page_title: Schuylkill Navy
section_title: After the Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Schuylkill Navy / Origins / After the Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Flags of the Schuylkill Navy 1870 (color hue edited)
context_page_description: The Schuylkill Navy is an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia. Founded in 1858, it is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States. The member clubs are all on the Schuylkill River where it flows through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, mostly on the historic Boathouse Row.
  By charter, the Schuylkill Navy’s object is "to secure united action among the several Clubs and to promote amateurism on the Schuylkill River." Over the years, the group has had a role in certain ceremonial and state functions. The success of the Schuylkill Navy and similar organizations contributed heavily to the extinction of professional rowing and the sport's current status as an amateur sport.
  At its founding, it had nine clubs; today, there are 16: Fairmount Rowing Association, Crescent Boat Club, Bachelors Barge Club, University Barge Club, Malta Boat Club, Vesper Boat Club, College Boat Club, Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association, Undine Barge Club, Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club, Gillin Boat Club, Conshohocken Rowing Center, Pennsylvania Barge Club, Whitemarsh Boat Club, Sedgeldy, and Pennsylvania Center for Adapted Sports.
context_section_description: Rowing resumed at the end of the Civil War, but many of the fledgling post-war clubs did not last. On August 17, 1865, Pennsylvania Barge Club (the 2nd) and Philadelphia Barge Club were elected to the Navy. Five days later Malta Boat Club and Washington Boat Club (now known as Vesper) joined.
  In 1867 the Navy admitted Iona (the 1st), but Iona terminated its membership after it became part of Crescent Boat Club, which joined in 1868. In April 1868 rowers split from Neptune to form the second Atlantic Boat Club. Keystone (the 2nd) joined the Navy in February 1870, but resigned by the end of the year. Washington Boat Club was renamed Vesper Boat Club in 1870, then resigned in 1871, and was not a member again until 1879. Bachelors resigned in 1870 and did not rejoin until 1882. West Philadelphia Barge Club and College Boat Club joined in 1873 and 1875 respectively.
  On November 11, 1872, the Navy composed the funeral solemnities of General George Meade. In 1876, it held an international regatta in connection with the Centennial Exposition, the largest of its kind to that point.  On April 27, 1878, crews from various clubs of the Navy staged a demonstration to honor President Rutherford B. Hayes's visit to Philadelphia.
  A new Iona Boat Club, chartered in 1876, joined the Navy in 1884, and lasted until 1895. Fairmount Rowing Association, in existence since 1877, was admitted in 1916. In 1924, Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association absorbed West Philadelphia Boat Club. In 1932, under the pressures of the Great Depression, Quaker City Barge Club and Philadelphia Barge Club closed their doors.
caption: Flags of the nine member clubs of the Schuylkill Navy in 1870.
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