9
Courant
, announcing acquisition of the Shattuck barge.
The article declared “visitors to Mystic Seaport now
have the opportunity of touring the grounds on board a
horse-drawn barge, a two-horse, bus-type wagon that
carries 20 persons on a tour over the cobblestoned Sea-
port Street and other streets within the Seaport area.”
“On Saturdays and Sundays,” the article continued,
“the barge goes from the Seaport to the Mystic Railroad
Station to meet the excursion train from New York and
carry as many passengers as its capacity permits….The
barge, long used at St. Paul’s School, was presented to
this association recently by the trustees of the school….
[I]t began its use at St. Paul’s well before 1900…[and was]
used to transport the boys on the crews of the two boat
clubs from the school to Long Pond, a distance of approxi-
mately two miles. The barge being used at Mystic Seaport
is the larger of two belonging to the Shattuck Club.”
A 1970 reference in
AH
to the Shattuck barge by former
Rector Bill Oates announced the School’s hope that the
eturned to Concord
vehicle would be visiting the School “from a museum in
Canterbury, N.H., to which it was given by the School.”
That reference was part of a 100th anniversary cele-
bration of the founding of the Shattuck and Halcyon
boat clubs, and likely referred to the smaller of the two
Shattuck vehicles.
According to a letter written by a Susan Green and
published in the spring 1985
Alumni Horae
, the Shattuck
Wagon was donated to the Mystic Seaport Museum in
Connecticut and eventually made its way to the Arroyo
Seco Historical Park in Richmond, Texas, which was
attempting to restore the vehicle.
In the spring, the City of Concord plans to display the
Shattuck Wagon and the other six vehicles acquired.
Do you have any other information about the
history of the Shattuck barges produced by
Abbot-Downing? If so, please let us know.
A barge similar to this one, shown near the turn of the century, was used to transport students to and from Long Pond.
