Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club


Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club is an amateur rowing club located at #14 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest all-female rowing club in existence. Built in 1860, the Club's boathouse is the oldest structure on Boathouse Row, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark.
PGRC was founded in 1938 by seventeen women who wanted to participate in the then predominantly male sport of rowing.

History of the boathouse

In 1860, Philadelphia City Council authorized construction of the structure that is now #14 Boathouse Row for the purpose of housing the Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society.
Architect, James C. Sidney, designed the building to provide for the Skating Club, but also included a basement facility to store boats for neighboring rowing clubs whose boat houses were scheduled to be removed by the City. Samuel Sloan, a well-known Philadelphia architect, likely influenced the design of #14 Boathouse Row with his rendering of "Italian Villa," Plate XXIV, in his book "Model Architect." The construction cost $4,900 and was completed in 1861.
The Undine and University Barge Clubs housed their boats at the Philadelphia Skating Club building until the City permitted them to build their own structures in 1882 and 1871, respectively. From 1884 through 1895, the second Iona Boat Club occupied the space in the building left vacant by Undine Barge Club.
With the advent of artificially frozen indoor skating rinks at the beginning of the 20th century, skating on the Schuylkill River declined precipitously. In 1965, PGRC purchased the boathouse from the Philadelphia Skating Club.

Occupant timeline



DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:700 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1857 till:2010
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:POWDERBLUE from:1860 till:1871 text:University Barge Club
bar:2 color:POWDERBLUE from:1860 till:1882 text:Undine Barge Club
bar:3 color:POWDERBLUE from:1884 till:1895 text:Iona Boat Club
bar:4 color:POWDERBLUE from:1897 till:1902 text:Sedgeley Club
bar:5 color:POWDERBLUE from:1938 till:end text:Philadelphia Girls' Rowing Club
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1860
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: # tabs:
text:"Occupants of Philadelphia Skating Club Boathouse"

Photo gallery