The first meeting of the St. Joseph River Yacht Club was held on May 20, 1913. Our Club has been in continuous operation ever since. It has been a center for boating, swimming, social, and just plain “get away to the Club” activities for generations. Our Club's founding Members totaled only a dozen, or so. The initiation fee was $5.00 with annual dues $3.00. The Club soon grew to twenty Members, but after WW1, membership “soared” to 35 and a cement block clubhouse was built on the St. Joseph River in the East Basin. We had a marine railway, boat storage, and docks. As early as 1934 the Club sponsored a “Venetian Night” parade of boats, with 19 yachts entering the event that summer. The Tri-State Regatta, which is believed to have started in the 1940’s, turned into one of the biggest events of the season for the Club Members, and remains so today. In 1948 the Club’s location was needed by the City to make way for the new Blossomland Bridge. At that time the Club, which comprised mostly power boaters, joined with the Edgewater Yacht Club, whose Members were mostly sailors. Combining assets and visions, our predecessors purchased the E.C. Filstrup home on Ridgeway and moved it about 300 feet south to an acquired property at 60 Ridgeway. This house was originally the Fisher summer home (of Fisher Island, FL fame). The house was converted into a clubhouse and was in use through the Y2002 season. The carriage house with upstairs servants’ quarters was also moved for use in Yacht Club youth activities. Though owned by the Club, the carriage house was used by the St. Joseph Junior Foundation Sailing School.

In the early years, the Club was the regular meeting place for the St. Joseph Power Squadron, many of whose Members were also SJRYC Members. Our archives contain an article from the March 16, 1962 News-Palladium, reporting the following: “The activities of the Club include monthly dances, dinners, and bridge parties. Beach suppers are one of the more popular activities of the summer. Other events of the year are the Venetian night Parade of Yachts and the Tri-State sailboat race each Labor Day weekend.” The article goes on to say the Membership included about 280 families.

Various improvements and upgrades were been made to the property over the years, including the addition of the pool in 1962. During a period when the number of Members dwindled, the season of the Club was reduced to summer only. The ancient furnace wheezed its last, and was removed. A second article from our archives was from the Herald-Palladium, dated May 14, 1988. It commemorated the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the Club, and reported that the Club had grown to as many as 350 Members in the 1950’s, but had subsequently gone through difficult times.

The Club was threatened with closing after accumulating a debt in the early 1980’s. But it paid off its $30,000 mortgage and other debts in 1983 after the Club sold an adjacent parcel of land to the St. Joseph Junior Foundation, which sponsors sailing classes for youths. During these troubled times, membership in the club dwindled to 80. But the Yacht Club is on the upswing again with around 160 member families participating in the many activities the organization offers.”

Through the inevitable cycles of feast or famine, the resurgence continues today. In Y2000 your Board of Directors undertook a program to provide more value to our Members; the result is a much more vibrant place. We undertook steps to bring the water community together by reestablishing ties with the St. Joseph Power Squadron, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary, as well as strengthening our relationship with the St. Joseph Junior Foundation. It was clear that we could bring common interests together to create a community much more successful than we could separately. Our limits are bounded only by the vision and dedication of our Members and associates.

In The New Millennium, it was becoming increasingly apparent the old building, the carriage house, and the pool were all in need of very extensive and expensive renovation, beyond the ability of the Club to sustain. Even if renovated, they would still not suit the uses of a growing Club. By good fortune and through the efforts of many Members, the Club was able to trade its property for the completely renovated Lighthouse Depot in early Y2003. At last the Club was back on the river, very close to where it started. Part of the trade was the building of a state-of-the-art swimming pool. This fortuitous deal gave the Club an updated, yet historic new home with many new options for better serving its Members.

The New/Old Facility The Lighthouse Depot building itself was completed in 1893, and therefore predated the Club by twenty years. Its history has been quite varied. On March 3, 1891, the U.S. government appropriated $35,000 for construction of the St. Joseph Lighthouse Depot, which included the main storehouse, the Keeper’s House, and carpenter-lampist shop. Plans for the storehouse, prepared by Major William Ludlow of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are dated April 20, 1891. Construction began that year, with completion of the project on January 7, 1893.

The Lighthouse Depot served as the primary supply and buoy repair depot for the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment’s Ninth District (all of Lake Michigan including Green Bay). The depot was used for receiving, storing, packing, and delivering the supplies and stores for the various lighthouse stations. The tracks for the trams, and turntables used to switch the trams, are still in evidence on the floors and sidewalk to the river where the supply tenders were docked for loading and unloading. All concrete sinkers used in the district were made here. However, in 1916, operations were moved to Milwaukee and the building was vacated.

The Lighthouse Depot was then transferred to the Navy Department in 1918. It continued to house some naval/militia reserve functions until about 1950, when the State discontinued funding. By 1952 it was housing the Army Reserves. From 1956 to 1993, it housed four units (2 Company D’s and 2 Company A’s) of the Michigan Army National Guard. The property was vacated in October of 1993 when the National Guard moved. In recognition of the historic significance of the structure, the Ninth District Lighthouse Depot was added to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

The property fell idle and continued to deteriorate until February 29, 1996 when a group of developers bought the property, invested in extensive renovations and expansion. They operated it as a restaurant and party facility until September 17, 2000. It was then sold to restaurateurs from Grand Rapids on March 9, 2001, and operated for that summer only, becoming vacant once again.

During Y2001 and Y2002, the Club’s Long Range Planning Committee evaluated the options for the Club’s future. The best option was clearly some way of affording the Depot property. After a year of dreaming, planning, deliberations, negotiations, and voting by Members, the agreement was signed on January 2, 2003. Two Members, Ron Schults and Bill Marohn, as developers, facilitated a trade of the old Club facilities for the renovated Lighthouse Depot building and a brand new swimming pool. This turned the direction of the Club into positive growth and service for the benefit of the Members, the neighborhood, the City and surrounding areas, and the State.

This is probably the most unique and historic yacht club in the Great Lakes, if not in North America. Besides being a significant building, the new facilities allow the Club to expand its services to Members and to develop its reputation as a fun place for really wonderful people.