Malta Boat Club
Encyclopedia
Malta Boat Club is an amateur rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
club located at #9 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row
Boathouse Row
-Early 19th century beginnings:The history of Boathouse Row begins with the construction of the Fairmount Dam and the adjacent Water Works. The Dam was built in 1810 as part of a lock at the Falls of the Schuylkill to bring coal downriver. The Dam submerged rapids and transformed the Schuylkill...
of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. In 1865, the Club joined the Schuylkill Navy
Schuylkill Navy
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...
when it relocated to the Schuylkill River
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
from the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
and purchased the facilities of the now defunct Excelsior Club. While on the Delaware, the club occupied a house on Smith’s Island where the club stored its boat called the “Minnehaha
Minnehaha
Minnehaha is a fictional Native American woman documented in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. She is the lover of the titular protagonist Hiawatha. The name is often incorrectly said to mean "laughing water", though in reality it translates to "waterfall" or...
”. The Club was founded by members of the Minnehaha Lodge of the Sons of Malta. The Sons of Malta, originally organized in the South, did not survive the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
As four members of the US National Team row out of Malta, the Club was well represented at the 2009 World Championships.
The Boathouse
In 1873, Malta, in conjunction with Vesper Boat ClubVesper Boat Club
Vesper Boat Club is an amateur rowing club located at #10 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1865 as the Washington Barge Club, the Club changed its name to Vesper Boat Club in 1870...
, built a -story boat house. In 1880, the boat house was expanded.
In 1901, brothers George W. and William D. Hewitt
G. W. & W. D. Hewitt
G. W. & W. D. Hewitt was a prominent architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. It was founded in Philadelphia in 1878, by brothers George Wattson Hewitt and William Dempster Hewitt , both members of the American Institute of Architects...
designed more substantial additions including a third story to make Malta the tallest boathouse on Boathouse Row
Boathouse Row
-Early 19th century beginnings:The history of Boathouse Row begins with the construction of the Fairmount Dam and the adjacent Water Works. The Dam was built in 1810 as part of a lock at the Falls of the Schuylkill to bring coal downriver. The Dam submerged rapids and transformed the Schuylkill...
. The Hewitt brothers had been Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
’s partner until 1876, and they designed the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the Bourse Building
Philadelphia Bourse
The Philadelphia Bourse Building was founded in 1891 by George E. Bartol, a grain and commodities exporter. It was modeled after the Bourse in Hamburg, Germany. It was completed in 1895. The architects were G. W. & W. D. Hewitt.-Background:...
, and the Wissahickon Inn
Chestnut Hill Academy
Chestnut Hill Academy, commonly referred to as CHA, is a Pre-K to 12 all-male independent college preparatory school located in northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
.
Prominent members
- Shane Madden - 2009 US National Team member (Lightweight Men's Double Sculls)
- Sam Cunningham - 2009 US National Team member (Lightweight Men's Quadruple Sculls)
- Rich Montgomery - 2007 US National Team member (Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls)
See also
- Mark GerbanMark GerbanMark Gerban is a former professional rower. He is notable as the first rower in history to represent the State of Palestine at the World Championships.Gerban was born to a Jewish mother and Palestinian father in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
- controversial former Malta member competing for PalestineState of PalestinePalestine , officially declared as the State of Palestine , is a state that was proclaimed in exile in Algiers on 15 November 1988, when the Palestine Liberation Organization's National Council adopted the unilateral Palestinian Declaration of Independence...
in Lightweight Men’s Single
External links
- Malta Boat Club on wikimapia.org