At the east end of Warren Street on the water was the Havre de Grace Water Company Wharf about a century ago. The 1910 Sanborn Insurance Map shows a row of eight small buildings named “Saw Tooth Row,” and labeled as “tenements.” They appear to have been by the water behind what we now know as the Joseph L. Davis Post No. 47, American Legion of Havre de Grace building. Also located in the Wharf area was a small piece of land known as the “Mackin Property,” once owned by John Mackin (1886-1951) which is now part of the American Legion property. There was a fish house and storage area there also, which changed hands several times.

Around 1930 there was a popular fish market in this general area owned by Arthur H. “Herb” Gilbert, father of J. Lawson Gilbert (who later owned Gulf Oil on Water Street). Herb’s fish market is the small building to the right side of a photo of the store of M. Harman, who sold boots, shoes, and clothing here in the 1880s (and about whom there’s a story at 727 Warren Street). Herb Gilbert was married to Margaret Walsh Gilbert, whom he married in 1891. The Morning News from Wilmington on February 12, 1930, reported: “The fish market of A. H. Gilbert, an old-time professional baseball pitcher, in Havre de Grace, was entered by thieves a few nights ago and several gallons of oysters stolen. This is the second time the place has been burglarized within the past month.” Gilbert advertised in 1931, “Fish Cleaned and Delivered anywhere in the City.” Herb Gilbert and his wife later lived on Bourbon Street and he died in 1936 at the Perry Point Veterans Hospital.

The Susquehanna Fish Company was located here behind the American Legion building from the late 1950s to the late 1970s and many locals recall buying fresh fish here. This market, run by Walter Strong and John Way, burned down in the late 1970s. They advertised in local newspapers in the 1950s that they sold fresh fish wholesale and retail from the boat daily; that rockfish, white perch, shad and herring were running; and that they were open Sundays. Walter Strong’s wife was Fannie and the fish house at one time was called Fannie’s Fish House. Walter drove an old Cadillac, and kids in the 1950s thought the way Walter and Fannie yelled at one another, with Fannie using broken English in her shrill voice, was hilarious! Stan Rodia, who lived on St. John Street, spent many days down near Fannie’s Fish House fishing with Sheila Griffith and her family.

Chuck Davis recalls that one day in the 1970s, Walter paid him to wash his Cadillac and he did such a good job Walter hired him to wash the windows of his house. Then they brought in a 55-gallon barrel of catfish that morning, which Chuck had to then skin and clean.

It was on this lot many years later, in 1992, that Robert Wood built his current home. This single family contemporary home of Robert and L. Jane Wood was opened to the 1993 Candlelight Tour, and described as follows: The stained cedar residence sits on stilts in the water of the Susquehanna River, behind the American Legion. Bob Wood built the home himself and also built the 64-foot sailboat (“Hummer”), then tied to the nearby slip. The house contains a living room with dramatic white walls, a cathedral ceiling and wooden beams. The mantel and woodwork are of pine, rich in color. A wall of glass doors on the river side opens to a full deck below, with a swimming pool surrounded by tasteful landscaping and a recreation area beneath the house.”

Bob Wood built his 40-ton Hummer sailboat with steel hull and 80-foot mast over a period of six- and-a-half years, beginning in 1979. Both of the Woods are avid and accomplished sailors, having sailed to many parts of the world. Bob Wood and Burt Hawkins had their own construction company—Har-Ce Construction, in the 1970-1980s. They sold it and it went out of business in the 1990s. Bob Wood still lives in the home but the “Hummer” now sails in the waters of the state of Washington.

In 1999, the Woods deeded the property to Nick G. and Elena P. Conits of St. John Street, subject to a life trust for the survivor of the Woods.

County Records
2160 sq ft, 1 story, 2 baths, garage, pool, fireplace, .41 acre lot,