The Shipman Mansion

The history of a place can be traced through its artifacts. On Wednesday, October 23, the history of the Delaware River will be revealed through the story of one of its long-lost sailboats, the Corinthian One Design, in a program that begins at 7 p.m. in the Shipman Mansion, 221 Edgewater Avenue, Edgewater Park, N.J. John Brady, president and chief executive of Philadelphia’s Independence Seaport Museum, is overseeing the reclamation of two Corinthian sloops. His talk, free to the public and presented by the non-profit Shipman Mansion Foundation, is informed by his knowledge both of the sloop and of the history of the river on which she was designed to sail. Corinthian sloops were commissioned in 1949 by the Corinthian Yacht Club in celebration of the peace following World War II and environmental efforts at the time to clean the nearby Schuylkill River of a century of accumulated coal dust. Eight of the 23-foot wooden boats were built in Holland and brought to the Delaware River to race near Tinicum Island, just south of what is now Philadelphia International Airport. Brady’s talk will delve into the design of the boats and the environmental deficiencies in the Delaware that would shape the history of Corinthian sloop competition and river restoration. The program, the second in the autumn 2019 series, is offered by the tax-exempt Shipman Mansion Foundation in the furtherance of its mission: the restoration of the 1869 mansion – home to the Red Dragon Canoe Club – as well as the examination, preservation and presentation to the public of the architectural, cultural and maritime heritage of Edgewater Park and its environs. Tours of the historic mansion begin at 6 pm.