Community Boating, Inc. was founded by
Joseph Lee Jr., a wealthy Bostonian and recreation advocate. In 1932, the city of Boston set $200,000 aside to build a boathouse at the
West End, Boston Beach. However, by 1937 the boathouse still had not been built and so Lee partnered with William F. Brophy, a lawyer who worked in the West End, to push for the boathouse's construction to advance opportunities for public boating for local children. Lee also began regular meetings of the "Community Boat Club" in the basement of the West End Community Center to build simple plywood sailboats and the group of 100 began sailing out of the boathouse on the Charlesbank with seven boats. The Community Boat Club later relocated to Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) property on the Upper Basin without permission over concerns that they had been sailing too close to the Charles River Dam. The Community Boat Club and Lee continued to advocate for a city-funded boathouse. In 1938, they regularly drew attention to their cause by sailing under the
Longfellow Bridge into the Upper Basin, including once during the annual
American Henley Regatta at the
Union Boat Club. Metropolitan police towed them out of the basin in response. In another protest, the Community Boat Club marched from the West End to the State House, placing a boat called the
Eugene C. Hultman inside the Hall of Flags. In 1939, the Community Boat Club petitioned the recently elected governor
Leverett Saltonstall, to use a portion of the $1 million gifted to the city by Helen Storrow for the improvement of the Charles River Basin to build a boathouse. In the summer of 1939, Saltonstall attended the club's boat christening ceremony, one of which was named after him, and in 1940 he asked the state legislature to designate part of Helen Storrow’s gift for completing the boathouse. In 2007, they began a universal access program to allow people with disabilities to sail. == Operations ==