Larry's Marina, Merrimac Street, Amesbury Ma

Great photo! The darker house at the upper left was always hit by cars in the winter! This was the Allan B Marina at this time I believe. The single dock at the right coming off of Alliance Park, was for a SeaBees boat. The bridge over the Powow River was a rotating bridge. Men would put a huge set of handles into the center of the bridge and open the bridge by pushing the handles in a circle. It looks like Route 495 construction is in the background. The bridge stopped opening when town sewage was installed and piped went across the bridge.

True, cars ran into that house. I lived up the street at 330 Main St. Now it's the house just south of 495. The original marina was Rand's Marina. Before that it had oil storage tanks on top off 4 foot high areas with concrete walls. Rand built his house on top of that and the marina around it. Back in the 50s I worked there as a teenager with his son Jim. We bought graduated from Amesbury High in 1961. Our family had a boat docked there and Rand helped the Sea Scouts rebuild an old Liberty launch boat. Cut an old cabin in half building one on thr bow area and the other back over the engine compartment. Left a nice 8x8 open deck area in between. The launch was used to help search and guard the east coast during WWII. We had to remove all the iron plating on it's hull, leaving thousands of screw holes! We re-cocked the seams, but how to fill the holes? Would you believe with Thousands of wooden Golf Tees! Bang' me in, knock off the top! Us Sea Scouts traveled to Cape Cod and other sites in the north east.

Hello Ray Butbank if you have any photos we would love to see them. If not, that is okay too, but please come down to the marina and tell us some stories.