The Maritime Center occupies the historic East Beach Coast Guard Station, an art-deco-influenced building from 1936 that overlooks Gould's Inlet near the south-east end of the island. The exhibits run from the Sea Island Singers and Gullah-Geechee traditions to the German U-boat that sank two tankers off St. Simons in 1942.
The displays are well-curated for a small museum, the building itself is worth looking at, and the upstairs windows give a panorama out over the Atlantic and the marshes. Joint ticket with the lighthouse museum. Allow about an hour.