History

Founding of Whitemarsh

Whitemarsh Boat Club was founded in 2005 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the sport of rowing, by a group of women who are fondly referred to as our Founding Mothers. Their daughters rowed, mostly at Mount St. Joseph’s Academy, Germantown Academy, and Springside Chestnut Hill. They saw the joy and pride, vitality and satisfaction that rowing gave their high school aged daughters, and they wanted to experience it for themselves. They cajoled and convinced the Mount’s Coach – Mike McKenna – to teach them and those one or two dozen women became the first crews of Whitemarsh Boat Club. Of that group, the following women became the first officers of WBC:

Mary McKenna – President

Mary Frawley – Vice President

Jane Voss – Secretary

Linda Chisholm – Treasurer

Linda Hrycko – Captain

Helene O’Neill – Membership

Carol Kleiner – Fundraising & Events

Since 2005, WBC has grown to its current roster of 165 members, and it’s still growing. We offer programs for athletes of any age and any experience level. Our membership includes a Master’s Race Team, club-recreational program, and a robust junior program for high schoolers and middle schoolers. We also offer specialized program that include Learn-to-Row programs for youth and adult athletes, a WeCanRow program for breast cancer survivors, an Elite team for select athletes training for National and Olympic Teams, and a Corporate Learn-to-Row program. Our programs are led by a staff of 15-20 coaches. These coaches support all levels of the athlete, from our Learn-to-Row programs, to our Masters programs, the Elite team and our highly successful Junior Racing Team.

The legacy of the women who started this club, three of whom still row and race, is commemorated in the names of some of our boats, the quads known as “The Founding Mothers I”, and “The Founding Mothers II”, and two doubles “Mary Frawley” (who succumbed to glioblastoma) and “Carol Kleiner” (In tribute and support to Carol Kleiner, who unfortunately has been battling ALS since 2013). In keeping with our tradition of honoring those who have made significant contributions to Whitemarsh, we are proud to name several racing boats after Rick Swartz, Jack Voss, and Julie Waterbury. As former club officers, they played an instrumental role in transforming WBC into the thriving, efficient, and multipurpose organization it is today. Boats are also named for coaches who have significantly impacted our teams, the “Susan Hermann” is named for our Masters and Youth Coach, “Sullivan’s Crewsade” is named for Youth Coach Joe Sullivan, and “Mama Len” for Youth Program Coordinator, Marie Leonard.

Jane Voss’ Account

I grew up in central Illinois surrounded by corn and soybean fields. I moved to Philadelphia in 1975. I had never heard of rowing or crew, so I was very intrigued by seeing rowers on the Schuylkill. I remember writing to one, or maybe more, of the BHR clubs inquiring about learning how to row. I never received a reply. Fast forward to 2004. My daughter had rowed at The Mount and graduated in 2004. Lois Trench-Hines had rented the property so The Mount could have a place to row. Mike McKenna, a coach at the Mount, offered to teach a number of “Mount Moms” how to row. Linda Hrycko and Jane Voss are the sole remaining Mount Moms at WBC. We used an old yellow boat, The Stubs, which was stored in the Mount’s boathouse. There was a port-a-potty next to the Mount Boathouse. Also, where the gravel parking lot is located, there was an empty single story red brick building that had a working flush toilet. We would go in there as a group, making as much noise as possible to scare away any critters.

Mike would volunteer some of his freshmen coxswains to cox us on the weekends and also had some of his rowers join us because sometimes we didn’t have enough women to fill an 8+. We only knew how to sweep at this time. So, we started recruiting. Linda Chisholm was a friend of Mary Frawley, a Mount Mom, and Carol Kleiner had started the Germantown Academy crew team which also rowed out of the Mount boathouse. Both of them started coming to practices. Mike’s wife, Mary, had been around rowing but never had the opportunity to row. She joined in as did Helene O’Neill, whose daughter was a current rower at The Mount. There were a number of other women who rowed with us but, for various reasons, stopped rowing.

