Community News/ Apr 4

The Storied Argos Celebrate 150

Written by Jordan A. Levitin, Argonaut Rowing Club

Nestled discreetly below Toronto’s Lakeshore Boulevard, on a green swath of parkland, a tidy mid-century brick box is home to one of Canada’s most storied athletic organizations – the Argonaut Rowing Club. Few passersby notice the simple structure and even fewer know its colourful history.

This summer, the Club is marking its 150th anniversary with a series of celebratory events and is inviting the community to join in. Club members are excited to officially unveil a significant renovation and up-grade to the clubhouse and docks – the culmination of a multi-year initiative.

The events will celebrate the Club’s history, but also focus on strengthening its role as an important lake-front sports venue and community hub. The Argonaut story begins in 1872 when a small group of oarsmen rented a shed on the Toronto Harbour to house their one boat. The site is now somewhere inland from Sugar Beach. It was a heady time for rowing in Canada – a glamour sport that attracted huge crowds to watch famous sportsmen vie for big purses. The excitement of professional rowing (epitomized by the famous Ned Hanlan) fed a robust amateur community. Toronto Harbour’s protected waters were a natural venue and it wasn’t long before the growing club moved to larger quarters at the foot of York Street – near today’s Union Station.

When the new clubhouse burnt down in 1879, it was quickly replaced by a new and improved structure. For the next 40 years, this building served as the home of a club that dominated Canadian rowing, sending crews to represent Canada in five of the Century’s first six Olympics.

In 1921, the club shifted westward one more time, buying a plot of land at the foot of Dowling Avenue and building a classic-style boathouse on the newly breakwater-protected Western Beaches. The Club continues to call this site home, although the grand boathouse was destroyed by another fire in 1947 and replaced by the current brick structure.

There are countless colourful stories about the Club, its crews and its relationship with the city of Toronto. Many of them are recounted in great detail on the Club’s website and in the Club Profile section of the Row Ontario Website:

Argonaut Rowing Club History
Getting to Know the Argonaut Rowing Club – Row Ontario

Here are a few highlights that may not be widely known:

The Argonaut Rugby Football club, created in 1873 to keep rowers in shape during bad weather, was eventually sold to a syndicate in 1957, but not before winning 10 Grey Cups. The Grey Cup trophy was one of the few pieces of memorabilia to survive the 1947 fire.
The Club has produced a number of Olympians including more recently, Kay Worthington, Shannon Crawford, Brian Price, Mara Jones, Marnie McBean, Sydney Payne and Paralympian Victoria Nolan
An Argonaut eight represented Canada in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, the last year that single-club crews were sent. The crew raced in a borrowed ‘tub’ after their boats were destroyed in the Atlantic crossing, and just barely missed the podium.
After a difficult period during the 1960s and 70s, the Club began a resurgence in 1980 with the belated establishment of a Women’s rowing program.
Q-Crew was established at the club in 1995 to provide a safe space for 2S LGBTQ+ rowers. The group sent crews to compete in the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam and the 2006 World Out Games in Montreal.
The country’s first para-rowing program was established at the Club in 2001.
Camp Argo is a summer day camp established in 2002 that has introduced many local youths to the challenges and benefits of rowing as a sport.
The Club is currently home to the Branksome Hall rowing program and the University of Toronto rowing team.
The Club hosts two recreational regattas: The Hog Town Heats and the Martha Coffey Frost Bite Sprints.

In addition to the sport of rowing, the Argonaut Rowing Club serves as an important community hub. One of the few water-front venues on the Western Beaches, the club’s impressive, professionally-managed Henley Room is a very busy wedding venue and frequently hosts corporate meetings and community gatherings.

Record high-water levels in 2017 caused devastating damage to the building’s lower level. The Club’s leadership rose to the occasion and initiated a renovation and upgrade program, including an innovative Community Bond that quickly raised roughly $1,200,000. Combined with savings, fund-raising and an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant, this turned into a $2,035,000 revitalization project.

As the Argonaut Rowing Club opens for its 150th rowing season, it boasts expanded boat storage on its water-level floor, brand-new locker-rooms on a new second floor, with an expanded committee room and office boasting new windows overlooking the lake, a revamped gym and Centennial (erg) Room with its spectacular lake views on the top floor. An elevator now makes all levels fully accessible.

The Club’s members are anxious to show off their shiny new facilities in the months ahead. And the members are, after all, the heart of the club. Far from the elite image of rowing, Argos is a hard-scrabble, volunteer-run club where everyone pitches in. The activist Board of Directors is responsible for keeping the facility functioning, running all programs and raising funds to pay for coaching and equipment. They are dedicated to diversity and inclusion and are working to expand youth and development programs. The focus is on strengthening the Club’s connections to the full breadth of the city it has so often proudly represented.

Our alumni, friends and neighbours are invited to join Argo members at a variety of events this summer to help us celebrate our past and build our future.