B A C K   T H E N

Old Town Canoe

The Old Town Canoe Company became the world’s largest canoe factory. The front section was originally a shoe shop; for some years the top floor was used for the manufacture of Bickmore’s Gall Cure — “Be Sure to Work the Horse” was its ingenious slogan. Canoes and gall cure were both very successful businesses of the Gray family. The second brick addition dated from 1914.

The development of the canvas-covered canoe in the late 1800s is credited to builders from the Bangor and Old Town area, beginning with E.H. Gerrish, followed by E.M. White and batteau-builder Guy Carleton. The Old Town Canoe Company traced back to 1898 when George Gray, the owner of a local hardware store, hired A.E. Wickett to build canoes in the back of the store.

Gray’s entry into the business coincided with the beginning of a national canoe craze, which followed the creation of trolley parks, with canoe liveries, built by trolley lines to attract Sunday ridership. By 1915 Old Town was producing 8,000 canoes a year and 250 paddles daily. Distribution, of course, was made possible by rail freight.

Canoeing, by offering young couples an opportunity for privacy, soon became associated with romance, and, in the fertile minds of moral guardians, scandalous behavior. However, the song “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” preceded the Old Town canoe.

Text by William H. Bunting from Maine On Glass. Published by Tilbury House Publishers, 12 Starr St., Thomaston, Maine. 800-582-1899.

Maine On Glass and prints of the photographs are available through the Penobscot Marine Museum: PenobscotMarineMuseum.org.