Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse
The Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse in East Hartford is the home of the Trinity crew team's boats, docks, and equipment.
Trinity's rowing team experienced a revival in the early 1960s and began to compete against other small New England Schools after being mostly inactive since the 1870s following the drowning of a crew member. Trinity's rowing team, with the support of several students and President Albert Jacobs, became a winning team. In 1962-1963, the Friends of Trinity Rowing was organized and crew became an unofficial sport which was formally recognized in 1966.
During the early 1960s, the crew team was using an old donated tobacco barn in South Windsor as a boathouse. Seeking to enhance the sport's success, the Friends of Trinity Rowing raised the needed funds to build a new boathouse and groundbreaking began in April 1965. The then-named Bliss Boathouse opened in November of 1965 on Riverside Drive in East Hartford, on the bank of the Connecticut River, and was named after Miss Grace Bliss, a significant supporter of Trinity Rowing and benefactor of the funds needed to build the boathouse.
The boathouse was expanded and updated in 2002 by the Friends of Trinity Rowing. The boathouse grew to 14,000 square feet and now houses boats, study rooms, locker rooms, and training machines. Following this expansion, the boathouse was renamed the Friends of Trinity Rowing Boathouse.
Sources
The Trinity Reporter Fall 2002, p. 4.
Trinity College in the Twentieth Century (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 276-77.
The Bantam Oar (1974) by Barbara Connell (B.C.) Mooney M’68, P’74, ’75.
Trinity College Bulletin 1964-1965, pp. 26-27.