Ownership of this property changed a few times prior to the formation of the Havre de Grace Yacht Club in 1910 (shown on the 1910 Sanborn Insurance Map).

The Yacht Club held its first annual regatta here in 1930 and three years later bought this property from Agnes C. Tolson of Baltimore. The regattas where held for many years with different classes of boats including Jersey speed skiffs and hydroplanes. Winners used to receive cash prizes but after some years, when the prizes had become duck decoys, racers stopped showing up. And the races weren’t held during WWII. There used to be a bathing beach nearby but in the summer of 1942 the City Council closed the beach due to nearby raw sewage outlets into the Susquehanna River.

Omer and Catherine Carson purchased the Yacht Club property in 1942, when their son Robert J. Carson was just a toddler. Robert now is a well-known practicing attorney in Havre de Grace. Some efforts were made to renew the regattas but they didn’t succeed.

It was 1947 when the Mason family, including Myrtle Mason and her son, Ralph B. Mason, became owners the former Yacht Club property and all the property surrounding the Lighthouse. It was in this former Yacht Club building that Marie Kazuko Tomino Mason (1923-2019), Ralph’s first wife, ran the Lighthouse Galley. The Galley was a popular hangout for teens and Armed Forces members in the 1950s and 1960s with indoor and outdoor dancing often taught to them by Marie. Marie also was an accomplished artist and singer, whose stage name later in life was “The Dragon Lady.” The late Charlotte Putland said she loved going to the Lighthouse Galley and playing the pinball machines. Arleen Farrell Coakley spent many evenings at the Galley during the 1950s and Jeanne Hawtin says she loved dancing the night away to the juke box and singing “Irene Good Night” in the Galley. But it was Amy Guy who said the Galley was where her mom and dad met and fell in love to a Platters song on the jukebox. The Galley closed in the 1970s.

Many local people say the Mason family saved the Concord Point Lighthouse—during the 1950s water was lapping against it due to erosion and wearing a tunnel in the land so Ralph Mason and his brother, Richard Mason, and some friends built a bulkhead to protect it; they maintained the property for many years. After Myrtle Mason died, Ralph and his wife, Marie, became the owners in 1965. Ralph and Marie divorced, however, and by 1967 Ralph was married to Clara Villamonte Mason.

In 1976, Ralph and Clara Mason sold a portion of their property to Linda Braterman and Nora Cervenka, who built a contemporary-styled four-bedroom home overlooking the water on the land of the former Yacht Club. Ralph Mason and his wife continued to live on the remainder of the property (at 801 Concord Street), before retiring to Florida. (Marie Mason continued to live in Havre de Grace until 2019, when she passed away.)

In 1995, Linda and Nora sold the waterfront home to Stephen J. “Steve” and Patricia A. “Pattie” Gamatoria, and Charles C. Gamatoria, Sr. (Stephen’s father). Charles was born in Havre de Grace in 1928 and was the youngest son of Umberto Primo DiGiamittorio and Ciula Malatesta DiGiamittorio, both whom immigrated from Italy in 1918 knowing no English. Growing up, Charles earned money with a portable shoe shine chair in front of the First National Bank (now La Banque de Fleuve) or delivering groceries in his wagon for Asher’s Grocery Store. Charles graduated from Havre de Grace High School, Class of 1946, and was an Army veteran of WWII. While he had a career with the C&P Telephone Company he proudly served for 74 years with the Susquehanna Hose Company. An avid fisherman, he likely enjoyed living in this waterfront home with his son, Steve, and wife Pattie.

The family’s purchase of this contemporary home was made possible by a winning Lotto ticket bought by Charles Sr. and Steve Gamatoria in 1994. After living here for several years, they sold the property to the City of Havre de Grace in 2013. The City demolished the house and the property is now an extension of the parkland owned by the City at Concord Point.

County records
Exempt property owned by the Mayor and City Council of Havre de Grace.