Some decades before this building for the Havre de Grace Water Treatment Plant was constructed there was a lot of activity on the water between Warren and Franklin Streets. The 1885 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the City Water Works here with Halls Coal Wharf extending into the river. By 1904 the Sanborn Map shows the Susquehanna Boat Works behind the City Pumping Station; the Boat Works, however, was taken over that year by The Susquehanna Marine Works Company. Clarence C. Pusey (1864-1922) had been the owner of Susquehanna Boat Works and became President of the new company, for which he designed many of the boats. In the May 1905 edition of Marine Engineering the new company announced that it “designs and builds speed launches, auto boats, gasoline power fishing boats and oyster dredges, sailing vessels and steam tugs.” In 1909, reference was made to Pusey’s “Wild Cat” and “Edwina,” in the Power Boat News, April 29, 1909. The 1910 Sanborn Map, however, shows the Susquehanna Marine Works had gravitated a little further north on the water, and the George Albaugh Ice Factory was on the water between the Pumping Station and Franklin Street.

In the 1920s, the Shoe Repairing Shop of Eugene Vigna (1889-1965) was located at 401 St. John Street. He did “While You Wait” repairs and also used “Goodyear rubber heels.” He was married to Luigina Mazzuca Vigna (1894-1977); Rita Vigna Tarquini was their daughter, who helped them begin the very popular Vigna’s Restaurant at 406 St. John Street in the 1950s-1970s and then took it over.

The Riverview Tavern, also known at times as Boyle’s Bar or Boyle’s Golden Inn, was on this northeast corner of Franklin and St. John Streets from the late 1940s into the early 1970s. First owned by Andrew Sanner, the bar was then run by John “Horace” Walker and Tom O’Connor; and later by Charlie Boyle (1916-1978) and Emma Boyle (1911-1978). Charlie used to collect miniature dog houses and had a line of them on a shelf above the bar.

People remember playing shuffleboard in the Riverview Bar where they had a separate board for ladies in the dining room. Kathleen Walter has fond childhood memories of Emma Boyle taking kids into the kitchen and feeding them. But John Ford remembers it being the scene of his first ambulance call! Leroy Clark remembers shining many a pair of shoes there when he was young. Kathy Yoder-LeGrand said Emma Boyle’s crabcakes were the best in town; this may have contributed to their doing a great lunch business with former American Cyanamid and Huber employees. But Boyle’s was popular for breakfast too—Charles Carter recalls his Dad and uncles having breakfast there before going duck hunting. They kept their boat at the pier behind the bar. Jackie Barton’s amusing memory is that the Boyles’ dog “Poggo” would get cigarettes out of the machine if you gave him a Rolling Rock beer and he also stole wallets out of people’s back pockets!

Bessie and Roman Schmechel (1893-1955) owned the land where the Riverview Bar was located and had sold a small piece of that land to the Mayor and City in 1944. Roman had served in WWI and is listed on the Honor Roll in Tydings Park. They had built a home in 1932 at 800 South Union Avenue where they lived. After Roman’s death, Bessie Schmechel sold the remainder of this land to the Mayor and City in 1973. That’s when The Riverview Bar was demolished to make room for the City Pumping Station extension—the water filtration plant.

County Records
Built 1967. 42,467 sq ft exempt comm., 48,200 sq ft lot.