically curated collection of artefacts and information upstairs. Absolutely stuffed to the gunnels with an eclectic range of items, arranged in a number of glass cases, but also just displayed without any protection. From true archaeological finds,the history of the island, displays of shells and flora, a colourful history of the arawak people to a collection of old typewriters! There was no charge but a donation box and a visitors book, which the lovely lady manning the desk, was very keen for us to sign. The "gift shop" consisted of a few postcards and other much more genuine souvenirs if you felt inclined, but absolutely no pressure. Very refreshing!

I really hate to write a less than glowing review about a small museum that is trying to share the history of a lovely place like St. Maarten/St. Martin but the rudeness of the staff here makes it hard. The museum is small and free, but they have a collection box as you exit that you can place donations in. My mom and I really appreciated the fact that the museum existed, and wanted to support them but neither of us had any bills (cash tips are BIG here and we had been on island for almost a week). What I did have was about $4 of quarters, along with a few other coins. I dug a handful out and placed it in the donation box. As I was digging around for the rest, the docent, who was in the middle of a conversation with someone else on the other side of the room, walked over and started yelling at us about how they didn't want our "useless" coins (apparently they couldn't take them to the bank?) and demanded dollars instead. I tried to explain to her that I appreciated the museum but literally did not have any cash side from the coins. She opened the donation box, gave a disgusted look at the coins and then told us to give dollars and sign the guestbook. No worries at all if you can't use coins, but there are much better ways to let people know if coins are an issue...