Erie Yacht Club
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| Short name | EYC |
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| Founded | 1895 |
| Location | Erie, Pennsylvania |
| Website | www.erieyachtclub.org |
Established in 1895, the Erie Yacht Club, is a private club located on the shore of Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Erie Yacht Club is to maintain, develop, and enlarge the facilities for yachting and boating, to encourage and develop yachting and other aquatic sports, to promote social recreational activities. To improve yachting and boating facilities at the Erie Yacht Club basin and in the area of the Erie Harbor generally.
On September 14, 1894, George T. Bliss, who served as Erie Yacht Club's Commodore from 1895-1903 and again from 1908-1910, sent out about fifty circulars, information forms and return envelopes to interested parties concerning, "a boating club in Erie that will take all kinds of boats."
His broadside calling for the founding of a club included his proposition that the club would have to have a clubhouse plus a low building to keep sculls, small boat, and equipment. There were many interested "Erieites" among the first to respond, so much so, that a second circular was sent out on September 20, 1894, calling for a meeting on September 20, 1894.
The organizational meeting was held in the Writing Room of the Reed House on North Park Row. The initial meeting was well attended. Forty-eight were on hand and seventeen names were sent in to the proper committee, so the organization started off with practically 65 names on the roll. While the name did not survive, Bliss originally proposed that the club be called the Keystone Yacht Club.
By October, 137 individuals had applied for membership. The first regular meeting was scheduled for November 14 at the Reed house. It was announced that "no charter member will have a vote unless he has paid at least $5 of the initiation, which is $15." All persons becoming members after January 1, 1895, were to be "charged $20 initiation fee and $5 semi-annual dues."
At this point it was time to fish or cut bait. In his May 1896, article in The Rudder, Bliss laconically noted that: "Meetings were held that were well attended until money was suggested. We couldn't get a corporal's guard together for weeks. But we kept at it, and finally on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 1894, the organization was effected." The first officers elected to serve the club were George T. Bliss (Commodore), George Berriman (Vice Commodore), C.C. Wicks (Rear Commodore), E.B. Lynch (Secretary) and Walter Reitzel, (Treasurer). The first members elected to the board of directors were: George Pratt, Charles H. Strong, William Nick, W. Boyd Hays, William P. Atkinson and W. J. Robertson.
The first order of business was to select a site for the new club. The City of Erie leased water lots to the Club at the foot of Myrtle Street, east of what is now the Erie Water Authority Building. After several months of work on the bidding process and construction the Erie Yacht Club's first building was dedicated on July 18, 1895. It was a beautiful two-story building with outdoor decks on the north and west side. Considerations given the ladies were a special entrance so that "they do not have to pass through the house," and the prohibition of liquor. As Bliss wrote in The Rudder: "We allow no liquor to be used or partaken of on or about the premises. This does not prohibit its being left at the club for boat owners, and being taken aboard the boats. We adopted this last rule as an experiment, and it works to perfection."
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