Speranza
Alden M. Young's Pine Orchard Yacht Club is located on Long Island Sound.
The yacht club was founded in 1901 by Young (of Young's Pond fame) with a group of Pine
Orchard friends.
The decision was made to form a club for social interests.
The club house was built erected just
prior to the turn of the century, in 1899.
Young's villa stretched throughout almost all of the land from the shoreline northward to the Boston Post Road.
Cuff-linked gentlemen like Young and his friends sought summer leisure
activities among the green bowers, warm sands and blue ocean waves, especially yachting.
It is easy to picture Young and his friends gathered around a
table in his library, perhaps enjoying a sherry, heads together, sketching out
the plans for the clubhouse.
What visions did he have beyond this first round of decisions?
Did Young think, "Someday, we
will create a distinguished portage of some type for our boats: after all, this is a yacht club!"
The club house mapped out that evening in Alden Young's library at the time fulfilled a need for the Pine Orchard residents.
As we said, Young had his club house built in 1899 on his own villa.
The yacht club leased the land from Young's company -- the A. M. Young Company --.
The club house has a
large dance hall and a smaller reception room with a distinguished hearth.
At the end of
the hall is a stage for amateur performances, with dressing rooms at either
side.
There are locker rooms for men and women.
The club house opened
on July 28, 1900.
The first meeting of the
Pine Orchard Yacht Club, Inc., took place on September 7, 1901.
The purpose of
the Pine Orchard Yacht Club is to promote yachting, and to provide for its members means for the enjoyment of the same.
Alden M. Young served as the first president.
The first vice-presidents were John T. Manson and Henry C. Rowe.
The first secreataries were Fred T.
Ley and Henry W. Doolittle.
Finally, the first treasurers were Milton J. Warner and, again, Henry W.
Doolittle.
The corporation opened with a capital stock of $ 10,000.
In the early years, Young and his friends would cover any
deficits in the yacht club with private funds.
As a moving force behind the idea,
incubation and innovation of this club, Alden Young was par-none.
By 1903, the
membership numbered 126.
In
1907, the Branford Trolley Line brought summer folk from the city right down to
Pine Orchard.
The
Pine Orchard Yacht Club had no lack for membership candidates.
In 1904, permission was granted
by Secretary of the Navy William Howard Taft to build a breakwater.
This breakwater was built
in 1926.
In 1907, the Pine Orchard Association, the Pine Orchard Yacht Club, Inc. and individual property owners, were granted the right by the Governor of Connecticut to build a sea wall, to fill it in and to own the land
enclosed.
The P.O. Association and the Pine Orchard Yacht Club were given further authority to
excavate and dredge for the purpose of creating an anchorage and harbour for
public use and convenience.
In 1908, at a directors' meeting, it was
proposed they find a way to focus on the yachting.
It seems that,
barely a handful of years earlier, the founding fathers of the yacht club did indeed
envision something more than a hall to
hold dances.
A committee was
appointed to prepare plans for the enlargement and improvment of one of the most
unique club facilities in the country for yachting.
Alden Young's vigour, imagination and generosity were a
driving force behind the growth of Pine Orchard and the yacht club.
In the early
years, Young and his friends would cover expenses and deficits the yacht club
encountered.
In 1911, when Alden Young unfortunately passed away, the whole
undertaking of the enterprise needed to be re-imagined.
In 1914, a group of
members organized the Pine Orchard Improvement Company, whose goals included improving the harbour.
The dredging and filling allowed in the 1907 grant were utilised well
toward all of these ends: a
yacht basin was created.
The first pier with a floating
dock was built in 1930.
A caretaker were hired in 1913,
William Holt.
Part of his duties would
include serving refreshments.
Plans
to add two wings of locker rooms, a new upper promenade deck that stretched all
around (and which afforded marvelous views to those who strolled its length), and a
terrace on the water side were soon
implemented.
In 1916, the harbour committee engaged a boatman, Michael McDonald, to
purchase or lease a boat or boats to rent.
There was no
dock at this time and all of the boats were on moorings.
Dancing ... and sailing!
The opening season
of 1916 was extremely active and was well-documented in "A Glimpse of the Summer
of 1916", a reprint of a series of New Haven Register Sunday articles,
(reproduced in John Kirby, Jr's 1981 "The Pine Orchard Shore").
The New Haven
Register series mentions fund-raisers, including Saturday night
dances!
A sum not to exceed t$200 was voted by the Board to cover
the expenses of ten Saturday night dances, so we can see how vital the social
activites of the yacht club had become.
In a few more years, a systematic yachting programme was initiated which have become a vital
part of the season for all members.
Throughout the years, the membership made sure that their Club
continued to grow and meet the needs of the families that used it.
The Marine Lounge
were designed to create comfortable dining and lounge areas.
and
still today, in-club programs and inter-club programs are always being created
and expanded, and improvements are made as needs arise and the vision for the
Club grows
The main dining room, with a second story marine Lounge, is nestled
on the back.
There is a professional kitchen, which
is housed in the wing off the right of the building shown here, which serves
fresh, top of the line cuisine at Club functions, tournaments, private functions
and for the membership's dining pleasures.
The 103-Slip Marina has 24
moorings.
The yacht club offers relaxation in the second-floor marine Lounge with its magnificent, commanding
views of Long Island Sound and the incomparable Connecticut Shoreline.
And then there is Yachting...
From the
forties.... to
the twenty-tens...
From
Yacht races to yacht races.
From sea-planes and
launches, sailboats to big cruisers, the club's harbour has seen it
all.
The club holds a club cruise event for club boaters, and club members regularly
participate in national and international racing events. (One club commodore recently raced in the Newport-Bermuda, 600-plus mile, Atlantic
Gulf Stream course).
Friday, September 11, 2015
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