CEO & Entrepreneur™ Magazine

Stories knit time and place together. They tell us what makes a place different from everywhere else. Thoughtful development has led to the business community at Schooner Wharf in Mystic, Connecticut. The structures that comprised the Lathrop Engine Company could have been razed for parking in another town.

Note: Curiosity in life may lead to deep waters where stories abound. Exploring Mystic River Yarns, a yarn shop studio, sparked questions about the distinctive brick building in which it is housed. A visit to Mystic Seaport helped connect the engines preserved there with the heritage of Lathrop Engine Company physical factory setting on the Mystic River. Yet it was the tour by author and maritime historian Stephen Jones, who also is a principal for the LLC that owns and manages the Schooner Wharf properties, that resulted in understanding just how rich a stream of tales I had fallen into. Here is part one. Next, inside businesses and more history of the site (including how farm machinery became “marinized” for work on the water).

Marine engine enthusiasts from around the country recently gathered for the Antique Marine Engine Exposition at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard inside Mystic Seaport. Engines dating from 1889 to 1963 included those manufactured by Evinrude, Johnson, Herreshoff, Palmer, Kriebel, and Lathrop.

“When I went to work there in 1916 they had buildings on both sides of Holmes Street. There were two large shops, a wooden one along the river and a brick one across the street.” - Edward R. Welles. Sr., “Recollections of A Small-Town Mechanic”

Inboards, outboards and steam engines will be on display at the seaport, but just minutes away it is possible to visit the place where the Lathrop engines were created, assembled, tested, installed, repaired.

“When Lathrops installed an engine they would run it out on a truck from the shop down to the dock. We had a chainfall to hook onto the engine while it was on the truck and a derrick would swing it over onto the deck of the boat so we could bolt the engine to the deck,” wrote Edward R. Welles in his book “Recollections of a Small-town Yankee Mechanic,” published by the Groton Public Library. Plentiful photographs accompany the text and allow a glimpse of people, places and boats in an innovative era.

“America may be many things, but dull is not one of them.”

- Douglas Brinkley in The Majic Bus

There is much to see of the original factory, now enhanced by architectural details such as bay windows and a deck with rope railings. The complex includes a popular restaurant, professional office suites, shops and businesses. The space inside was thoughtfully designed from a hallway to connect people (affectionately called the “Panama Canal” as it moves goods and people around the complex). Portions of the original wooden floors, scarred by work, polished by time to a beautiful patina, are still visible.

The attention to detail is by design. Stephen Jones, author, entrepreneur, professor and man of many talents, led a tour of the complex.

“There are other places here where the stone comes up to the floor, sort of like an Aztec pyramid for the drop forge. The whole building is built like that. You can see the old entrances.”

Jones notes that when he first looked at the building, there was a jumble of featureless cubicles and a drop ceiling. Removing those latter-day additions revealed the streaming north light provided from the original factory sawtooth roof.

“When these buildings were built around the 1900s, there was electricity, but not good electricity,” explained Jones. “To do fine work, you need all the light you can get. The north light from the sawtooth roof provided that.”

Jones downplays his role as “landlord for the block” and says it means “I get to wave my arms around and hear people say ‘that will never work.’” Yet it’s evident that there is a vision to this community of businesses and riverfront commerce. And it stems back to when Jones and Hansina Wright were on a journey and stopped in Maine years ago. Side by side were a marine equipment store . . . . and a yarn shop.

“There was something for each of us,” he recalled. Years passed, but that idea of intwined interests, something like a buffet of interests grew. Wright is founder and owner of Mystic River Yarns now. (The couple were married in the yarn studio, located at Schooner Wharf.)

To be continued. In Part Two, why a mix of maritime, yarn, riverfront shops and offices make good business sense for the interesting (and literate) Schooner Wharf. More about local history, too.

Resources: Visit www.mysticseaport.org for details on the weekend event (admission is charged) or for the database with engine specifications.