Sea horse to come down - for makeover

By Jack Stewardson, Standard-Times staff writer

MATTAPOISETT -- Theodore D. Tetreault likes to call it the seventh wonder of Massachusetts.

He might be a little prejudiced, but again, he has cause to be.

The 86-year-old sign maker and muralist built the Route 6 sea horse that has greeted motorists in Mattapoisett for more than half a century.

"Everybody was always talking about it," says the now retired Fairhaven resident.

The 36-foot sherbet-colored structure at the former Henry Dunseith property will be coming down next week -- but only temporarily.

The Mattapoisett Land Trust, which owns the 3.5 acres at Route 6 and North Street, plans to take the structure down next week to restore and refurbish it as part of plans to make the homestead into a park.

The mid-century Mattapoisett icon will be taken to a local fiberglass specialist for a new skin and other repairs during the winter and will be reinstalled at its familiar site next spring.

"The sea horse is in need of refurbishment from the ground up," said Randall Kunz, president of the land trust's board of directors. "It hasn't seen any serious maintenance for 25 years, right from the steel post that goes into the ground through the fasteners that hold it."

The sea horse was the original brainchild of Mr. Dunseith, who wanted something to attract customers to a gift shop he operated on the premises.

Mr. Tetreault, who got his first experience in signs with the Brinks Sign Co. of South Boston and later ran his own electrical business, was originally commissioned to build an 8-foot-high plywood sea horse to overlook Route 6.

But once it was finished, Mr. Dunseith wanted to think in grander terms.

"He said it looked like a postage stamp and he wanted something bigger," said Mr. Tetreault, who as a maintenance man with the New Bedford Housing Authority also painted several murals at public housing and City Hall.

Mr. Tetreault and his two sons ended up building a bigger, 38-foot- high plywood sea horse that dominated the overlook to the roadway.

Several years later, to protect the huge sign from the elements, Mr. Tetreault and his sons, with the aid of workers from boatbuildler Allan Vaitses, gave it a coat of fiberglass.

It has remained a Route 6 landmark since that time, and although it received a new coat of paint and rewiring in fall 1991 after Hurricane Bob, constant wear and tear from the elements has left its mark.

"It's a friendly face, though there are people who think it's an eyesore," said Mr. Kunz. "But I would say it's at least 2 to 1, maybe more, in favor of keeping it up."

"It needs a new fiberglass skin," said Allan Schubert, the land trust's project coordinator for the restoration. "We will also be taking out all the old, rotted materials and replace it with a tubular frame that will last more than one or two generations."

"Once it's done, we're going to have a sea horse raising and unveiling next spring," he said.

Several volunteers are assisting with the restoration.

Painter Paula Cobb, who gave the sea horse a new coat about eight years ago, will give it a fresh finish once the restoration is complete. Engineer Robert Field is helping to design a new mounting for the sign. Linda Brownell Shea of Brownell Boatyard is providing a crane to move the structure to a repair shed. Boatbuilder Smitty Freitas will put on new fiberglass, and Mr. Vaitses is providing technical advice.

Mr. Dunseith died in 1988 and donated his homestead to the land trust with the provision that it be used for charitable or nonprofit purposes. Plans for the Hearts & Hands organization to use the property fell through in February 1998, and the trust has since concentrated on developing a passive recreational park at the site.

The project is one of three. The others include the purchase of the Tub Mill property and Nasketucket Bay conservation land, under a $220,000 fund-raising campaign. About $130,000 has been raised.

Donations can be made to the Mattapoisett Land Trust, Box 31, Mattapoisett.

"There are going to be some lawns, some benches, and there is a path that now goes to the little brook, which will be mowed and maintained," said Mr. Kunz.

Initial work will involve thinning the overgrowth of trees on the property this weekend.

"It will be a place to go and meet a friend or two, a place to go and sit and contemplate," said Mr. Kunz.

And a place to go and see one of the seven wonders of Massachusetts.