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The Beaver Valley Boat Club was organized October 7, 1949 for the purpose of promoting safe and better boating, cooperating with other agencies and to encourage the advancement of seamanship with the aim of making the members eligible to render trained aid to the community in any emergency.
The first building used by the membership in 1949, was small. It was located above Halls Marina, near the place where the A-frame home of Mrs. Ruth Stevens Soben now stands. At times the members would rent a room at the Penn Beaver Hotel in Rochester, PA to hold their business meetings.
The name picked by the membership was Beaver Valley Yacht Club. In 1952, some of the members wanted to change it to Beaver Valley Boat Club, later it was changed back to Beaver Valley Yacht Club. Newspaper articles have referred to it as Beaver Valley Yacht Club, Beaver Valley Boat Club and Beaver County Boat Club. In 1975 the club was incorporated so it is now Beaver Valley Yacht Club, Inc.
The club applied for and received a "non-profit" charter in 1960 as "The Beaver Valley Yacht Club, Inc." The first meeting was held at The Landing Restaurant, Bridgewater, PA on October 7, 1949. Officers elected for the year 1949-1950 were:
Commodore Kenneth Hall, Vice Commodore Ray Ruetz, Secretary/Treasurer Ann Flemming, Fleet Captain Russell Morley.
For a number of years the club held their monthly meetings and fish frys in a rented facility on the property of the Riverside Boat Dock in Bridgewater. In 1967, under the direction of George Glomb, Commodore, the charter was opened to one-hundred people for the Beaver Valley Yacht Club. Property was purchased in Fallston in 1968 and some of the club members built docks and tied up at the new club site. With Bill Eberhardt as Commodore, construction of the new club was started in 1969 and completed in 1970. The "A" frame was destroyed by fire in 1979 and the present club was rebuilt in 1979-80.
Even a brief history of the Beaver Valley Yacht Club would not be complete without mentioning some of the "old-timers" who have been the backbone of the club and made it what it is today - Smiths, Flemmings, Glombs, Brozics, Graesers, Speers, Gennaros, Eberhardts.
Over the past three decades, the Beaver Valley Yacht Club has become synonymous with hospitality to boaters from the Tri-state area who make a visit to the Beaver River an annual event.
