Barrett Boat Works

First known as the Spring Lake Clinker Boat Company, Barrett’s was for many years the oldest continuing business firm in Spring Lake. Even before the boat works was founded in 1887, this site had already become one of the most historically significant in Spring Lake.Some people claim that one of the boat works’ original buildings, which later was torn down, was used as early as the 1830s as a trading post. At one time, Barrett’s sales office [a brick building at the back of the property, also demolished] was located in the former office used by the Cutler & Savidge Lumber Company, which had run sawmills on this site. Hunter Savidge later traded a sizeable piece of land to the Clinker Boat Company [the name changed to Barrett’s in 1896] in exchange for a bit of boat work.For many years, another Barrett Boat Works building, the Barber Street School, was maintained on this site by the firm. The school, which was relocated to 102 West Exchange, also had served as a gymnasium, an opera house, and a clubhouse for the original Spring Lake Yacht Club.