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Old Yale Boathouse Faces Wrecking Ball

AND SO, THE ONWARD march of progress continues. Yale University’s old Adee Boathouse on New Haven harbor is to face the wrecking ball to make way for traffic improvements to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge which carries Interstate 95 across the Quinnipiac River. Despite some quite extraordinary plans to physically cut the building from the shore and float it across to the opposite side of the river, it now appears that the boathouse is to be demolished.

The Adee Memorial Boathouse was built in 1911 in a Tudor style at the confluence of the Quinnipiac River and New Haven Harbor. In later years when the Harbor grew both more crowded and more polluted, the Yale rowing teams moved to the more placid Housatonic where the Glider Boathouse now stands. The building then housed offices until the I-95 ‘improvement’ involving the reconstruction of the bridge threatened its existence. It was named for George Augustus Adee, a keen oarsman from the class of 1867 who ended up as a banker and lawyer, dying in 1908. The boathouse opened in 1911 with room for fifty rowing shells. Designed by the firm of Peabody & Stearns, the building cost $100,000 in total.

Originally, the boathouse was surrounded by water on all sides, being built on a series of piles driven into the water. The only physical connection was a small bridge linking the shore to the boathouse entrance, but later landfills filled in the space on one side of the bridge.

The New York Times described the building’s façade as “a rich tapestry of alternating plum-colored and blackened brick, with rust-colored terra cotta trim and multipaned windows”. Bulldog gargoyles and the Yale coat of arms also grace the old boathouse’s exterior.

Thankfully, the State of Connecticut has earmarked $30,000,000 to build a replica of the boathouse at Long Wharf, incorporating as many architectural elements of the building as can be feasibly salvaged. It is believed this will include the bulldog gargoyles, a carved wooden chimney breast from the second floor, and a great deal of the terra cotta decorative work.

Previously: An Old Boathouse in Spuyten Duyvil

Published at 2:29 pm on Friday 13 October 2006. Categories: Architecture History Tags: , .
Comments

Interesting piece, Andrew.

Kudos to the State of Connecticut for planning a replica incorporating salvaged elements.

Are the photographs yours?

— kd 13 Oct 2006 4:45 pm

Nope, they are official photographs from the Historic American Building Survery / Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER).

— Andrew Cusack 13 Oct 2006 4:48 pm

A sad day just the same. the demise of this venerable building is just one more inch of Tradition that the Orc capture for Mordor.

I remember well my few days on the Charles; rowed out of Harvard’s Haus though….great sport…..”The” team sport.

— Byron 13 Oct 2006 11:54 pm

“traffic improvements”

The Orcs could be the automobile!

I believe the late Guy Davenport (who never obtained a driver’s license) once called them “cockroaches” that are devouring our cities.

— kd 14 Oct 2006 11:44 am

Nice piece. I would have loved to seen it floated across the river. I once had the priviledge of seeing a brick home from the early 1700’s moved over two blocks and up 3 in Charlestown. It was a classic 2 down two up structure and saved by an earnest couple from the wrecking ball. As it went slowly down the street the brick actually rippled but it did not break. Fascinating.

It’s nice they’ve save some pieces but the truth is Yale moved on along time ago. Something proper ought to have been done by the school back then.

— Mrs. Peperium 15 Oct 2006 4:25 pm
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