page_title: Schuylkill Navy
section_title: Current members
hierarchical_section_title: Schuylkill Navy / Member clubs / Current members
caption_attribution_description: English: Vesper Boat Club, #10 Boathouse Row, Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA.
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: Fairmount Rowing Association
  Established in 1877 and located at No. 2 Boathouse Row, Fairmount is on the National Register of Historic Places. Fairmount gained admission to the Schuylkill Navy in 1916 after it had been rejected for decades. In 1945 the boathouse underwent a huge expansion in which it merged with what was No. 3 on Boathouse Row to create the current Fairmount Rowing Association boathouse. Fairmount has called itself the "premiere club for Masters rowing in the mid-Atlantic region". Recently the club has produced several world class rowers. The club is currently coached by Ahsan Iqbal and is affiliated with La Salle University and Episcopal Academy.
  Pennsylvania Barge Club
  Founded in 1861 and located at No. 4 Boathouse Row, the Pennsylvania Barge Club is also known as the Hollenback House, after William M. Hollenback Jr., who from 1979 to 1985 served as the president of the governing body of rowing, USRowing. It is alleged that painter Thomas Eakins was a member of the Pennsylvania Barge Club as he frequently painted rowers, and one of his close friends, Max Schmitt, is known to have rowed for the club and won the single sculls national championship 6 times. Pennsylvania Barge Club represented the United States at the Summer Olympic Games in 1920 (coxed four), 1924 (coxed four), 1928 (coxed four and four without coxswain) and 1932 (pair with coxswain). In 1955, due to World War II the boathouse suffered a severe decrease in membership and turned its facility over to the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen, which would later become USRowing, to serve as their headquarters. In 2009 Pennsylvania Barge Club was reinstated as a member of the Schuylkill Navy; the club's current president is Michael Ragan, and it is affiliated with La Salle College High School.
  Crescent Boat Club
  Established in 1867 and located at No. 5 Boathouse Row, Crescent Boat Club was one of the first members of the Schuylkill Navy. The club began to be known as Crescent when Pickwick Barge Club and Iona Barge Club merged. Crescent won the double sculls in the first National Association of Amateur Oarsmen regatta, currently known as the USRowing Club National Championships. After World War II, the club, like many others on Boathouse Row, suffered a dramatic decrease in membership and turned the operation of the boathouse over to the La Salle Rowing Association, which controlled it from 1951 to 1960. By 1974 the boathouse was vacant, and was not returned to prosperity until it came under the reins of John Wilkins. The club is now affiliated with Philadelphia University's rowing team and Roman Catholic High School rowing team, which supplies most of Crescent's summer rowing membership. Crescent has the smallest membership to the Schuylkill Navy on Boathouse Row.
  Bachelors Barge Club
  Located at No. 6 Boathouse Row, Bachelors was founded in 1853 and is the oldest continuously operating boathouse in the United States. Founding members of Bachelors were members of a volunteer fire-fighting club called the Phoenix Engine Company. Israel Morris is credited with founding the club, and was elected as its second president. As the name of the club suggests, membership was restricted to "Bachelors"; however shortly after its founding Bachelors opened its doors to married men. Now the vast majority of the club's 150 members are women. Bachelors medaled at the Summer Olympic Games in the single sculls and the coxed four in 1924, the single sculls in 1928, and the double sculls in 1932. More recently Bachelors sent Cody Lowry to the World Rowing Championships in 2009 in the lightweight men's single sculls. Bachelors is currently affiliated with the Conestoga High School, Lower Merion High School, and Radnor High School Men's and Women's teams, along with the Drexel University Men's and Women's teams and a number of smaller programs and independent high school scullers. 
  University Barge Club
  Commonly referred to as UBC, the club is located at No. 7 Boathouse Row, and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Established in 1854 by 10 members of th
caption: Vesper Boat Club
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