New panel celebrates red shack on Sedge Island in Narrow River

The little red shack on Sedge Island in the Narrow River was a beloved Narragansett icon for generations. Visible due west of Sprague Bridge, the shack was enjoyed by people fishing, kayaking, boating, bird watching and simply sightseeing. By November 2016, it had become a hazard and was removed.

Narrow River Preservation Association (NRPA) and US Fish & Wildlife Service have worked together to create an informational panel in remembrance of the shack. The panel was unveiled on Tuesday, September 17 at the south west corner of Sprague Bridge overlooking Sedge Island and the still visible remains of the shack’s foundation.

All are invited to visit the panel which is located at the southwest corner of Sprague Bridge in Narragansett along Route 1A, Boston Neck Road.

A brief unveiling ceremony featured remarks from Richard Grant, President of Narrow River Preservation Association, and Charlie Vandemoer, Refuge Manager of the Chafee Wildlife Refuge, US Fish and Wildlife Service. Betty Faella of Kingston and her sister Ann Kinney Throop recalled their time as Girl Scouts who paddled to the shack and spent the night once each summer. Karl and David Dillmann attended to see the panel, which includes stories about their mother, Peggy Dixon Dillmann, who spent summers at the shack lobstering.

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.

Sedge Island appears in Land Evidence records in both Narragansett and South Kingstown dating as far back as 1882. Owned by families including the Nichols, Knowles, Pollocks, Saunders, Dixons and Spearins, the island changed hands several times between the first land evidence record until it was purchased by the US 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. In November 2016, the shack was razed with demolition equipment already in the area for the Narrow River Salt Marsh Restoration and Dredging Project.

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.”

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.”

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 paddle 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.

Many thanks to Narrow River Kayaks and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for their support of this project.