 Schuylkill Fishing Company logo | |
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| Formation | 1732 |
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| Type | Private NGO |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 40°3′43.57″N74°57′59.35″W / 40.0621028°N 74.9664861°W |
Formerly called | Colony in Schuylkill |
The Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, also known as the State in Schuylkill, was the first angling club in the Thirteen Colonies and remains the oldest verified continuously operating social club in the English-speaking world. [1]
The club was established in 1732 as the Colony in Schuylkill under a treaty with the chiefs of the Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) Indians. [2] Officers of the club assumed governmental titles: governor, lieutenant governor, three councilors, sheriff, coroner, secretary. Among its 28 founding members were James Logan, Philip Syng, and Joseph Wharton; the first Governor was Thomas Stretch (born Staffordshire, England, 1695), who held the office for 34 years. Other early members included Samuel Howell, Thomas Wharton Jr., Tench Francis Jr., William Bradford, Samuel Nicholas, Clement Biddle, William Bingham, Mayor Anthony Morris, Thomas Mifflin, and Samuel Morris, second governor for 46 years. In 1737, membership was limited to twenty-five. After the American Revolution, in 1782, the club changed its name to "State in Schuylkill", but retained its rules and organization.
The club claims to be the oldest in the world. The Beefsteak Club of London antedates it, but was suspended for a while. [3]
In 1747, the members decided to build a clubhouse, dubbed The Castle, at the foot of the Schuylkill River falls near Fairmount, now part of Philadelphia. It used some of the nearby walnut trees for timber. [4]
During the American Revolution, Samuel Morris, the club's governor, was the captain of the First City Troop, which many other members joined. The club also changed its name to the "State in Schuylkill." [5]
While Philadelphia was the young nation's new capital, President George Washington, an honorary member, was a frequent visitor to the clubhouse, as on June 14, 1787. [6] On July 21, 1825, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette visited the Castle and was elected a member. [5] [7]
When the Fairmount Dam was constructed in 1822, spoiling the fishing at the Falls, the Castle was moved downriver to Rambo's Rock, opposite Bartram's Garden and below Gray's Ferry.
On April 27, 1844, the club was incorporated under the name Schuylkill Fishing Company.
When the fish in the Schuylkill were poisoned by sewage, the club was forced to move again. In 1887, the club bought the Clock House, on the Delaware River at Eddington near Cornwells Heights, two miles above Andalusia. Over the winter of 1887–1888, the Castle and Kitchen were re-erected on this new site, where the Company remained until 1944. [8]
In 1944, the former estate of William B. Chamberlain, Devon House on the Delaware River near Andalusia, Pennsylvania, was conveyed to the State in Schuylkill. The Company moved all of its possessions, including the Castle and Kitchen, to this new site. [9] [10]
Inside the State House, portraits of the Governors lined the north wall of the entry hall and part of its south side. There were interesting ones of Governors Thomas Stretch and Samuel Morris, and several of the nineteenth century successors, as well as likenesses in oil of all nine Governors who served between 1896 and 1970. The door onto the porch was flanked by a piano and by a tall case clock made by Peter Stretch about 1740, father of the Schuylkill Fishing Company's first Governor, Thomas Stretch, which had been donated by Governor William Fisher Lewis. [11]
The State in Schuylkill was assigned the place of honor in the Grand Centennial Torchlight Procession held July 3, 1876, celebrating the centennial of the Nation's founding. The company was to have served as the personal escort of President Ulysses S. Grant, but since he was unable to attend it escorted the Governor of Pennsylvania and Mayor of Philadelphia throughout the city, passing Independence Hall at midnight amidst the ringing of bells, firing of salutes, and cheers of a large crowd. [12]
On October 13, 1947, 225 years after its founding, members of the Schuylkill Fishing Company dedicated a memorial at the original clubhouse site on West River Drive (now Martin Luther King Drive) in Fairmount Park. The memorial was of gray stone, inset with a tablet of pink marble bearing the inscription:
This is the Original Site of the Colony in Schuylkill
Instituted May 1st 1732 After the War of Independence The Name was changed to the State in Schuylkill The Organization is Still in Active Existence After an Unbroken Record of Over Two Hundred and Fifteen Years
This Tablet was Placed Here in 1947 [13]
During the 1950s, when the Schuylkill Expressway was under construction, the Park Commission moved the monument about 200 yards west of the Girard Avenue Bridge (Martin Luther King Drive near Sweet Briar Drive) between West River Drive and the Expressway, some 125 yards from the actual spot where the Castle had stood. [14]
On the frigid winter night of December 21–22, 1980, the State House, its caretaker's wing, and virtually all of its contents were destroyed in a fire. The separate Castle and Kitchen structures were not harmed. A new State House was built on the site in 1981–82. [15]
The Club designated May 1 as the "opening day" of the sporting season and claimed to have received its rights for fishing and fowling on the river directly from Chief Tammany in 1732. There are 13 appointed fishing days in each year, at equal periods between May 1 and October 1, when the company assembles at the castle and a citizen, designated "Caterer," assisted by the apprentices, prepares the golden perch in the ancient pans and old manner. Each club member serves as an apprentice at some time, and must learn to hold three perch in a long-handled frying pan over the blazing wood fire until one side is done to a tum, then, with a quick twist of his wrist, toss the fish up the old chimney, catching them as they fall on the uncooked side. The perch are served to the company assembled about the ancient table, on one of William Penn's platters presented to the club by his son John who was a member while Governor. [16]
The club maintained a rather ambiguous claim to state sovereignty throughout its early history. During Prohibition in the United States, it claimed that it was unaffected, and continued to openly manufacture and drink alcoholic beverages. [17]
The club is reputed to have been the origin of Fish House Punch, an alcoholic drink consisting mainly of rum. [18]
The first mention of Fish House Punch — though not yet by that name — may be in the notes of William Black, the secretary of an embassy of Virginia Commissioners who visited Philadelphia in 1744. He recounted being met by local poobahs on the bank of the Schuylkill, where they were greeted “very kindly and welcomed . . . into their Province with a Bowl of fine Lemon Punch big enough to have Swimmed half a dozen of young Geese." [19]
The Punch is traditionally made in a large bowl also used as a baptismal font for the citizens' infant sons; “its an ample space . . . . . would indeed admit of total immersion”, as one citizen noted. I doubt that there was Punch in it at the time — it was far too precious for such usage, and far too potent. [20]
According to legend, on a visit to the Castle George Washington drank so much of the potent Fish House Punch, he subsequently couldn't bring himself to make an entry in his diary for three days. [21] It was said to be Washington's favorite.
Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with the two sections together totalling 2,052 acres (830 ha). Management of Fairmount Park and the entire citywide park system is overseen by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, a city department created in 2010 from the merger of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation.
Boathouse Row is an historic site which is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of fifteen boathouses housing social and rowing clubs and their racing shells. Each of the boathouses has its own history, and all have addresses on both Boathouse Row and Kelly Drive.
East Falls is a neighborhood in Lower Northwest, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies on the east bank of the "Falls of the Schuylkill," cataracts submerged in 1822 by the Schuylkill Canal and Fairmount Water Works projects. East Falls sits next to the Germantown, Roxborough, Allegheny West, and the Nicetown-Tioga neighborhoods. Wissahickon Valley Park separates it from Manayunk, Philadelphia.
The Union Club of the City of New York is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1836. The clubhouse is located at 101 East 69th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in a landmark building designed by Delano & Aldrich that opened on August 28, 1933.
The Schuylkill Navy is an association of amateur rowing clubs of Philadelphia. Founded in 1858, it is the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States. The member clubs are all on the Schuylkill River where it flows through Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, mostly on the historic Boathouse Row.
The Cliffs is a historic country house located near 33rd and Oxford Streets in East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. It is a Registered Historic Place.
Belmont Mansion is a historic mansion located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. Built in the early 18th century, the mansion is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in the United States. Since 2007, the mansion has hosted the Underground Railroad Museum.
Memorial Hall is a Beaux-Arts style building which is located in the Centennial District of West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built as the art gallery for the 1876 Centennial Exposition, it is the only major structure from that exhibition to survive. It subsequently housed the Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art.
Fish house punch is a strong, rum-based punch containing rum, cognac, and peach brandy. The drink is typically served over an ice block in a punch bowl and garnished with lemon slices.
Bachelors Barge Club is an amateur rowing club located at #6 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuously operating boathouse in the United States. It went through renovations as part of the "Light Boathouse Row" initiative, in which new LED lights were fitted to each of the boathouses. Bachelors Barge Club is currently home to several programs, including the Conestoga High School Crew Team, and the Drexel University Crew Team, among several others.
Spring Garden Street Bridge is a highway bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It crosses the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam and connects West Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is the fourth bridge at this location.
Fairmount Rowing Association is an amateur rowing club, founded in 1877. The facility, located at #2 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Fairmount originally catered to blue-collar youths living in the Fairmount neighborhood. In 1916, after decades of being rejected, the club was finally allowed to join the Schuylkill Navy. The Club boasts being known as the "premiere club for Masters rowing in the mid-Atlantic region" and has produced several world class rowers.
University Barge Club of Philadelphia is an amateur rowing club located at #7 in the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark. The club's founding, in 1854, is considered the "dawn of organized athletics in the University of Pennsylvania." Known as "the upper-class rowing club," UBC is a founder, and the most senior member, of the oldest amateur athletic governing body in the United States, the Schuylkill Navy.
Pennsylvania Barge Club is an amateur rowing club, situated along the historic Boathouse Row of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1861 and joined the Schuylkill Navy in 1865. The club's boathouse, at #4 Boathouse Row, is also known as the Hollenback House, named for William M. Hollenback, Jr., who served as President of USRowing from 1979 until 1985.
Undine Barge Club is an amateur rowing club located at #13 Boathouse Row in the historic Boathouse Row along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The club was founded in 1856. Undine was not initially listed as a founder of the Schuylkill Navy, but is now considered a founder because an Undine member, Mr. B. F. Van dyke, was elected to represent the club as secretary treasurer of the Navy from its birth in 1858. In 1860, Undine purchased Keystone Barge Club's boat and equipment, as Keystone had disposed of its boathouse.
Columbia Railroad Bridge, also known as Columbia Bridge, is a 1920 concrete arch bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that carries CSX Trenton Subdivision rail lines over the Schuylkill River. Located in Fairmount Park, upstream of the Pennsylvania Railroad Connecting Bridge, it is the third railroad bridge at the site. Near its east abutment are the Schuylkill Grandstand and the John B. Kelly statue.
Thomas Stretch was an American clockmaker and a founder and first Governor of the Colony in Schuylkill, later known as The State in Schuylkill, or Schuylkill Fishing Company. In 1753 he erected the first clock at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a large clock dial and masonry clock case at the west end of the structure.
Samuel Howell was a Quaker who became a prominent merchant in colonial Philadelphia and a leading patriot, proponent, leader and financier for American independence.
The Lilacs is an early 18th-century farmhouse located in northwestern Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. The house has a large addition constructed in the early 19th century. The name was derived from the many lilac bushes on the property.
The State in Schwylkill, Founded in 1732, Still Holds Its Annual Dinner in Its Castle Near Philadelphia -- All Cooking Is Done by Members, and Each Must Take His Turn at It.
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