Six hundred feet south of the Rochester Canoe Club on Irondequoit Bay is a waterfront property originally conveyed from the farm of John Walzer to the Old Star Club of Rochester in 1874. The Club built a two story cottage there in 1876 on an elevated plateau with a wood foundation and no fireplace. Water came from a well, and there was an outhouse. On the north was the Oswegatchie Club (1872) and on the south the Point Lookout Club (1871), which actually started in 1868 in a tent. Prior to purchasing land, the Old Star Club camped out on the Bay. A news article tells of several Star members attending the dedication of the new Birds & Worms cottage in 1872 along with members of the Point Lookout and Dodge Clubs, who ferried other guests from the Newport House with their sail and rowboats. People got to the Bay by horse and wagon before the railroad to Sea Breeze arrived in 1879.

Although the Old Star Club disappeared in 1885, its purposes were similar to RCC (started 1881), which arrived on the Bay in 1884. Old Star had at least 8 members in 1879, including Frank Andrews, one of the 7 original members of RCC; Charles Moody, who appeared in the RCC opening day regatta; C.H. Plummer, and Samuel B. Williams, who became RCC members. Andrews became RCC Commodore, and the Club's first sailing champion. Moody was a noted local swimmer, school commissioner, and served under Gen. Custer in the Civil War, where he was a survivor of the infamous Andersonville Confederate prison camp. You can see what happened: RCC arrives, merges with Remus Club, has many more members, activities, boats, competition, and a more convenient location near Newport House; so half the members of Old Star join RCC! Next, RCC builds a larger clubhouse in 1887 to house 32 members and 40 canoes, with "modern" amenities of running water, showers, toilets, and food service. Old Star fades away, sells its property, and disappears forever as a club, as did more than 30 other clubs on the Bay. Only the Rochester Canoe Club remains from those early days..

The last Old Star holdout was Charles H. Bruff, an original member and officer for most of its years. He bought the property from the club in 1885, sold it to William Richards in 1888, and joined RCC, where he held several posts over the next 20 years, but never appeared in a race. Bruff preferred paddling/cruising to the competitive style of the American Canoe Association (an RCC specialty), so he also became purser of the Genesee Canoe Club on the upper river, which George Harris had founded. Finally, he joined Rochester Yacht Club, where he was Treasurer. Bruff was an accountant and Secretary/Treasurer of Crosman Seed Co. when he died in 1920 at age 65.

The Old Star cottage became a lodge for vacations and gatherings, with visitors staying a day, overnight, or a week, from as far away as New York City. It must have felt like camping out in such a primitive cottage. Caretaker Richards died in 1937, after owning the place for 49 years, and making little or no improvements. Eugene Senn, an early Lightning (#143) sailor at Newport Yacht Club on the Bay, bought and used the cottage as a summer place until 1957, when it became a year round residence after substantial changes.

Today, Eugene's son Robert lives there with his wife, Diane, and has an old ledger book with the original plans and costs of the cottage. That book became the record of visitors to the cottage after 1915. He also has what passed for a survey in 1888, showing the Old Star and adjacent club's property lines, measured in chains and links. The original Old Star canoe shed, a dark brown structure with a tin roof, 18 Ft. long, that could store about 8 canoes, is still on the property.

Leo Balandis July 22,2004