Hill Rag November 2005

Anacostia Community Boathouse

Signs of Progress on the Anacostia Waterfront with $300,000 Grant from City

by: Andy Rabus

Dreary rain and cool weather does not keep paddlesport enthusiasts in bed on a Saturday morning in late October, especially when they have good news to celebrate. Crowds cheered as DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Dan Tangherlini, speaking at the Anacostia Community Boathouse’s AccessAnacostia event held on October 22, handed over a 4-foot gold key while announcing that DDOT has leased an additional building to the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association (ACBA) and provided $300,000 in Transportation Enhancement Funding. The money will go towards refurbishing and renovating the building along the Anacostia waterfront into a community center.

The new community center, located between the two spans of the 11th Street bridge, will serve as an information center and rest stop along the Anacostia Riverwalk trail, provide meeting areas for use by DDOT and other community groups, and provide much-needed facilities to hundreds of rowing and paddlesport enthusiasts who now use the river regularly. The boathouse association has been working for years to build a permanent community facility dedicated to non-motorized water-sport and promoting environmental stewardship of the river.

ACBA President, Dylan Cors, described the funding and the recently signed lease granting access to the building as “major milestones and testimony to the success of our all-volunteer effort.” While the recent achievements are impressive developments, they are only the latest in a history of commitment to the dream of establishing a community boathouse at this site. For several decades, grass-roots efforts have been slowly building on what is now one of the most visible signs of progress on the Anacostia waterfront. A dedicated group of local citizens, dubbing themselves the Organization for Anacostia Rowing & Sculling, or “OARS,” sponsored a variety of programs in the 1980s to teach local children and adults the sport of rowing. The group also began seeking cooperation from the city to allow outdoor storage of boats at the current ACBA facility.

Momentum increased when Capital Rowing Club, in the early 1990s , moved from its former home on the Potomac River to the Anacostia. For several years after the move, a small contingent of people stored their boats in a single outdoor space underneath the 11th Street Bridge, with the hopes that one day there would be a community boathouse. Additional clubs and schools have joined this effort over the years, helping to demonstrate the need for expanded facilities. DDOT provided the groups access to an initial building on site in 2002, which is now full of boats and surrounded by a campus that brings hundreds of people down to the waterfront. Boats go in and out of the boathouse and three large outdoor compounds starting well before dawn and finishing after dark. The teams that train here compete across the country and around the world and host rowing regattas, dragon boat races, and other events on the Anacostia River throughout the year, bringing even more people to the river.

The nine member organizations that make up the non-profit ACBA are committed to serving the surrounding community, offering a variety of community-based programs, many of which target and benefit the city’s youth. Youth rowing programs are hosted each summer, hundreds of teens participate in dragon boat races each year, and several high school rowing teams have been fostered from the site, with new programs now underway at Anacostia High School and Eastern High School. At the event last Saturday, the first ever OARS Community Outreach Award was given to three recipients, two organizations and one individual, who have embodied and represented the spirit of community over the past year. The award recipients include Capital Rowing Club, the National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association and local rower and coach John Imperial.

ACBA has put a great deal of effort into turning the facilities on the waterfront into a recreational resource for the community. The effort has been supported by the generosity of the local community, as other organizations including the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission and the Capitol Hill Community Foundation have recently awarded grants to the boathouse. While the planning work continues on the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative and the signs of progress tend to be hard to see, organizations like ACBA have been quietly delivering on the promise of a better waterfront, a better river, and a better community.

Andy Rabus is the Chair of ACBA’s development committee. He can be reached at andrew.rabus@earthlink.net.


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Anacostia Community Boathouse
Signs of Progress on the Anacostia Waterfront with $300,000 Grant from City
by: Andy Rabus
Dreary rain and cool weather does not keep paddlesport enthusiasts in bed on a Saturday morning in late October, especially when they have good news to celebrate. Crowds cheered as DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) Director Dan Tangherlini, speaking at the Anacostia Community Boathouse’s AccessAnacostia event held on October 22, handed over a 4-foot gold key while announcing that DDOT has leased an additional building to the Anacostia Community Boathouse Association (ACBA) and provided $300,000 in Transportation Enhancement Funding. The money will go towards refurbishing and renovating the building along the Anacostia waterfront into a community center. The new community center, located between the two spans of the 11th Street bridge, will serve as an information center and rest stop along the Anacostia Riverwalk trail, provide meeting areas for use by DDOT and other community groups, and provide much-needed facilities to hundreds of rowing and paddlesport enthusiasts who now use the river regularly. The boathouse association has been working for years to build a permanent community facility dedicated to non-motorized water-sport and promoting environmental stewardship of the river. ACBA President, Dylan Cors, described the funding and the recently signed lease granting access to the building as “major milestones and testimony to the success of our all-volunteer effort.” While the recent achievements are impressive developments, they are only the latest in a history of commitment to the dream of establishing a community boathouse at this site. For several decades, grass-roots efforts have been slowly building on what is now one of the most visible signs of progress on the Anacostia waterfront. A dedicated group of local citizens, dubbing themselves the Organization for Anacostia Rowing & Sculling, or “OARS,” sponsored a variety of programs in the 1980s to teach local children and adults the sport of rowing. The group also began seeking cooperation from the city to allow outdoor storage of boats at the current ACBA facility. Momentum increased when Capital Rowing Club, in the early 1990s , moved from its former home on the Potomac River to the Anacostia. For several years after the move, a small contingent of people stored their boats in a single outdoor space underneath the 11th Street Bridge, with the hopes that one day there would be a community boathouse. Additional clubs and schools have joined this effort over the years, helping to demonstrate the need for expanded facilities. DDOT provided the groups access to an initial building on site in 2002, which is now full of boats and surrounded by a campus that brings hundreds of people down to the waterfront. Boats go in and out of the boathouse and three large outdoor compounds starting well before dawn and finishing after dark. The teams that train here compete across the country and around the world and host rowing regattas, dragon boat races, and other events on the Anacostia River throughout the year, bringing even more people to the river. The nine member organizations that make up the non-profit ACBA are committed to serving the surrounding community, offering a variety of community-based programs, many of which target and benefit the city’s youth. Youth rowing programs are hosted each summer, hundreds of teens participate in dragon boat races each year, and several high school rowing teams have been fostered from the site, with new programs now underway at Anacostia High School and Eastern High School. At the event last Saturday, the first ever OARS Community Outreach Award was given to three recipients, two organizations and one individual, who have embodied and represented the spirit of community over the past year. The award recipients include Capital Rowing Club, the National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association and local rower and coach John Imperial. ACBA has put a great deal of effort into turning the facilities on the waterfront into a recreational resource for the community. The effort has been supported by the generosity of the local community, as other organizations including the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission and the Capitol Hill Community Foundation have recently awarded grants to the boathouse. While the planning work continues on the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative and the signs of progress tend to be hard to see, organizations like ACBA have been quietly delivering on the promise of a better waterfront, a better river, and a better community. Andy Rabus is the Chair of ACBA’s development committee. He can be reached at andrew.rabus@earthlink.net.