Remembering The Shack on Sedge Island
The little red shack on Sedge Island in the Narrow River was a beloved Narragansett icon for decades. Visible due west of the Sprague Bridge, the shack has been enjoyed by people fishing, kayaking, boating, bird watching and simply sightseeing. In November 2016, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service removed the shack, as it had become a hazard. It was razed with demolition equipment already in the area for the Salt Marsh Restoration and Dredging Project.
Sedge Island appears in Land Evidence records in both Narragansett and South Kingstown dating as far back as 1882. The island changed hands several times between the first land evidence record until it was purchased by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2004. USF&WS made several repairs to the shack, attempting to keep it in decent and safe condition, but the elements proved too powerful and the shack deteriorated significantly and became dangerous.
This video was taken in August 2014 and features the shack on Sedge Island. Many thanks to Dale Denelle for sharing the video with us.
Matunuck resident Karl Dillmann remembers many family stories from his grandfather T. William Dixon and mother Peggy Dixon Dillmann, who owned the island from 1927 to 1958.
“The house washed away during the ’38 Hurricane, but [my grandfather] found it and towed it back with his skiff. My mother remembers using block and tackle and with the help of her college friends dragging it back to the foundation. She said that her father fastened it down somehow, saying if there were ever again such a storm, [the house] would be blown to pieces before it would wash away again. It actually was a little fancier back then as the windows and doors were salvaged from the fancy hotels at the Pier after they were torn down.
“My mom’s family lived in Peace Dale and they would spend the summer on the island. My grandfather would get in his boat and go ashore, somewhere near where the South County Museum is now. He would walk up a path and cross Post Road… twice a day so that he could feed his cows. He was the first person on the pond to get an outboard motor.”
See below for more photos
In June of 1946, The Providence Journal dedicated their Sunday Magazine (then called The Rhode Islander) to an article about Peggy Dixon. Photographs of Peggy show her on Sedge Island, which she used as the home base for her lobster business.
Karl Dillmann recalls: “My mom was the first woman in RI to get a lobster license. She would row her Amesbury dory out the mouth of Narrow River to tend her pots. She and her friend Betty were by the mouth of Narrow River the day that U 853 sank the Black Point.”
He remembers his mother describing how seagulls created holes in the shack’s roof by dropping quahogs onto the black rooftop. Peggy and her father corrected this problem by painting the roof green.
Betty Faella of South Kingstown visited the island several summers as a Girl Scout. Led by Jane Place Andrews, Director of Waterfront Activities, a group of girls would board canoes at the Girl Scout Camp at the head of the Narrow River and row down to Sedge Island. There Peggy Dixon would meet them and they would all spend the night on the floor of the shack. Betty recalls using her toes to feel for shellfish in the sand.
NRPA is collecting memories and images of the shack. If you have stories, photographs or artwork of the shack to share, please submit to the NRPA Facebook page or email to nrpa@narrowriver.org.
NRPA and the US Fish & Wildlife Service have created an informational panel all about the little red shack. The panel is located at the southwest corner of Sprague Bridge in Narragansett, overlooking the former site of the shack. The foundation of the shack is still visible on Sedge Island. The panel was installed in September 2019 and an unveiling ceremony was held at the site on September 17, 2019.
Designed by Narragansett resident David Smith, the panel features a brief history of the shack over an oil painting by local artist Pati Sylvia. Images by local photographers Richard Benjamin, John McNamara and Brian Proal give visitors a sense of what the beloved shack looked like before its demise.
NRPA thanks US Fish and Wildlife Service, Jason Considine and Narrow River Kayaks and RI Department of Transportation for their contributions to the panel.
The panel was unveiled on September 17, 2019 at a small celebration. Richard Grant, President of NRPA, and Charlie Vandemoer, Refuge Manager of the Chafee Wildlife Refuge, made brief remarks and then the panel was unveiled. Among those in attendance were Betty Faella and her sister Ann (Kinney) Throop who spent an overnight in the shack each summer when they were Girl Scouts. Karl and Dave Dillmann, sons of Peggy Dixon Dillmann, featured above, were also present.
See below photos from the unveiling.
Photos of the Little Red Shack
Photos of Peggy Dillmann
