To escape New York’s hot, steamy summer evenings in the Gilded Age, villagers enjoyed evening barge parties on the Hudson River hosted by the Nyack Rowing Association (N.R.A.) founded in 1880. Built like a large, flat, floating platform with seats for rowers, barges moved like a boat but without the “tippy” feel of a standard rowboat. The club stored their barges on the first floor of their magnificent clubhouse built on a dock at the foot of Spear Street. Designed in a luscious Queen Ann style, many thought it the finest rowing clubhouse of its day. It became one of the most visible features of Nyack for those approaching the village by boat.
The club held races and frequent social gatherings, but a popular activity involved taking the club’s large barge out for summer evening rows. One such cruise is immortalized in Julian O. Davidson’s “A Barge Party on the Tappan Zee,” published in an 1887 issue of Harper’s Weekly. Davidson wrote, “These rowing parties are a keen delight to the lady friends of the members of the association.” The Rockland County Journal regularly reported on barge parties crewed by the N.R.A. during the hot and still summer nights of the Gilded Age.
Julian O. Davidson, Nyack Marine Painter
Julian Oliver Davidson (1853-1894), a well-known marine painter, fell in love with his adopted home, Nyack-on-Hudson, and became one of the founders of the N.R.A. He built a summer house that still stands at 117 South Broadway. The house, built on a slope, features an unusual bridge to the front door and offers magnificent views of the Hudson River from its upper floors.
A dedicated rower, Davidson owned a small, low-hung steamboat called the Princess, from which he made river-level sketches—a unique perspective that characterizes many of his marine paintings. His dramatic painting, “The Hudson from the Tappan Zee,” depicts steamboats, rowboats, and sailing ships in front of Hook Mountain. The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers houses this painting.
The N.R.A. Clubhouse
The club quickly raised $8,000 and built a three-story Victorian clubhouse on the old People’s Dock at the foot of Spear Street. Davidson’s 1882 engraving, “The New Boathouse of the Nyack Rowing Association,” published in Harper’s Weekly, proudly shows the new building. Flags and banners fly in the wind, and crowds line the second-floor balcony that wraps around three sides of the building. Davidson’s steamboat, the Princess, appears on the lower left along with a four-member scull and small sailboats.
The building served as a perfect men’s-only club. Wives and girlfriends could enter on Tuesdays starting at 10:00 a.m. and for weekend social occasions. The first-floor housed boats and oars, the second-floor contained a ballroom with electricity for social events, the third-floor held dressing rooms, and the fourth-floor tower room on the west end contained a prized billiard table. The club later added a single-floor building on the dock behind the clubhouse to house a bowling alley.
The Baseball Game /Barge Party Bromance
On a summer afternoon, ten members of the N.R.A. decided to row roughly ten miles to Yonkers to see a game between the Haverstraw and Yonkers baseball teams. Taking much longer than expected, they arrived at Yonkers dock at 5:20 p.m., much too late to see the game.
However, a saving grace appeared: The local rowing club, the Palisades, invited the men to store their boat at their nearby boathouse, and they enjoyed dinner at the Getty House, a downtown Yonkers hotel and restaurant. Eventually, the night led them to the parlor for singing, accompanied on piano by Julian Davidson. After more singing at the Palisades boathouse, the men rowed back to Nyack, arriving at 12:30 a.m.
Moonlit Row to Hook Mountain
In mid-summer 1891, a coed party of N.R.A. and newly formed Nyack Country Club members made a moonlit row to Hook Mountain, starting at 8 p.m. from the N.R.A. clubhouse. On the way back from Hook Mountain, the boat stopped at the Nyack Country Club, a three-story brick house built around 1840 by retired New York City district attorney Hugh Maxwell. Refreshments and dancing followed at the country club before the group rowed back to the N.R.A. clubhouse around midnight.
A Night Row to a Stupendous Victorian Home
Judge Leo C. Dessar owned one of the most fabulous Victorian summer homes in all the Nyacks. Located on the South Nyack shoreline, the house was built with brownstone quarried on the property. The house featured a four-story turret with an observatory balcony on top. Dessar invited the N.R.A. for dinner on Friday, July 23, 1892. Though the row from the clubhouse to South Nyack was short, the 12 club members had a hard pull in extremely rough waters.
George Bardin, owner of the Hotel St. George, joined Dessar and the club members for a house tour, dinner, and singing. At some point, the group toasted the “absent ladies.” The party broke up late, and club members rowed home.
Barge Party on the Tappan Zee by Moonlight
Davidson’s 1887 etching in Harper’s Weekly presents a romantic yet realistic view of a moonlit barge party. Twenty-four formally dressed men and women crowd the small ten-oared barge. They approach Tarrytown Light, also then called Kingsland Island Light, which was built half a mile offshore near shoals. Land reclaimed for the Tarrytown General Motors factory made the 1883 lighthouse obsolete. In Davidson’s etching, Kingsland Island appears to the left of the light.
A moon hidden behind clouds illuminates a calm river. People converse, and one woman dips her hand into the cool water. Sailboats dot the near shore. A small steamer, like Davidson’s Princess or another small barge, heads around Kingsland Island. The erect and watchful coxswain, wearing the approved N.R.A. uniform and cap, steers the barge to the right of the light toward the Westchester hills. Behind him, a marine flag flutters, balanced by the just visible N.R.A flag at the front of the boat. After their return to Nyack-on-Hudson, dinner and dancing would follow at the clubhouse.
A Calmer Age
Summer was one long holiday for the leisure class that owned summer homes along the Hudson River in Nyack in the 1890s. A moonlit barge party represented just one romantic moment. On a calm summer night today, punctuated by the shore and bridge lights, the sounds of the barge party conversations may still whisper to us of a time to which we can no longer return.
Mike Hays is a 38-year resident of the Nyacks. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.
Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Sun River Health. Sun River Health is a network of 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing primary, dental, pediatric, OB-GYN, and behavioral health care to over 245,000 patients annually.
