1.12.2011

RIP EYC



Last night, the Edgewood Yacht Club burnt to the ground (or sea, really). It was a local landmark in the center of the neighborhood where Steven and I hope to move --



"The oldest yacht clubhouse in the state, the Edgewood Yacht Club (1908, Murphy, Hindle & Wright, architects) is the only remaining example of a group once relatively common in this ocean-oriented state. Its form and siting typify those of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century seaside clubhouses. The club which erected and still occupies the building played an important role in promotion of yacht racing in Narragansett Bay.






Established at this location in 1885 as the Edgewood Boat Club, this organization served the nascent, upper-middle-class suburb of Edgewood and included only a group of bayside bathhouses. The Club was formally incorporated as the Edgewood Yacht Club in 1889, and a clubhouse, which replaced the various temporary structures here, was constructed in 1903; its incineration in 1908 necessitated the construction of this structure.

Built on pilings in the water with docks extending into the bay, this building follows the format established for yacht clubs and boat houses in the nineteenth century and continued through the first four decades of the twentieth century. Most, like this one, were two stories high with circumferential verandas: the porches were important functionally to catch the sea breezes and to provide ample room for lolling and watching approaching vessels and their very form recalls the decks of ships. The interiors of these structures were invariably utilitarian, usually finished with matchboard paneling.


Similar structures stood nearby to serve the Rhode Island Yacht Club and the Washington Park Yacht Club; perhaps the most elaborate of the genre was the Narragansett Boat Club on the Seekonk in Providence. All others have disappeared, prey to hurricanes in their vulnerable seaside settings, or destroyed by fires."

text found here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This makes me want to go on a boat ride maybe even a cruise.

-Zane of ontario honey

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