I joined the DCC a couple of years ago after getting a tour of it.....I thought people here might enjoy hearing a little bit about it.....I will upload some recent photos from my phone as I get time....
I'm kind of embarrassed to say I had been driving/running/walking/biking/paddling by it for the past 30 years and just never saw much going on.....Kind of on a whim, a couple of Winters ago, I reached out to the club via e-mail about membership. A couple of months later, I was contacted by a very apologetic member who kindly arranged a tour. I was very pleasantly surprised! The building is absolutely amazing! It is two stories with the second (main) level accessible from the street or you can key your way thru the gate and walk down a flight of stairs to the dock/picnic area and access the lower level locker rooms. When you walk in the front door of the building, you have his/her restrooms directly in front of you. A quick button hook to the right and you have the stairs leading down to the boat lockers. Continue right past the stairs and you enter the "ballroom", where membership meetings, club dinners/brunches/parties are held. The ballroom has the original hardwood floors/paneling/ceiling from when it was built in 1913.....lovingly maintained over the years....A left hand turn from the front door takes you to the "Commodore's room" which is more or less a lounge area with fireplace (now converted to gas). The original pool table purchased in I believe 1915? is still in play, there are a couple of original "Stickney" rockers purchased back in the early days of the club. There is one round card table where members have sat over the years playing. My buddies and I use the table a couple times a month during the Winter to tie flies, eat pizza, drink beer, and plan canoe trips. Members have access to a private locker on the lower level of the club to store a canoe/kayak for easy access to the river. There are I believe 150 boat lockers available to membership. Throughout the Commodore's room and ballroom, are trophy cases full of medals and trophies from regatta's all over the country as well as old black/white photos and paintings. There a also a number of old scaled down Old Town wood canvas canoes that were given to the club many years ago by salesmen....they are 3-5' long and prominently displayed throughout the club.
In Dayton's heyday, there were 5 canoe clubs on the Northside of the downtown.....The Dayton Canoe Club was the newest, built in 1912......This is significant because one year later, Dayton was nearly wiped out by the "Great Flood of 1913".... The Dayton Canoe Club was the only one left standing......According to club lore, the DCC is one of only two canoe clubs in the country from that era still in their original location. Orville Wright was a frequent guest of the club, in fact he is depicted in a number of black/white photos from that era shooting pool and hanging out at the club....even a couple photos of him in a canoe.
If I did this right, there should be a link below this to the canoe club website...specifically the history page with a lot more info. Once you get to the website, there is a tab for photos...plenty of neat pic.s there:
Dayton Canoe Club website
The next link is to the Miami Conservancy District....and organization created to monitor the rivers and responsible for the flood control dams and levees throughout the Dayton region...the link will take you to the history page of the 1913 flood......all total over 3000 homes were lost:
Miami Conservancy District
The below map is oriented with North at the top....You can see the three rivers and one creek that converge inside of the city limits...the DCC is marked with a black X on the left side of the map on the West Bank of the Great Miami River....just below the confluence of the Stillwater/Great Miami rivers.....
I have a lot of cool photos of the club on my phone and will add them over the next few days.....
Mike
I'm kind of embarrassed to say I had been driving/running/walking/biking/paddling by it for the past 30 years and just never saw much going on.....Kind of on a whim, a couple of Winters ago, I reached out to the club via e-mail about membership. A couple of months later, I was contacted by a very apologetic member who kindly arranged a tour. I was very pleasantly surprised! The building is absolutely amazing! It is two stories with the second (main) level accessible from the street or you can key your way thru the gate and walk down a flight of stairs to the dock/picnic area and access the lower level locker rooms. When you walk in the front door of the building, you have his/her restrooms directly in front of you. A quick button hook to the right and you have the stairs leading down to the boat lockers. Continue right past the stairs and you enter the "ballroom", where membership meetings, club dinners/brunches/parties are held. The ballroom has the original hardwood floors/paneling/ceiling from when it was built in 1913.....lovingly maintained over the years....A left hand turn from the front door takes you to the "Commodore's room" which is more or less a lounge area with fireplace (now converted to gas). The original pool table purchased in I believe 1915? is still in play, there are a couple of original "Stickney" rockers purchased back in the early days of the club. There is one round card table where members have sat over the years playing. My buddies and I use the table a couple times a month during the Winter to tie flies, eat pizza, drink beer, and plan canoe trips. Members have access to a private locker on the lower level of the club to store a canoe/kayak for easy access to the river. There are I believe 150 boat lockers available to membership. Throughout the Commodore's room and ballroom, are trophy cases full of medals and trophies from regatta's all over the country as well as old black/white photos and paintings. There a also a number of old scaled down Old Town wood canvas canoes that were given to the club many years ago by salesmen....they are 3-5' long and prominently displayed throughout the club.
In Dayton's heyday, there were 5 canoe clubs on the Northside of the downtown.....The Dayton Canoe Club was the newest, built in 1912......This is significant because one year later, Dayton was nearly wiped out by the "Great Flood of 1913".... The Dayton Canoe Club was the only one left standing......According to club lore, the DCC is one of only two canoe clubs in the country from that era still in their original location. Orville Wright was a frequent guest of the club, in fact he is depicted in a number of black/white photos from that era shooting pool and hanging out at the club....even a couple photos of him in a canoe.
If I did this right, there should be a link below this to the canoe club website...specifically the history page with a lot more info. Once you get to the website, there is a tab for photos...plenty of neat pic.s there:
Dayton Canoe Club website
The next link is to the Miami Conservancy District....and organization created to monitor the rivers and responsible for the flood control dams and levees throughout the Dayton region...the link will take you to the history page of the 1913 flood......all total over 3000 homes were lost:
Miami Conservancy District
The below map is oriented with North at the top....You can see the three rivers and one creek that converge inside of the city limits...the DCC is marked with a black X on the left side of the map on the West Bank of the Great Miami River....just below the confluence of the Stillwater/Great Miami rivers.....
I have a lot of cool photos of the club on my phone and will add them over the next few days.....
Mike
n the lockers….many rigged for sailing…..unfortunately many of those members have gotten up there in age and rarely if ever get their boats out.
