I.D. help

brenda bezio

New Member
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Hello! I’m hoping to get some information on a canoe that hopefully can be restored.
It measures 14’ with serial # on the stem 96548. She’s beautiful, any help would be appreciated
 
Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 96548 is a 13 foot long, CS (Common Sense or middle) grade, fifty pound model with red Western cedar planking, open spruce gunwales, oak decks, oak thwarts, oak seats, a keel, and a floor rack. It was built between December, 1927 and February, 1928. The original exterior paint color was brilliant green. It shipped on March 22nd, 1928 to Brooklyn, New York. The back side of the card shows that there were previous requests for a copy of this build record in July, 1975 from Hilton, New York and in November, 1976 from Cato, New York. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found below.

These scans and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See https://www.woodencanoe.org/about to learn more about the WCHA and https://www.woodencanoe.org/shop to donate or renew.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Good luck with the restoration,

Benson



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It's interesting that the store it shipped to was Von Lengerke & Detmold. Von Lengerke & Antoine was a sporting goods store in Chicago, which also carried Old Town Canoes. Both stores were acquired by Abercrombie & Fitch, though ten years apart: VL&D in 1928, VL&A in 1938. It's speculative at best, but an interesting possible connection.
 
Also interesting that it was owned at one time by Jack McGrievey. He was a low number member and very active in the WCHA until his passing a few years ago.
 
Jack may not have actually owned the canoe - as a restorer, he may have requested the record while working on the canoe for a customer, and his request would have been recorded in this way as well.
 
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