Yacht Club fire destroys historic building, but the club will go on!

by . on 19 Jan 2011 The members of an historic yacht club whose building was tragically destroyed by fire vow they will rebuild the club, and, though they lost all their sails and other vital items, will not stop sailing in the meantime.

Early last Wednesday morning, the 100-year-old clubhouse at the Edgewood Yacht Club in Cranston Rhode Island was destroyed by fire, but some club members even took to the water with borrowed sails that same day to prove their determination.

The fire started sometime before 4 a.m. and it took nearly two hours to get the fire under control in the middle of a north east storm.

Fire Department Deputy Chief David DiMaio said firefighters entered the burning building, but they were ordered out by a deputy chief on the scene. Deputy Chief DiMaio said two Marine units were also called in, one from Cranston and one from Warwick.

Investigators do not know what caused the fire, which occurred during a snowstorm, but they don’t believe that it was suspicious.

Edgewood's commodore, Jeff Lamphear said the yacht club will continue, but that the building is a total loss. The yacht club's first floor had recently been renovated. 'We'll rebuild the club, although we can't ever replace a building as majestic as that,' Lamphear said. 'We'll depend on people who've been at the club before.'



The Edgewood Yacht Club remains one of the oldest yacht clubs in Rhode Island, dating back to 1908. Lamphear said it's unclear as to what would happen to upcoming events booked at the club.'We're very concerned about that, and sorry', Lamphear said. The yacht club's boats, docks and cottage were fortunately saved.

The club was constructed on pilings over the Providence River, and is especially notable for having survived the storm surge that accompanied the 1938 Hurricane, as well as the one that occurred during Hurricane Carol in 1954. The loss of the building is very sad as it had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

No one was injured at all, and employees say they plan to rebuild the club, but the odds of them replicating such an amazing structure is very unlikely.