360 Rowers Daily Use Building College Neither Owns nor Rents

An average of 360 undergraduates in sculls and a crew of Naval students from the Yard use the Weld Boat Club daily. House crews row from there every spring, and, in the past, Summer School girls numbering about 125 a day used the Club, but the building is not owned, or even rented by the University.

Harvard is the tenant, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts owns the building, and the rent is paid by a trust fund left by George W. Weld '60, who built the present building in 1906.

Club Founded 1890

The building is called the Weld Boat Club and not Weld Boat House because from its founding in 1890 until the first World War it was run as a club and was used only by students who were members. Clubs were still prominent on the College scene and boat clubs were no exception, for crews from Weld raced annually against crews from the Newell Club.

Before the present building was built, the old Weld Boat Club existed on the same site. In those days, the dam below the Charles River Basin had not yet been built and the Charles was a muddy, tide-water river, which overflowed its banks into the swampy land around.

Sculling in those days was not as pleasant as it is today, for all the pigs for miles around floated up and down on the tide a menace with which present day rowers don't have to contend. Only the odors from the Watertown slaughter house remain to remind them of those cruder days.

Passed to H. A. A.

Since the first World War, the Boat Club had been operated under the direction of the H. A. A. for the benefit of all students, while the old trust fund, administered by a board of trustees, provides for the rental and upkeep of the building. The fund has paid for all repairs and insured the building, while the College maintains the rowing equipment.

So complete has been the building's protective insurance that the hurricane of 1936, which tore off a part of the roof, did not eat into the life-giving fund, for among the policies was one which covered all damage caused by hurricane.

The boats at Weld are used about 26,000 times a year, on an average of 360 a day for 180 or 190 rowing days. There are 21 wherries, 24 comps, and 25 singles, all of which receive about the same amount of use. The sculls are used only by undergraduates now, excluding Freshmen, but Weld is still overcrowded on some days.

Dennison Traces Growth

Sculling coach Blake Dennison, who came to Weld in 1923, has seen sculling grow from a mere 85 rowers a day to the present 360 average. In the past, 100 scullers was a big number, but today 530 is the record. Dennison states that the Weld Boat Club has probably taught more people to row than any other place in the country.

In past summers, the Weld Boat Club has been open to all Summer School students and nautical females were allotted lockers at the east end of the building, for 200 to 300 different girls used to row during a summer term.

Repairing of damaged boats is handled in the shop which is located on the west side of the Boat Club. Many a wounded scull has been repaired there, but the story is told of one eight, whose remains can still be seen in the Boat Club, which ran up the ramp into the shop in a fog and got sawed in half on the buzz saw.