Sometime in 2005, Lois approached us and suggested it was time to establish a club. We met her and her friend, Sophie Socha, at Coyote Crossing in Conshohocken and after a number of pitchers of margaritas, we agreed to establish the club. We each basically volunteered for our officer positions because we didn’t have enough people for an election! Mary McKenna was President, Mary Frawley was VP, Linda Chisholm was Treasurer, Jane Voss was Secretary, Linda Hrycko was Captain, Helene O’Neill was Membership and Carol Kleiner was Events. We met once a week at Great American Pub for an entire year. Mary had a copy of the By-Laws from Fairmount Boat Club so we had some place to start. We developed our own policies and rules and regulations. We chose teal and black as our club colors! Lois had a friend who designed the logo. We talked a lot about our vision for the club. In particular, we wanted to establish a club that would be welcoming to all. We wanted to provide a place for people to learn how to row. We were lucky that Mike McKenna took the time to teach total adult beginners. There was no place around that provided that opportunity.

The red building was an old warehouse with nothing in it. Lois had boat racks installed, had the locker rooms built and added bay doors. There was a loading dock which was eventually filled in so we could walk boats straight out rather than handing them down over the edge. Mount Crew dads, including Jack Voss, built a wooden dock where the launch dock is now located. That was the only dock. Lois eventually had a ramp installed but at first we had to navigate a slippery slope to get to the dock.

In order to get the club going, Lois allowed WBC to rent racks to other programs. We paid her a percentage but we had income other than membership dues! We bought old boats and oars. We expanded to sculling. The Mer and Tom Dowd (destroyed in one of the floods) were our first quads, purchased used from Fairmount. We bought old gigs. We had used Agnes Irwin sculls which we painted. Mike McKenna continued to coach us for free for a number of years. Eventually, we hired coaches.

Hines Rowing Center

The red building currently houses the following rowing programs:

WBC Masters and Youth Programs
Bryn Mawr College Women’s Crew Team
Archbishop Carroll High School Girls & Boys Crew Teams
Germantown Academy (High School) Girls & Boys Crew Teams
Gwynedd Mercy Academy Girls Crew Team
Lower Merion High School Girls & Boys Crew Teams
Academy of Notre Dame Girls Crew Team
Radnor High School Girls & Boys Crew Club Teams
Villa Maria Academy Girls Crew Team

In 2000 the property was leased by Lois and George Hines who purchased it outright on April 1, 2005, to meet the demand for access to the Schuylkill River and provide a permanent facility for Mount St. Joseph’s Academy crew team. WBC was founded at this location in 2005 with the support and encouragement of Lois and George.

Since 2005, the property and its resident structures have undergone substantial demolition, renovation, alteration, and upgrading. Lois Trench-Hines and George C. Hines own this building and the entire campus. Lois Trench-Hines is well known in the Philadelphia area for her long-standing support of rowing. She has been a member of Philadelphia Girls Rowing Club since 1965, rowed in a quad at the 1973 Moscow World Championships, and serves on the board of the Philadelphia Rowing Society. George C. Hines was a Dad Vail Champion as well as a former champion crew coach at LaSalle College High School and LaSalle College (University), he died on January 27, 2024, at 96 years old.

Historically, the site was used for industrial purposes. It was undeveloped land prior to approximately 1930, at which time the Reilly-Whiteman-Walton Co. initiated a manufacturing business on the site, producing industrial-use oils from natural oils. In approximately 1982, the Freedom Textile Chemical Co. leased the site from the Reilly-Whiteman-Walton Co. and expanded site operations. Freedom Chemical supplied chemical materials to industries involved in textile, laundry metal finishing, and paper production until ceasing operations at the site in April, 1996. In July of 1999 Spring Mill Real Estate, Inc. acquired the property from the Reilly Whiteman-Walton Co.

In February 2014, the Whitemarsh Township Board of Supervisors approved unanimously the Land Development Plan application for the conservation of the HRC property into a “condominium-style” rowing center. This approval permanently restricts the use of the property for the purpose of a rowing center only, with the HRC serving as an umbrella organization and governance structure for its residents, non-profit rowing clubs.