Sad Day in Valley Park

[Walter Hauck]

Today the main building of St. Louis Boat & Canoe Co. was torn down. In less than 30 minutes it was flattened. This was the site where four thousand Arrowhead boats and canoes were manufactured from 1930 to 1978. This is where Alfred Wickett set up shop after he left St. Louis Meramec Canoe Company................Luckily, John Strasser and I had made trips out to the factory and had removed anything that had to to with boat or canoe making. The last thing we were able to save today was the sign from the front of the building. It's 20 ft x 5 ft., made of eleven pieces of corrugated siding. We had to jump in and dig it out of the wreckage, keeping an eye on the big bucket that kept gnawing away at what was left. Someday we hope to resurrect it at my studio. So much for progress. On the way in I tipped my hat towards Wickett's tombstone, which is in sight of the highway. Hope he would have approved.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Thanks for posting this. There are those now, and in the future, who are (and will be) grateful to you for the history you are preserving. Much of what human beings do makes no sense... but there are those who *shine*-- those who understand what we have been given and respect and honor those who gave us what we have.

Tomorrow, Denis Kallery and I are visiting Belle Isle, which, like the Charles River area, was once the launching-place for hundreds of beautiful canoes (and as many romances). But Molitor's canoe livery has gone the way of Mr. Wickett's shop.

Sad. But we are here, to tell the tales.

Kathy

 

[Walter Hauck]

Hi Kathryn----We have records from the 1940's showing more than a dozen
Meramec Arrowhead canoes were shipped to Belle Isle. Keep an eye out for those Arrowhead decks! Thanks...Marty

 

[Benson Gray]

It is sad to lose these connections to the past but it is great that you were able to save some of it. The hardware store where Alfred Wickett and George Gray first started building canoes was lost to a fire in the late 1990s as shown in the left side of the first image below. The second image shows how it looked when they first met before 1900. I haven't found that sign yet but the partially visible one on the right has been preserved as shown in the third picture. It advertised George's first business venture. Hopefully those of us who appreciate these things can continue to hang on to a few pieces of this history. Keep up the good work,

Benson

 

[Walter Hauck]

Wickett Photo?

Hi Benson,
Might any of those gentlemen standing in front of the hardware store be Alfred Wickett? Thanks for your reply of today, and especially from a week or two ago....
Marty

 

[Benson Gray]

Hi Benson,
Might any of those gentlemen standing in front of the hardware store be Alfred Wickett?

One of them could be Alfred but I can't be sure. The photograph is dated 1906 and his name is not on the back. My aunt is in her 90s and confirmed that the man on the left is George. She was not sure who any of the others might have been. Do you have any pictures of Alfred for comparison?

Benson

 

[Walter Hauck]

Benson---
I will attach a photo of Alfred about 1910. It is very small---we need to see about getting a larger scan...
Marty

 

[bob goeckel]

benson, that center picture is terrific. i love old photo's of people from that era. what we tend to forget when we look at them is that after that instant they stepped away and went back to living. into the shop, down the street, back home to wives and children. hopes and dreams pursued, never dreaming that they might be looking into our future eyes.

 

[Benson Gray]

I checked the back of the original hardware store photograph last night and it says "George Gray's store, October 1st, 1906." The picture of Alfred Wickett from 1910 looks similar to the man in the center of the door way so that could be him. However, the canoe company had moved to Middle Street by 1906 so it is not likely that he would have walked down to Main street for a photograph. The first image below of the Middle Street factory steps may include Alfred if it was taken before he left in 1915. He could be the man in the middle of the second row. The second image has the notes from the back of that picture. The third image or the one at http://www.old-town.me.us/nos/pictures/h-444.jpg could include him also.

Benson

 

[bob goeckel]

i was thinking the same about the guy in the doorway with the sailor style hat. a blowup of each face side by side might do the trick.

 

[Benson Gray]

i love old photo's of people from that era.

You may also enjoy the two volumes of "A DAY'S WORK" A Sampler of Historic Maine Photographs, 1860—1920 as described at http://www.tilburyhouse.com/Maine Frames/me_adw_fr.html that was compiled and annotated by W. H. Bunting. It also has a few Old Town Canoe Company images.

An enlarged version of the faces from the hardware store image is attached below. I still can't decide if it looks like Alfred.

Benson

 

[bob goeckel]

i have seen that book. thanks. i tried using my editing software to post side by side photo's of the 2 men but......
now my computer and i aren't talking to each other.

 

[bob goeckel]

here we go:

 

[bob goeckel]

my wife and i think this is the same person.

 

[Benson Gray]

Okay, if Alfred is on the left than the person on the right is probably Sam. Some more guesses are shown in the a compilation of the other images below. The colored squares show Sam Gray in blue, George Gray in red, Herbert Gray in purple, Pearl Cunningham in yellow, and Alfred Wickett in green. My other guess is that the oldest one is on the bottom and the newest one is on the top. Two more pictures like these are shown on page 39 of Sue Audette's book about Old Town Canoe. One of them identifies Alfred and his brother. The image at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/covers/large-80.gif shows that the employees are still occasionally gathering in front of the factory for a photographer.

Benson

 

[bob goeckel]

makes one wonder how many of them were actually canoeist's?

 

[Benson Gray]

makes one wonder how many of them were actually canoeist's?

I suspect that they all knew how to paddle a canoe. The city of Old Town is on an island and the bridge to Indian Island (where many of the employees lived) was not built until the 1950s. The image below shows that the nearby Carleton Canoe Company employees had their picture taken in canoes near where the bridge now stands. The image at http://www.old-town.me.us/nos/Pictures/H-468.jpg shows another angle.

Benson

 

[crosscuts]

Canoe Builders

I would like to hear the voices of each of the men in the photos. In the era of immigration there would probably be accents from every country in Europe.

R.C.