The Noank Shipyard was originally organized by brothers John and Robert Palmer in 1850. Both had previously worked with their father John Palmer Sr.at various locations around Noank. The new shipyard was officially named “R. & J. Palmer” but was generally referred to by locals as simply the “Palmer yard.” Robert took full control of the company in 1879 after his brother’s death and then brought his own son Robert Jr. into partnership in 1880.

The yard was then officially renamed Robert Palmer and Son Shipbuilding and Marine Railway Company. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the shipyard was the largest facility for building and repair of wooden vessels in southern New England, employing over 300 men. The yard specialized in building railroad car floats, schooner barges, and dump scows as well as fishing smacks. Robert Palmer and Son went out of business in 1914 with the passing of the Robert Jr. who was also known in Noank as “Deacon” Palmer because of his close and active connections to the Noank Baptist church. During World War I the yard was reactivated by the Groton Iron Works but fell into general disuse until another resurgence of activity during World War II. After the second world war the yard once again fell into disrepair until Donald Singer purchased it in 1964. Singer turned the old shipyard into a model marina catering to the post war boom in pleasure boating.

After a series of zoning disputes Singer sold the Noank shipyard in 1980. Today, under new ownership, the Noank Shipyard is still a very active marina and repair facility and remains, as was the case with it’s predecessors, a focal point of life in the village of Noank.