The folks from the Minnesota Boat Club have been rowing on the river since 1870. Located under the Wabasha Bridge on the west end of Raspberry Island, the original boathouse was a wooden structure. It was replaced in the early 1900′s by the existing boathouse shown in the postcard below. In 1949, the United States Navy built a small base on the eastern side of the island. The flood waters of of 1965 washed away the walls of the building and replacement concrete block had to be installed. In 1993 flood waters reached the bottom of the boat bay doors and in the Spring of 2001 floodwaters exceeded their 1965 mark leaving over a foot of standing water in the boathouse.
I remember walking across the bridge that spring and looking down at the little building as the muddy waters and debris moved around it. Since then boathouse has undergone a major renovation and Raspberry Island has been completely overhauled. Under the new Wabasha Street bridge the city added a new Raspberry Island bridge, rip-rap, a band shell, extensive landscaping and public parking.
