Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Industry & Commerce, People

Location

14109 Keuka Village Rd, Hammondsport, NY 14840, USA

Lat/Long

42.4914651, -77.1224041

Grant Recipient

Finger Lakes Boating Museum

Ben Reno was born in Schoharie County in 1856 to Charles and Rebecca Reno. The family later moved to Penn Yan where Charles Reno was a blacksmith for many years. According to Ben’s obituary, he was employed for many years at both the Whitfield-McCormack and Beebe wagon works. This experience and experience gained in his father’s blacksmith shop informed his skill for boat building.

According to author Bill Oben, Ben Reno was probably the best known of the “trout boat” builders and his name became synonymous with rowboats. His design included a sloped transom that allowed easy landing of fish, an adjustable seat and rocker keel. The development of affordable gas-powered outboard motors by the 1930s led to the demised of the wooden rowboat, says Oben.

In a 1941 interview with the Rochester Times-Union, Reno recounted spending summers in a “shack” he built on the end of Bluff Point. He built his own home in Keuka, which no longer stands, and moved into it about 1916. Reno is buried alongside his wife Gene in Lakeview Cemetery, Penn Yan.