Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 2 2 16 About The Craftsman: Thomas J. Lauria Thomas J. Lauria was born in the Bronx, New York in 1952. He started building kit models when he was about seven years old and was hopelessly hooked. When he was in his early twenties, he met William Quincy, a master model builder at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Mr. Quincy patiently answered all of Lauria's questions on a host of model related topics, and it changed the way Lauria thought about models and building them. Shortly after, he joined the Nautical Research Guild and eagerly devoured all the information contained in their quarterly journals. Numerous trips to all the maritime museums in the northeast furthered his modeling education. He started restoring half hulls for the Larchmont Yacht Club in New York, and in 1987, moved to Nantucket where model building became a fulltime job. In 1994, Lauria and his family moved to Cape Cod, where they live today. He is still accepting commissions and is an active member of the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild. Being a Guild member has been another important step in Lauria's life. The Guild has such a wide range of members with so many varied interests and knowledge that it has proved an inexhaustible resource for anything nautical or model related. To learn more, visit Lauria's website at www.tjlauria.com. ma. "In agreeing to undertake this project, I was going to irreversibly alter another model builder's work and intention," he said. Since the model in front of him was constructed from a historically inaccurate kit, he decid- ed that altering it would be beneficial because it would become more educa- tional and bring increased awareness to a piece of local history. He remarked, "I strongly believe that changing the focus of this model, in this case specif- ically, served a much greater good than if it was displayed in its original config- uration and condition." With a sizable collection of archival photos of the Berry provided by the Bay Head Historical Society, Lauria had little trouble focusing on the vessel's specific details. He eliminated the cabin between the vessel's masts, which was added sometime after Dale's restoration, and installed a cargo hatch instead. Other revisions Lauria chose to make for accuracy purposes included correcting the transom to overhang the sides of the boat, crafting and installing dec- orated trailboards, nameboards, and transom decorations, and placing the masts in the correct locations. "With any large project, I always give the client a photo and text doc- ument detailing everything I did, my reasons for doing them, and the mate- rials I used," Lauria said. He regularly provided updates about his progress to the Society and kept meticulous notes about every step of the restoration. It took Lauria approximately one BEACHCOMBER F. SLADE DALE AND THE EMMA C. BERRY, continued from page 15 hundred hours to fully restore the Emma C. Berry model, which returned home to the Bay Head Historical Society's museum just in time for their 2022 season. She is home inside The Slade Dale Cottage (circa 1923), located on the historical Loveland Homestead, with the ten-foot Emma C. Berry tender boat just outside the Editor's Note: The Bay Head Historical Society Museum/Loveland Homestead is located at 1643 Bay Avenue (on the corner of Bridge and Bay Avenues) in Point Pleasant. The Loveland Homestead houses artifacts, memorabilia, photographs, furniture, decoys and other treasures from the early years at the head of Barnegat Bay. Worthy of note are original Gerard Hardenburgh paintings and carved decoys by Kenneth Loveland, the Birdsall family, and many others. The museum's wonderful collection of photographs, contributed by William C. Schoettle, is particu- larly noteworthy for its comprehensive look at the head of Barnegat Bay as it was in its heyday (the mid 1880s to about 1940). The Slade Dale Cottage is a tribute a man who, as a youth, was a noted sailor in this area and who continued throughout his life to engage in memorable sea voy- ages and bay races. On display are several boat models that represent his life of adventure as well as the Emma C. Berry tender. The museum and Slade Dale Cottage are open to the public June through December on Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. For more information and current hours and exhibits, visit www.bayheadhistoricalsociety.com. cottage's entrance. F. Slade Dale's enormous contri- butions to the local maritime com- munity, one which he helped build, will never be forgotten thanks to the efforts of the Bay Head Historical Society and the craftsmanship craftsmanship of Thomas J. Lauria. —Jill Ocone The Bay Head Historical Society Museum/Loveland Homestead and Slade Dale Cottage with the Emma C. Berry tender. Jill Ocone

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