86. Water Taxis

Date: 1914-1923

George Cary Wright moved to Saugatuck in 1909 to work as agent for the Crawford Transportation Company that was run by his brother-in-law. The Crawford line owned steamships that traveled between Saugatuck and Chicago. When the company failed in the fall of 1912, George stayed on in the area. In 1914, he started the Wright Line, a company that ran a boat launches to the beach, and occasionally to other venues such as Douglas for services at the Catholic Church on Sunday. Every evening one of the boats went to Lake Macatawa to pick up passengers from the Chicago-bound boat from Saugatuck. Wright’s vessels were the Wolverine and the Wm. Cary, which had been specially built for him in Grand Rapids. In 1919 George C. Wright moved his family to Saugatuck, buying property at the foot of Allegan Hill. There, in 1923, he built a 30 by 50 foot dance and refreshment pavilion. It had an arched roof outlined with lights, just like the Big Pavilion down the street, and served as the waiting room for his beach launches that departed from a dock behind the building. Wright’s Pavilion was later converted into a gas station. Today it is the private residence at 415 Lake Street.

Prior to the opening of Oval Beach 1936, boat launches were the least-laborous way to reach the beaches. Other local water taxi operators were Charles Bird, Bob Hoy, Charles Greenhalgh and Henry Shriver.