Last modified: 2019-04-13 by rick wyatt
Keywords: florida yacht club | united states yacht club | florida |
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image by Rob Raeside, 27 March 2019
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Estb: 1876. Location: 5210 Yacht Club Rd., Jacksonville.
Burgee: Pennant
circa 5:7 (web image). White field, fimbriated red on two sides, charged with
a blue letter F.
Source: accessed 27 March 2019,
https://www.thefloridayachtclub.org
"The Florida Yacht Club was
established by seventeen charter members in 1877. New York businessman
William Backhouse Astor, Jr., was the driving force behind the creation of a
club promoting boating and water sports in Jacksonville. Astor felt that the
broad and slow St. Johns River was a perfect location for boating, though he
was the only person in Jacksonville to actually own a yacht at the time. The
original clubhouse was constructed at the end of Market Street in downtown
Jacksonville, and cost $3,500, to which Astor contributed $500. The original
Florida Yacht Club building was a large two-story edifice, with the second
floor being used for gatherings and dances.
Astor served as the club's first
"Commodore". The original building burned down in the Great Fire of 1901. The
club moved to a temporary clubhouse in the Riverside neighborhood, before
relocating to a new dedicated facility on Willow Branch Creek in 1907. In
1928 the club moved to its present building in the Ortega neighborhood. The
current clubhouse was designed in the Mediterranean Revival style and cost
$90,000.
Source: Wikipedia quoting Wood, Wayne W.; Jacksonville Historic
Preservation Commission (1996). Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage.
University Press of Florida.
Peter Edwards, 30 March 2019