Hundreds of canal boats traveled down the Erie Canal bringing grain and other produce to Red Hook's Erie Basin during the early years of the 1900s.  Each canal boat was both storage and a proper home for not just the skipper but a family.   Erie Basin, and before that Atlantic Basin, in between harvest seasons became the home of many a canaler.    Many a newspaper at the time, described their life here in Red Hook as idyllic. 

A reporter for The Sun, in August of 1907 noted that:

• “There is at least one hammock on every boat.“
• “The songs and recitations of the best brands of phonographs help to entertain grown folks and children.”
• “Boats equipped with canned vaudeville invite folks of less fortunate crafts to come aboard and take in the roof garden show.
• Sometimes “Erie Basin it is a bit warm but it is not so warm as the room of a breezeless flat.”

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Text of "Canal Boat Roof GardensI" The Sun, August 4 1907.

This is the season when the Erie Canal navigator, sometimes irreverently referred to as a canaler, takes along his family, generally numerous and nearly always a bit brighter than the average up-State residents, to keep him company.

The canalboat owner, as a rule the skipper also, is the properest man between Buffalo and New York city in the period when his children are on vacation.  He believes in education and he sees to it that the little folks get as much of it as may be had by attendance at the public schools of the various towns along the line of the Erie.

The youngsters look forward to July and August because they know that they will get a fleeting glimpse of many cities of their State and maybe a week or more of pleasure in the biggest show town of the Continent.  It not far from Erie Basin or Coenties slip, where the boats tie up while waiting for cargoes, to Coney Island.  Life  aboard the boats, the cabins of most of which are neater than the dining room of the average country home, is not half so bad as life in the usual run of flats hereabout.  

The skipper is not the man depicted by the old-time generation of humorist.  He does not swear at his mules, many of which nowadays are horses, and he even frowns  upon the driver who indulges in cuss words.

Between this port and Troy, where the horse or mule power is turned off or on, depending on the direction the boat is going, the skipper’s boat forms part of a big tow and he has to do practically nothing except to see that his animals are looked after properly.   He keeps them in good shape, because if he does not they may fail him in an emergency.  It is pleasant sailing from Troy, and after the cargo, usually grain at this season, is discharged the boat ties up with a lot of other mastless craft and the family, particularly the little ones, go in for a good time.

They put on their store clothes, take rides and strolls through the city and trips to Coney.  They do not come back to stuffy rooms.  On the after deck, completely covering the top of the cabins on all boats owned by their skippers are spread awnings, sometimes of the regulation striped stuff and sometimes of canvas.

There is at least one hammock on every boat. Some indulge in the luxury of two and three when the skipper also has aboard besides his family, relatives and neighbors of his home town.  Some of the skippers own only one boat, the cost of building which is about $1500 and some own three and four. 

There is no boat with a child or woman aboard that does not have a pot or more of flowers of its own.  Waterfront missionaries representing the churches contribute to the floral decorations in the hope of attracting the women, most of whom are religious and sweet tempered, to the special church the missionary is trying to help along.  Times have been prosperous recently for the Erie boat owners  and they can afford luxuries that they might have called extravagances some years ago. 

The songs and recitations of the best brands of phonographs help to entertain grown folks and children.  Occasionally a small organ or piano is heard in the fleet.

Boats equipped with canned vaudeville invite folks of less fortunate crafts to come aboard and take in the roof garden show.   Sometimes in Coenties Slip and Erie Basin it is a bit warm but it is not so warm as the room of a breezeless flat.

Sometimes, too, the mosquitoes come when the wind is from the Jersey shore.  Then the careful wife puts up protecting netting and life becomes fairly luxurious one more.