Segment 3: Rex Marine Finds a Home on the Harbor

When Lou acquired the Chris-Craft dealership in 1936, there were signs that the economy might finally be recovering from the Great Depression. Although we now know the Depression stretched roughly from 1930 until the early 1940s, by 1936 there was a sense that the worst might be over.

Lou’s trucking business had managed to survive the difficult years of the Depression, and this cautious optimism likely gave the financially conservative Lou the confidence to enter the boating business.

On November 14, 1940, Lou purchased the first of three parcels of land that now make up the Rex Marine property on Water Street in Norwalk. This first parcel was roughly 100 feet wide and extended from Water Street to the harbor’s edge.

The land had previously been occupied by the Sealshipt Oyster Company, which had constructed a large two-story wooden building on pilings over the water. When the company went out of business in 1914, the property eventually became available.

The adjacent land had been used in the 1800s as a dumping ground where trash was carted to the shoreline and burned. As buildings were later constructed at Rex Marine, evidence of this past was often discovered during excavation, including numerous nineteenth-century glass bottles deformed by the heat of the fires.

During the years of World War II, Lou’s trucking company became an important part of the local wartime economy. Contemporary reports noted that LJ Gardella Trucking was the only local company equipped to move heavy machinery required for vital defense work. Much of this work took place during nights and weekends.

During the war, recreational boating was largely suspended. Concerns about German submarine activity along the East Coast led to the creation of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.

In 1942, Lou Gardella, Dom Lametta, and other Norwalk residents organized Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 72. Their early headquarters were located on the second floor of Lou’s former Sealshipt building.

Members of the flotilla patrolled local waters and Long Island Sound, protecting the shoreline and watching for suspicious activity. Flotilla 72 remains one of the oldest Coast Guard Auxiliary units in the country and continues to serve area boaters today.

The harbor became home, but the timing would soon change everything.

Up Next: How the End of the War Sparked a New Era for Boating... and for Rex Marine.