Undine Barge Club of Philadelphia

The Undine Barge Club was organized in Philadelphia on May 9, 1856.

The Undine Barge Club was first organized May 9, 1856 to "take into consideration the expediency of forming an association whose object would be healthful exercise, relaxation from business, friendly intercourse and pleasure, having in view to this end the possession of a pleasure barge on the River Schuylkill" (Heiland, p. 13). The club incorporated in 1861. The club occupied a small frame house along the Schuylkill River which the City condemned in 1859. Quartered in number 14 Boathouse Row from 1860 to 1882, the club commissioned architects Furness and Evans to design boathouse number 13, into which they moved in 1883 and still occupy. The club was made part of the Schuylkill Navy in 1861. Undine Barge also made use of an "up-river house for receptions... which they named [Castle] Ringstetten, after the castle on the Rhine of Sir Rupert..."

Bibliography: Scharf, John Thomas and Thomas Westcott. History of Philadelphia, Vol. III. Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884. p. 1871. (Accessed online via Google Books, February 19, 2010: http://books.google.com/books?id=8uYkAAAAYAAJ&dq=History+of+Philadelphia,+Vol.+III&source=gbs_navlinks_s).

Heiland, Louis. Undine Barge Club of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Wm. F. Fell Co. Printers. 1925.