ROWBOAT
This boat, constructed in 1935, was the last boat built by George Young (1871-1935) of Bartlett’s Harbor. His boat shop is now a guest house on West District Road.
George built a large number of beautifully crafted rowboats in the shop where he also built bird houses and fashioned ash ax handles and maul handles which had a ready market at the local stores. Additionally, George made ash and spruce oars entirely by hand. Elsewhere on his property, George built ladders and fence gates.
George built this boat for Carl and Beatrice Van Ness who summered on North Haven and were a part of the Bartlett’s Harbor artists’ colony. Beatrice Whitney Van Ness (1888-1981), whose descendants still spend their summers on North Haven, studied, and later taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Van Ness’ early work was influenced by Tarbell and the Boston School. She studied here on North Haven with Frank Benson, and later was the founder of the Arts Department at Beaver Country Day School in Massachusetts.
Mary Crocker (daughter of Carl and Beatrice) gave the boat to David Haskell who, in turn, donated it to the North Haven Historical Society in 1998.
The year this boat was built was the same year that both George and his wife, Mabel, died.
George built a large number of beautifully crafted rowboats in the shop where he also built bird houses and fashioned ash ax handles and maul handles which had a ready market at the local stores. Additionally, George made ash and spruce oars entirely by hand. Elsewhere on his property, George built ladders and fence gates.
George built this boat for Carl and Beatrice Van Ness who summered on North Haven and were a part of the Bartlett’s Harbor artists’ colony. Beatrice Whitney Van Ness (1888-1981), whose descendants still spend their summers on North Haven, studied, and later taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Van Ness’ early work was influenced by Tarbell and the Boston School. She studied here on North Haven with Frank Benson, and later was the founder of the Arts Department at Beaver Country Day School in Massachusetts.
Mary Crocker (daughter of Carl and Beatrice) gave the boat to David Haskell who, in turn, donated it to the North Haven Historical Society in 1998.
The year this boat was built was the same year that both George and his wife, Mabel, died.
Boatbuilder George Young
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Beatrice, Sylvia, and Carl Van Ness
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