Burgin canoes from the Woerd Avenue Boat House in Waltham, Massachusetts

I've seen Arnold canoes but can anyone tell me anything about Burgin canoes from the Woerd Avenue Boat House as listed in the 1921 Waltham, Massachusetts directory at http://doczz.net/doc/1779566/ and below? These businesses weren't far apart so may have been working together.

Benson

 

I had not made that connection but it makes sense. Burgin was with the Waltham Canoe Company in 1906 as shown on the catalog cover. The summary below from https://books.google.com/books?id=wrAVAAAAYAAJ indicates that it was a substantial business at that time (although his name was not spelled correctly). These numbers indicate that Nutting and Waltham were both making about 200 canoes a year (at $30 each). His involvement in the canoe manufacturing business may have been less significant by 1921.

Benson

 

I don't know of any information like this for 1906 but the "Annual Report of the Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics for the State of Maine" from 1910 at https://books.google.com/books?id=TF1KAAAAMAAJ includes the number of people employed in various companies including Old Town and some other canoe builders as shown below.



The Old Town records show that 3100 canoes were produced in 1910 which probably includes Carleton since they were purchased in March of 1910. The table at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/carleton/carleton_chart.html led me to guess that about 800 of that total were probably Carletons. Dan Miller indexed the Kennebec records many years ago so that information let me calculate that they shipped 850 canoes in 1910. The Morris estimates at http://www.wcha.org/content/bn-morris indicate that about 875 canoes were shipped then. Therefore, about 121 canoe builders made an estimated 4825 canoes which works out to just less than 40 canoes per person. This is not much below the estimated annual rate of 50 and 61 per employee for Nutting and Burgin (Waltham) respectively. (My original estimate of $30 per canoe may also be too low for fancy Charles River models.) Fun stuff,

Benson

 

I'll try to clarify a little, even though it is late and I've been away all weekend.

H. P. Bartlett and E. M. Illingsworth started a canoe livery in 1893. (Bartlett had worked for C. P. Nuttings father). Around 1901 they formed the Waltham Boat and Canoe Company, buying into/taking over Robertson & Perry (Charles B. Robertson was nephew of J. R. Robertson).

The business was sold to James Burgin in 1903. Burgin had worked for C. P. Nutting for six years prior. About this time, both Robertson and Perry go to work for J. R. Robertson.

In 1906, Burgin sold the canoe manufacturing part of the business back to Bartlett, retaining the livery part of the business.

Waltham Boat and Canoe burned down June 27, 1912.

Woerd Ave. Boat House is listed as a livery 1910-1915 and as a canoe builder 1917-1923.

 

I recall seeing a hand drawn map identifying the boat houses and canoe clubs in the Auburndale and Waltham areas along the Charles River from the early 1900s but I haven't been able to find it again. Does anyone have a copy to share or can you point me to where I can find it? I would like to find the locations of the Waltham Boat and Canoe Company, Joseph B. Emerson's Boat House (near the Weston bridge in Auburndale), and others. Thanks,

Benson

 

Maybe you are thinking of the David Kingsbury map from Wooden Canoe 141.

 

Yes , thanks,

Benson