15 July 2025

By Göran R Buckhorn

Under a blazing hot sun last Wednesday, people gathered by the Mystic River to witness how local politicians and representatives from Stonington Community Rowing Inc. (SCRI) broke ground for what will be the Mystic River Boathouse Park with the Jim Dietz Rowing Center and Hart Perry Boathouse.

This $5.3 million park project started in 2016 when the town of Stonington purchased the land off Route 27 with the intention of creating a public park on the shoreline on the east side of the Mystic River. The plan was to build a boathouse in the park which was going to be used by the Stonington High School rowing program, a new community rowing program, as well as giving community members access to the river. The project immediately ground to a standstill when parts of the community objected to the architecture of the boathouse. The project was also delayed when an old, asbestos-ridden house on the property was deemed a historical building, due to being located in a historical district, and could not be demolished.

“Over the years this project has navigated a complex myriad of problems; each one of these phases made the project stronger,” Michael O’Neill, President, Stonington Community Rowing, told the local newspaper The Day.

However, now ten years later, a major step to finish the project was taken when eight shovels hit the ground almost simultaneously.

The groundbreaking ceremony began with State Representative Aundré Bumgardner and State Senator Heather Somers presenting a proclamation from the Connecticut General Assembly. This was followed by remarks from other active and former politicians who have been involved in the long process of securing the approvals so the project now can be completed. Representatives from Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and Mystic Aquarium talked about how access to the river will be used in their educational programs. Vice President of Operations at Mystic Seaport Museum, Shannon McKenzie, congratulated the Stonington Community Rowing on finally getting a home next to the Museum. The Stonington rowers have used the Museum’s docks since the early 2000s to get out on the Mystic River.

Mike O’Neill, President, Stonington Community Rowing, mentioned how important it had been that the communities on both side of the Mystic River had come together to see the project being fulfilled. O’Neill recognized John Thornell, SCRI Director of Rowing, for raising $2.3 million for the rowing center and thanked several key donors. He remarked how the sport of rowing had changed the students’ lives long after they had graduated from Stonington High School. The program started nearly three decades ago with a few crews. Last spring, almost 70 students were on the team. Over the years, more than one-third of students continue rowing in college. One recent example is John Thornell’s son Ian, who rowed in an Oxford Brookes University crew at Henley Royal Regatta earlier this month.

Last to give remarks was legendary sculler and rowing coach Jim Dietz from whom the rowing center gets its name. Dietz talked about his illustrious rowing career as a junior (champion in the single sculls in Ratzeburg 1967) and Olympic sculler (1972 and 1976), and he touched on his coaching career. One anecdote followed another. He told the audience how he had been contacted by Hart Perry who came up with the idea to organize a “Mystic Henley”, The Battle Between the Bridges, an event which saw the light of day in 2002. Some of the best scullers in the USA came to race on the river in Downtown Mystic.

Hart Perry had a dream to make Mystic and its river a center for rowing and “it’s sad that Hart cannot be here today to see this,” Dietz said. He continued:

It’s an honor to have a rowing center and boathouse named after you. It’s both humbling and gratifying, and certainly doesn’t happen every day. What I’m extremely pleased about is what my buddies Al Flanders and Willy Castle had said to me when they said, “You know Jim, you’re lucky, most of the time this happens after you are gone”. And I’m so glad that I’m here, and my heart is with Hart that I know is looking down at me right now.

People don’t go into coaching – Hart didn’t go into coaching and I didn’t go into coaching – to make millions of dollars, but you all become rich people by the people you have coached and the lives that you’ve changed, and I’m hoping that this boathouse goes off and changes a lot of lives.

The important thing about boathouses is not so much that they hold boats. But the people they hold inside. My boathouse was a home to me. We had so many characters in my club that influenced us and taught us not only rowing but about life and how to proceed in life and grow with it. My story started back in the Bronx where I grew up in the asphalt jungle and was fortunate enough to be dragged out to a rowing program at the New York Athletic Club, which like Mystic was a beautiful grassy area looking out at beautiful water in Long Island Sound and that changed my life. And it gave me a love for the sport that stayed with me forever.

Among the audience were former Yale coach Steve Gladstone and Gill Perry Millsom, widow of Hart Perry, and local rowers, as well as Mystic Seaport Museum interim president Chris Freeman.

As organizers and politicians gathered to grab a shovel for the first ceremonial dig, a light breeze started to pick up.

“We had more speakers than expected. Someone showed up on the day to help us celebrate the beginning of construction,” John Thornell told HTBS. However, Senator Heather Somers and Anthony Anthony, Chief Marketing Officer, State of Connecticut, were happy to share a shovel.

 The rowing center, boathouse and park are expected to be completed in spring 2026.