54. Demerest Fishing Shanty
As a 14-year-old, Marvin “Demmy” Demerest skipped school to help on a fishing tug and discovered his life’s passion. As soon as Demmy graduated from high school, he became a commercial fisherman. He worked for the Sewers brothers picking, gutting, and packing fish. He cleaned and repaired nets. Eventually he accumulated his own gear and was selling fish to local restaurants for Friday fish fries, peddling smoked chub from the trunk of his car to workers at the Heinz pickle factory in Holland or driving fish to markets as far away as Gary, Indiana.
By the late 1960s, Demmy’s livelihood was squeezed out by declining fish stocks, pollution, and regulations that favored recreational fishing. In 1969 his commercial fishing license was not renewed by the state, forcing Demmy to find new work in construction or on research vessels stationed in Saugatuck.
But Demmy never lost faith that commercial fishing would recover. He purchased the Sewers shanty at 720 Water Street in 1975 and later added a small building to the site in the hopes of opening a retail fish market. In April 2020, Demmy passed away, his dream of getting back in the game never realized.
That summer, high river water flooded the shanty, and the city approved its demolition. The future looked grim. The imminent loss of the area’s last fishing shanty prompted action by members of the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center who reached out to Sean Steele, operator of the adjacent Star of Saugatuck business. Steele leased the Demerest shanty site and agreed, at his own expense, to move the shanty to a dry location. So while the demolition of the shanty was avoided, a new challenge arose in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic: locate a suitable, permanent home for the shanty. While several groups expressed interest, one came enthusiastically forward: John Sharar and Lauren Stanton, owners of Retro Boat Rentals in Saugatuck.
Early in 2021, the shanty was moved to John and Lauren’s warehouse. Restoration efforts began in the spring, starting with sand-blasting to remove multiple layers of old paint at nearby Harrington Metal Fab. At the same time, excavation work began at Retro Boats’ Water Street site to create an elevated concrete pad for the shanty.
In May 2021, the shanty was moved to its pad next door to Retro Boat Rentals. In a plan to bring maximum visitor traffic to the shanty, the site offers both retail and a commercial fishing history exhibit created by local designer Sally Winthers. Retro Boat Rentals handles the daily opening and closing of the shanty, covers all utilities and maintenance, and provides for its security. By bringing new life to an old building, the Historic Demerest Fishing Shanty has a bright future in the community.