A scene from the Charles River

[Dan Miller]

This is a view of the Norumbega Boat House on the Charles River. I'm curious about the building on the left side of the image. It is roughly where the Metropolitan Boat House (Joseph Emerson's canoe shop), but the building is quite different than that one. The photo is not dated. Is it possibly an earlier building that was replaced or something else entirely? Does anyone know?

Some other interesting things in this photo are a double-ended rowboat in the foreground, a steam launch on the left, and they spelled "Cold Beer"wrong.

Dan

 

[Benson Gray]

Your picture is probably from after 1903 when the Metropolitan Park Commission banned alcoholic beverages on the river. Some more images of this area are shown below.

Benson



Postmark 1917

Copyright 1905, postmark 1916

Postmark 1909

No date

Message dated 1913

Postmark 1908

No date

Circa 1920

Circa 1917

Copyright 1905

 

[Michael Grace]

You can see in the 4th image Benson posted that there is only the one boathouse building and a "rustic bridge" (meaning it was made to look rustic, or it had already been there a long time?). Dan's phot shows the boathouse and the "Cold Soda" building but not the second large building. Most of the other photos must be later still as they show the second large building that mimics the construction of the boathouse (an extension of it?) behind the "Cold Soda" building. One of them (Benson's 5th) shows the "Cold Soda" sign apparently moved from the roof pean to the side slope of the roof.

Perhaps Benson's 4th is the oldest, Dan's next in time, then the one with "Cold Soda" moved, and all of the others later. Copyright dates and postmark dates may not mean much if they used old images or if people held onto postcards before mailing, but maybe... I don't have my postcard collection handy. Do any of these have dates on them?

Notice also that the roof or awning over the boat ram is short in Benson's 4th and Dan's image, then it is extended the full length of the building in many others. By the time shown in Benson's first image, that cover extends much farther, fully twice the length of the building.

 

[Benson Gray]

The Sanborn maps of this area from 1910 below may help. I've edited my previous message to include any date information I could find or guess. I agree that the one labeled "Boathouse and Rustic Bridge" is probably the oldest since the "Cold Soda" building is not present at the end of the bridge. Some other boat builders from the area are also attached below for comparison. The link at the end has some similar maps of canoe factories in Maine.

Benson


Norumbega and Metropolitan

Arnold

Nutting

Robertson

Waltham

Thread 'Sanborn maps of Old Town, Maine'

Nov 26, 2010

I have been given two Sanborn fire insurance maps of Old Town, Maine from December 1906 and October 1912 which have some very interesting information about the canoe companies there as shown below. More information about maps like this can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps if you are not familar with them.

The first image is from the 1906 map and shows the "M'F'R Canvas Canoes" which was located on Shirley Street behind the hardware store. It had a "40 HP Eng." which ran on power from Jordan's Mill across town. This was where the first Indian Old Town Canoes...

• Benson Gray
• Replies: 13
• Forum: Research and History

 

[Dan Miller]

This is one of the few photos I've been able to find of the Metropolitan Boat House (Joseph Emerson's canoe shop, for as long as it lasted). It concurs with the Sanborn map that Benson posted above, but the building shown in my initial photo does not agree. Was that building earlier, and a victim to "progress"?

 

[Benson Gray]

Some quick Google searching indicates that this was known as Emerson's Boathouse before it became the Metropolitan Boathouse. This was merged into Norumbega Park by 1911. It is not clear when the second story was added or if the location changed. The Sanborn maps don't cover this area before 1910. The first map below from 1907 doesn't help much. The 1895 map shows no boathouses in this area. The Emerson/Metropolitan Boathouse building is not present on the 1917 map. The second 'boating' map below from 1870 with revisions in 1901 shows a small building in that location. The page at https://www.newtonma.gov/government/information-technology/gis/historic-maps has more details.

Benson



1907

1870 with revisions in 1901