Washington Canoe Club

The Washington Canoe Club has been a landmark on the Georgetown waterfront of the nation’s capital for over a century. Its iconic Victorian boathouse, now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, has survived floods and fires as well as changing land uses along the Potomac shoreline. The canoe club is best known for its prowess and as a pioneer in national and international paddling competition, from introducing canoeing as an Olympic sport in 1924 to bringing women fully into competitive paddling. But the story is also one of the coming of age of outdoor recreation and social clubs in America’s cities, where, post-Civil War, people came to enjoy new leisure time and physical culture in a wide variety of outdoor activities.