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Minnesota Boat Club, 1870–1900

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Minnesota Boat Club, ca. 1885. Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman.

Minnesota Boat Club, ca. 1885. Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman.

The Minnesota Boat Club (MBC) was founded by ten young men in 1870 at a time when rowing was wildly popular throughout the country. Over time, additional clubs were established in Minnesota, intensifying the competition. After earning a national reputation, MBC encountered financial difficulties and faltered.

In 1868, John W. L. Corning relocated from New York City to St. Paul. Like many enterprising young up-starts, he was drawn to Minnesota’s untapped resources and rapidly expanding transportation network. He had shipped his single rowing shell down the Atlantic coast to New Orleans and then up the Mississippi River to the head of navigation in St. Paul.

By the late 1860s, rowing had become a national craze. Professional rowers were in the spotlight as the country’s first sports celebrities. When Corning launched his shell into the Mississippi River for the first time, a crowd gathered on the Wabasha Street Bridge to watch, thrilled that the sport had finally arrived in St. Paul.

Rowing quickly took hold in the city, and on March 1, 1870, ten ambitious young men formally organized the Minnesota Boat Club (MBC). With limited resources, the team stored its boats in a leaky, floating, covered-over scow anchored to the foot of the Robert Street Bridge.

Despite MBC’s crude boathouse, the new club attracted a steady influx of new members, including men of means who were able to secure its finances. On December 18, 1873, the Minnesota Boat Club was formally incorporated, and immediately thereafter it leased the western half of Raspberry Island from Daniel D. Merrill. By early 1874, MBC had completed construction on its first boathouse.

When MBC hosted its first Fourth of July Regatta in 1874 to showcase the new boathouse, the event immediately became a crowd-drawing annual tradition. Invited spectators watched the races from Raspberry Island; others watched from the Wabasha Street Bridge or the bluffs along Third Avenue. The men of MBC competed against each other in single and double sculling races in which they held two oars, one in each had. They also raced fours, in which each man held just one oar. After the starting pistol’s shot rang out, the men raced from the Wabasha Bridge upriver one mile, turned 180 degrees around a stake, and then powered back downstream to the boathouse. This out-and-back racecourse enabled spectators to see both the start and the finish of each race.

In 1877, MBC purchased the land they had been leasing on Raspberry Island, securing an advantageous location just a short walk from downtown St. Paul. That year they attended their first out-of-state regatta at Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin, where they competed against clubs from Milwaukee and Chicago. They captured victories in the single-, double-, and four-oared races, marking the beginning of a more competitive era.

By the mid-1880s, competitive rowing was intensifying throughout Minnesota. In 1885, a second rowing club, the St. Paul Boat Club, was organized in St. Paul, with a boathouse situated just east of MBC on Raspberry Island. The following year, the two St. Paul clubs, together with the Winnipeg Rowing Club, formed a new international rowing association: the Minnesota and Winnipeg Amateur Rowing Association. The association presented Minnesota’s rowing clubs with a formal opportunity to compete for trophies and prizes. A victory in its signature event, the Senior Four (senior events were for oarsmen who had secured a previous victory), was a coveted honor.

In 1887, MBC retained John A. Kennedy, an ex-professional rower, as its first coach. Kennedy had a reputation for instilling a sense of courage and determination in his crews. Under Kennedy, MBC became increasingly competitive, benefiting from his dedicated, long-term leadership. In 1893, the team enjoyed an outright winning streak that earned the club and their coach a national reputation.

MBC’s glory years were short lived. By the mid-1890s, golf and tennis were overtaking rowing in popularity. MBC encountered financial difficulties and its fleet fell into disrepair. In 1897, MBC laid off its beloved coach, John Kennedy, and by the end of the 1890s competitive rowing in the Twin Cities had come to a halt.

For the next decade, MBC continued to train and put boats on the water, but without a coach and in a much-reduced capacity. In 1903, the Minnesota Boat Club began positioning itself again for competitive rowing. Today, nearly 150 years since its founding, the club continues to put boats on the water and sends competitive athletes to local, regional, and national regattas.

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“Additional St. Paul News—For A Big Regatta—Steps Taken by the St. Paul Boat Club Directors.” St. Paul Daily Globe, January 10, 1886.

Denegre, James D. “The Minnesota Boat Club: What it Has Been, What It Is, and What It Hopes to Be.” Razoo 1, no. 9 (November 27, 1905): 1.

“Help the Boat Club.” St. Paul Daily Globe, July 7, 1895.

Kirkwood, W. P. “The Minnesota Boat Club.” Bellman (July 31, 1909): 909–913.

