Code violations shutter boathouse used by 4 schools
Rowing teams from Temple University and three high schools have been shut out of the well-used East Park Canoe House in Fairmount Park after city inspectors found "significant building code violations," according to Fairmount Park executive director Mark A. Focht.
Rowing teams from Temple University and three high schools have been shut out of the well-used East Park Canoe House in Fairmount Park after city inspectors found "significant building code violations," according to Fairmount Park executive director Mark A. Focht.
The boathouse, on Kelly Drive at the Strawberry Mansion Bridge, is used as a storage and changing area. It is now sealed with a chain link fence. Students from Temple University and Father Judge, North Catholic and La Salle High Schools have been told to remove their equipment from the building by Feb. 15.
Teams have been told to give 24 hours notice before retrieving equipment. For safety reasons, only school employees, not students, will be allowed into the building, Focht said.
"Fairmount Park staff understands that this notice will create an inconvenience," Focht said in a letter to the schools. "However, our paramount concerns are to restore this historic park asset and to ensure the safety of all park users."
Focht said yesterday he was awaiting the citation from the Department of Licenses and Inspections regarding the city-owned building, which dates to the 1920s. Problems appear to range from the roof to structural beams to cracks in masonry, he said.
Representatives of the school rowing teams are scheduled to meet with Focht tomorrow to discuss an alternative site to store equipment.
"This is a really big deal for those schools, because there's nowhere to put their boats," said Clete Graham, commodore of the Schuylkill Navy, which oversees the boathouses on Boathouse Row as well as the St. Joseph's University boathouse near the Canoe House. Graham will attend the meeting tomorrow, although the Canoe House is not part of the Schuylkill Navy.
Members of Philadelphia's various year-round dragon-boat clubs use the public launch at the Canoe House, which is commonly known as the Police Dock, and frequently use its changing rooms and bathrooms, said Phoebe Wood, one of 55 members of the Hope Afloat USA dragon boat, one of two teams made up primarily of breast-cancer survivors.
Philadelphia police operate their marine unit for the upper Schuylkill out of the Canoe House. They will still have access to their craft when they need it, Focht said.
