The Grosse Pointe Yacht Club (GPYC) is a private

yacht club A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mari ...

located on the shore of

Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair (french: Lac Sainte-Claire) is a freshwater lake that lies between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. It was named in 1679 by French Catholic explorers after Saint Clare of Assisi, on whose feast day ...

Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan Grosse Pointe Shores is a city in Macomb and Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 3,008 at the 2010 census. Grosse Pointe Shores was incorporated as a village in 1911 and was part of Grosse Pointe Township in Wayne C ...

. The club is a member of the

Detroit Regional Yacht-racing Association The Detroit Regional Yacht-racing Association (DRYA) was established in 1912 as the Detroit River Yachting Association by the Commodores of the Detroit Boat Club and the Detroit Yacht Club, Commodore Harry Austin and Commodore Harry Kendall, respect ...

(DRYA). The clubhouse is prominently visible and a well-known landmark along the shoreline of the lake north of

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

History

The club was initially founded as the Grosse Pointe Ice Boat Club in 1910 by Frank Verheyden. However, in 1918, the club was converted into the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. The

Mediterranean Revival Mediterranean Revival is an architectural style introduced in the United States, Canada, and certain other countries in the 19th century. It incorporated references from Spanish Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, Italian Renaissance, French Colonia ...

clubhouse was conceptualized by

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

architect

Guy Lowell Guy Lowell (August 6, 1870 – February 4, 1927), was an American architect and landscape architect. Biography Born in Boston, Lowell was the son of Mary Walcott (Goodrich) and Edward Jackson Lowell, and a member of Boston's well-known Lowe ...

, who was commissioned in the 1920s to design the building. Lowell died at sea before his plans were fully developed, but his concept of the clubhouse was posthumously adopted for the club. After several budgeting cutbacks and cost overruns, the clubhouse officially opened on July 4, 1929. The original clubhouse included a ball room and several dining rooms, with the largest being able to seat 250. However, increasing budget overruns left the clubhouse in debt during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, causing it to foreclose despite attempts from the club to solicit more members. Several optimistic members purchased the club back from creditors during the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, as they predicted an increase in household spending power. In 1984, the board hired Charles Terrence McCafferty & Associates for $1,000,000 to redesign the dining and social facilities of the clubhouse. After a successful proposal, Edward V. Monahan, Inc. was contracted to build the expansions. In 1997 the GPYC was named the “Number One Yacht Club in America” and is still considered among the best, earning "Club of Excellence" and "Distinguished Club" awards in consecutive years since 2019. The GPYC provides all the traditional amenities of a classic yacht club, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis and bowling facilities, as well as elegant dining rooms and a ballroom. Boating members enjoy the GPYC’s central location on Lake St. Clair and the club maintains a spacious deep-water marina with a private gas dock. The GPYC maintains membership in the Detroit Regional Yachting Association and holds two annual DRYA-sanctioned sailing regattas each year in addition to numerous other sailing-related events and programs. The

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

serves as a navigational aid for boaters on the lake.

Clubhouse

Upon entering the club a 50-foot foyer leads to a rotunda which leads to points throughout the club. A bronze sculpture of

Wheeler Williams Wheeler Williams (November 30, 1897 – August 12, 1972) was an American sculptor, born in Chicago, Illinois. Life and career Williams studied sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He attended Yale, where he graduated ...

, entitled "Rhythm of the Waves", is a prominent feature. Amenities of the club, besides the marina itself, include a bowling alley that is open from September until May, an

Olympic-size pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

, several clay

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

courts, two lighted

paddle tennis Paddle tennis, rebranded as Pop tennis in 2015, is a game adapted from tennis and played for over a century. Compared to tennis, the court is smaller and has no doubles lanes, and the net is lower. Paddle tennis is played with a solid paddle as op ...

courts and a

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

center. The club includes 3 restaurants, a main ballroom, four bars, a pool deck and Wine Cellar. The club facilities have been updated and modernized several times. The harbor has been enlarged and improved as membership quadrupled. However, the architectural integrity of Lowell's original design and the views of Lake St. Clair have been maintained. A view of the club is shown as a background to the rolling credits at the end of the movie ''

Gran Torino ''Gran Torino'' is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, and Ahney Her. This was Eastwood's first starring role since 2004's ''Million D ...

'' (2008) starring Clint Eastwood. as well as an aerial view of the club's tower panning to encompass Lakeshore Dr. in a scene in the 1997 John Cusak film ''

Grosse Pointe Blank ''Grosse Pointe Blank'' is a 1997 American black comedy action film directed by George Armitage from a screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz, D. V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink and John Cusack. It stars Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd and follo ...

''.

Notes

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External links

* * {{Authority control Yacht clubs in the United States Buildings and structures in Wayne County, Michigan Lake St. Clair Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Wayne County, Michigan Coastal resorts in Michigan Sailing in Michigan Sports venues in Metro Detroit Buildings and structures completed in 1914 1914 establishments in Michigan

History

Clubhouse

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links