Mendenhall, Thomas Corwin. A Short History of American Rowing. Boston: Charles River Books, 1981.

[No headline.] Chicago Daily Tribune, June 22, 1877.

“The Minnesota Boat Club—Preparations for Its Fourth of July Regatta.” St. Paul Daily Globe, June 8, 1885.

“The St. Paul Boat Club.” St. Paul Daily Globe, November 22, 1885.

Related Images

Minnesota Boat Club, ca. 1885. Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman.
Minnesota Boat Club, ca. 1885. Photograph by Charles A. Zimmerman.
Minnesota Boat Club members with trophy, 1893.
Minnesota Boat Club members with trophy, 1893.
The cover of the sheet music of “The Minnesota Boat Club March,” composed by Emile Oberhoffer and published in 1893. From folio M1658.M55 C65, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
The cover of the sheet music of “The Minnesota Boat Club March,” composed by Emile Oberhoffer and published in 1893. From folio M1658.M55 C65, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
The Minnesota Boat Club racing on the Mississippi River, St. Paul, ca. 1890.
The Minnesota Boat Club racing on the Mississippi River, St. Paul, ca. 1890.
Charles T. Corning. From Leavitt Corning, “The Minnesota Boat Club: History of the Organization Which Has Stood for Nearly Two Score Years for the Best in American Amateur Athletics,” Razoo 1, no. 3 (February 1903): 9–13.
Charles T. Corning. From Leavitt Corning, “The Minnesota Boat Club: History of the Organization Which Has Stood for Nearly Two Score Years for the Best in American Amateur Athletics,” Razoo 1, no. 3 (February 1903): 9–13.

Turning Point

The Minnesota and Winnipeg Association forms in 1886. As it grows, it opens up opportunities for formal rowing competition and leads Minnesota groups like the Minnesota Boat Club (MBC) to seek out professional coaches.

Chronology

1870

The Minnesota Boat Club (MBC) is organized by ten young men: Charles T. Corning, J. Dock Dean, George S. Acker, Norman Wright, Charles P. Noyes, Ed. H Cutler, Stanford Newel, J. Perry Gribben, E. W. Johnson, and John W. L. Corning.

1873

MBC is formally incorporated on December 18, 1873, and immediately thereafter leases the western half of Raspberry Island from Daniel D. Merrill.

1874

MBC builds its first boathouse on Raspberry Island and hosts its first annual Fourth of July Regatta.

1877

Minneapolis’ first rowing club, the Lurline Rowing Club, is organized on the shores of Lake Calhoun (Bde Maka Ska). MBC buys the land it had been leasing on Raspberry Island and travels to Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin, for its first race outside Minnesota.

1881

Spring flooding damages MBC’s original boathouse. The club constructs a more commodious boathouse on piles.

1884

MBC further improves its property by platting a lawn tennis court and erecting a pavilion on the northern end of the Island. The club is as much a social as an athletic club, and Raspberry Island becomes the site of frequent moonlight parties and gatherin

1885

The St. Paul Boat Club is organized and retains architect J. Walter Stevens to design an opulent boathouse, which is completed the following spring and located just east of the Minnesota Boat Club on Raspberry Island.

1886

MBC, together with the St. Paul Boat Club and the Winnipeg Rowing Club, form the Minnesota and Winnipeg Amateur Rowing Association on March 15, opening up more formal competitive opportunities for Minnesota’s rowing clubs.

1886

The Duluth Boat Club is organized and incorporated and builds a grand boathouse on Lake Superior.

1887

MBC retains ex-professional rower John A. Kennedy as its coach, marking the beginning of a decade-long, dedicated relationship.

1890

The St. Paul Boat Club disbands and merges with MBC. The two clubs pool talent and resources.

1893

In its “year of triumph,” the MBC has its most victorious competitive season. The club captures victories at big regattas in both the east and west, earning a national reputation for itself and its coach, John A. Kennedy.

1895

MBC encounters financial difficulties and doesn’t have the means to repair or replace its dilapidated fleet. MBC borrows a four-oared shell from the Minneapolis Lurlines and an eight-oared shell from the Duluth Boat Club in order to compete.

1899

The Lurline Rowing Club of Minneapolis disbands. The Lurlines tear down their boathouse and sell their entire fleet to the newly opened Minikahda Club. The Minnesota and Winnipeg Association Regatta is not held and won’t be held again until 1906.

1899

Rowing is in rapid decline at MBC. The club continues to put boats on the water but in much-reduced numbers and without a coach.