Crescent Boat Club is a member-run rowing club at #5 Boathouse Row, 5 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130. We were organized in 1867 and have rowed from this boathouse since 1868, the year we joined the Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia. Members train here, juniors learn to scull here, and the club room and deck are open for weddings and parties.
Row with us
Beginners and experienced scullers both start at Membership or Youth Rowing.
Hold an event
A club room and a deck over the water, up to 140 guests, at Event Space Rentals.
Visit the Row
Parking, transit, the lights, and the fifteen houses, in Visiting Boathouse Row.
A Boathouse Row Club Since 1867
Crescent was organized in 1867, when the Pickwick and Iona barge clubs merged. With permission to build below Lemon Hill, we completed our first boathouse in 1868 and shared it with the Pennsylvania Barge Club, rowing from the upriver bay. The house was enlarged in 1871 to a design by member Davis Supplee, and the building standing today is largely architect Charles Balderston’s 1891 revision of it.
Since then the club has rowed through floods, two world wars, and the decline and revival of the river. The full account, with archival photographs, is on our History page.
Rowing at Crescent
Membership is open to anyone interested in rowing and in our founding ideals of good sportsmanship, civic fellowship, and hospitality. Experience is not required, and we take scullers and sweep rowers from a first outing through masters racing. Members keep boats in the bays and train from our own dock. Membership carries the categories, the dues, and the inquiry form.
Summer coaching runs from novice through sculling development, junior racing, and under-23 crews. Youth Rowing carries this season’s offerings, fees, and registration, while Programs lists everything the club runs across the year. Crescent U19 and U23 crews have won three Royal Canadian Henley championships, and in 2017 four Crescent scullers raced the lightweight quadruple sculls for the United States at the U23 World Championships.
Two resident crews also row from the boathouse: Thomas Jefferson University women’s rowing, and Harriton High School Crew. Everyone launching from #5 rows under the Schuylkill Navy’s traffic pattern and safety rules, set out in By-laws, Rules & Safety.
Events and Weddings on the River
The club room and deck are open to members and to the public for weddings, receptions, parties, and meetings. The club room is air conditioned and opens onto the deck above the water, and the two spaces together take up to 140 guests, about fifty of them seated at the club’s own tables. Because the rowing calendar fills early, send your date through the request form on Event Space Rentals, which also covers cost, catering, and the bar.
Shooting rather than booking an event? See Film and Photography Location Inquiry.
Visiting Boathouse Row
Boathouse Row is a National Historic Landmark: fifteen boathouses along Kelly Drive, most of them nineteenth-century, ours among them. The houses are outlined in lights after dark, with the Fairmount Water Works and the Center City skyline downriver. The riverfront path stays public, free, and open year-round, while the clubhouses are private working buildings rather than museums.
Visiting Boathouse Row covers transit, parking, what each of the fifteen houses is, and when the lights come on. For river conditions, flow limits, water quality, and regatta schedules, see Rowing Links.
Where to Go Next
I want to row
Membership, programs, and the rules everyone rows under.
Membership
All Programs
Youth Rowing
By-laws, Rules & Safety
River Conditions & Rowing Links
I’m planning an event
Weddings, parties, and meetings on the river.
Event Space Rentals
Calendar of Events
Film & Photography
Information & Contact
I’m just visiting
The Row, the lights, and the club’s own history.
Visiting Boathouse Row
Club History
Club Officers & Officials
News & Updates
Contact Crescent
The club is run by its members, so every inquiry goes through the form on the page that matches it.
- Membership and rowing – Inquiry form on Membership.
- Junior and summer programs – Apply through Youth Rowing, on RegattaCentral.
- Weddings, parties, and meetings – Request form on Event Space Rentals.
- Film, photography, and press – Film and Photography Location Inquiry.
- Address – Crescent Boat Club, #5 Boathouse Row, 5 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130.
- Emergencies – Give 842 Kelly Drive, not #5, when calling 911 or 311. Why the addresses differ.
Directions, parking, and common questions are on our Information page.