A Brief (Early) History of Malta
The Club was founded as the Malta Barge Club on February 22,1860 by members of the Minnehaha Lodge of the Sons of Malta: William S. Gregory, Thomas M Apple and Thomas J. Barger, Co-founders, joining shortly thereafter were George Pride, William A. Bell, Charles H. Clampert and Gustavus Dubosg. The Club initially used a house on Smith’s Island in the Delaware River off Chestnut Street. That island has since been removed by dredging. There the Club kept its first boat; a six oared barge called the Minnehaha.
In 1863, the Club moved to “Pop’s Boathouse” located on the east side of the Schuylkill, just above the present Spring Garden Street dam. Although some accounts have it that the old boathouse was moved from the Delaware and anchored at that site. In 1863 the Club underwent a reorganization. In that year, the original seven members resigned their memberships, and the following persons joined the Club: Louis F. Barger, WilliamH. Lees, Charles T. Illman, Samuel H. Illman, Julian S. Illman, Harold W. Illman, Frank Barnard, James Osborne and George E. Brown. The move to the Schuylkill and reorganization signaled the coming growth and success of the Club. Early Club members looked up upon these events as the real beginning of the Malta Boat Club. Indeed, the Club’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary was celebrated in 1888, 25 years after the reorganization.
Rowing trips were popular with the early members. In June 1860, the Minnehaha was rowed down Delaware to the Chesapeake Bay and up the Elk River. The next year a rowing outing took the mem of Malta to Port Deposit and Havre de Grace on the Susquehanna. These and other trips established a precedent for what may have been Malta’s most memorable trip taken. In 1887 Club members rowed a barge from Kensington up the Delaware, through the Delaware and Raritan Canal at Bordentown and then to New York City. In New York they were hosted by the Nassau Club and the New York Athletic Club.
In 1865, the Club purchased the Clubhouse of the Excelsior Club, which stood on the site of the present boathouse. As part of this package Malta also purchased its second barge, the Intrepid, which unlike the Minnehaha was equipped with outriggers.
In 1869, the Malta Boat House Association issued capital stock at $25 per share (about $600 in 2026) to Club members to finance reconstruction of the boathouse which consisted of the McTague Room and the bay beneath it.
During these early years the Club was quite active. Membership grew to about forty men by the 1880’s. Business meetings were held monthly just as they are today. These meeting were usually held at the homes of members , although later on they were held at local hotels such as the Colonnade and the Hotel Majestic. The house was kept up by a salaried janitor and by regular maintenance paid for by the Malta Boathouse Association which raised money by issuing notes to members. The Club gradually bought back the shares of stock in the house and repaid the loans. Frequent improvements were made to the house. In 1879, a bay window was added to the side of the house at a cost of $588. In the 1880’s the house was expanded to include the Ladies Room the shop and the two bays beneath them.
In 1901, issuance of $12,000 in bonds was authorized to expand the house to its present size. George and William Hewitt designed these further additions for the boathouse, giving Malta a third story and making it the tallest boathouse on Boathouse Row. Construction was completed in February 1902.
About 1907 the boat bay floor was lowered to it present depth and the cellar was filled in.
The Club was admitted to the Schuylkill Navy on August 22, 1865 and incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 25, 1884
The Willows
The Willow’s, Malta’s upriver house originally opened in July 1888 at a house “in the West Park opposite Strawberry Mansion”. In 1892, the Club was forced to vacate the house by the Park Commission, which was “making a new road to connect with the new bridge over the Railroad” (quotations from minutes). That year a new house was built by the Willows Association on ground donated by the Park Commission on the West Drive (MLK) near the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, overlooking the river. Around the new house were tennis courts, a baseball field, quoit ground and a cricket crease. The Willows was used for social events including the very popular barge parties, during which barges and ladies boats would be rowed to the Willows for picnics and other celebrations.
The Willows was finally closed in 1932 following, it seems, a shooting incident involving a tenant living in the house.