The Seafarers Yacht Club, originally known as the Seafarers Boat Club, is a boating club on the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It has been identified as "one of the oldest—if not the oldest—operating Black boating clubs" in the United States.[2][3][4][5]
Seafarers Yacht Club | |
   | |
| Location | 1950 M Street, S.E., Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°52′45″N 76°58′29″W / 38.87917°N 76.97472°W |
| Built | 1964 |
| NRHP reference No. | 100007666 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 2, 2022 |
In 2022, its clubhouse at 1950 M Street SE was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2]
History
editThe Seafarers Boat Club was established in 1945 by Lewis Thomas Green, an African American public school teacher and boatbuilder in Washington, D.C.[2][6][7] Seeking docking space and having been rejected by the whites-only boating clubs along the Anacostia River, Green worked with the civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune to lease a spot on the river from the U.S. Department of the Interior.[2][6] The hard-won lease at 1950 M Street SE, between the Anacostia Railroad Bridge and John Philip Sousa Bridge on what some described as "one of the worst pieces of land along the riverbank," began in February 1947.[2][7][8]
After growing throughout the 1950s, the yacht club saw membership decline due to increasing pollution of the Anacostia River.[2][9] In the mid-1960s, it merged with D.C. Mariners, another African American club founded by Green's former student Charles Martin, under the name Seafarers Yacht Club.[2][3][6] Green sold the land to this new organization.[2]
In 1964, the Seafarers Yacht Club built a new clubhouse, where members could gather and host social events, as well as a new wheelhouse.[2][5][8] Martin, with the help of his friends and his son Chubby, built the clubhouse by hand.[7][8] It features specially designed canted windows resembling a ship's pilothouse that look out onto the river.[5]
The organization grew again, adding a Women's Auxiliary Club and Junior Boat Club, and it started participating in races around the region.[2] In 1965, it became the first African American boating club to join the American Power Boat Association.[5] To protect the future of the Anacostia River's Black boating clubs, in 1972 the Seafarers Yacht Club worked with Washington Yacht Club and others to found the Anacostia Boating Association.[2][10]
In response to the river pollution that first threatened the club decades earlier, the organization established the now annual Anacostia River Cleanup Day in 1985.[2][3][11] They view themselves as stewards of the polluted and often overlooked waterway, which has seen environmental improvements in recent years.[7][8][9][12]
The Seafarers Yacht Club was the subject of a photography exhibition at the Phillips Collection in 2018.[7] It is featured on both Cultural Tourism DC's African American Heritage Trail and the D.C. Preservation League's Civil Rights Trail.[5]
Present-day
editThe Seafarers Yacht Club has around 45 active members as of 2022.[13] As of 2023, its commodore was Tony Ford.[14][15] The organization aims to maintain a space for affordable boating in an increasingly gentrifying city.[14]
In May 2022, its clubhouse, wheelhouse, and 1947 boat ramp were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, on the basis that "the club is emblematic of the nationwide struggle of African Americans for equal access to facilities and fair treatment."[2][5]
References
edit- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "Seafarers Yacht Club". DC Historic Sites. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ a b c Brown, DeNeen (2011-09-29). "The story of the Seafarers Yacht Club, one of the nation's oldest black yacht clubs". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ Kelly, John (2016-02-08). "Amuse yourself: Remembering a time when black recreation ruled". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ a b c d e f "Historic Landmark Case No. 22-02: Seafarers Yacht Club" (PDF). Historic Preservation Review Board. 2022-02-24. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ a b c Russell, Tonya (2022-05-01). "The Storied History of the Seafarers". Boating Mag. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ a b c d e Okona, Nneka M. (2019-10-04). "Sailing Old Seas". Bitch Media. Archived from the original on 2022-04-15.
- ^ a b c d Harlan, Becky (2017-09-01). "They Built Their Own Boating 'Shangri-La.' Preserving It May Be Just As Hard". NPR. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
- ^ a b Knoblauch, Jessica A. (2021-08-09). "An Infamously Dirty River Is Coming Back to Life Thanks to Community Activism". Earthjustice. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ "Seafarers Yacht Club" (PDF). Government of the District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board. 2021-10-13. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ Krasny, Marianne E. (2018-06-15). Grassroots to Global: Broader Impacts of Civic Ecology. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-1498-6.
- ^ Dvorak, Petula (2023-07-06). "The Anacostia is finally safe to swim. Thank this 91-year-old boat captain". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
- ^ "Seafarers Yacht Club". DC Historic Sites. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
- ^ a b Harlan, Becky (2017-09-01). "They Built Their Own Boating 'Shangri-La.' Preserving It May Be Just As Hard". NPR. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
- ^ Dvorak, Petula (2023-07-06). "The Anacostia is finally safe to swim. Thank this 91-year-old boat captain". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-01-16.