Riding and Hunt Club - Washington

Riding Clubs were not restricted to New York, but could also be found in many other cities, such as Washington.

In February 1910, the Riding Club of Washington was organized and acquired a clubhouse at southwest corner of 22nd Street and P Street NW. Originally built in 1887 by J.D. Brown, the building was originally Washington Riding Academy, opening in January 1888. Costing about $150,000 and occupying a 13,000 square foot footprint, the building was four stories with two stories below the pavement. Visitors entered the main or riding floor directly from the street. 

The ground floor was the carriage room and used iron columns to allow it to fully occupy the footprint of the building. In this vast room, 250 carriages could be stored. This room was accessed through seven large stone arches.

The second floor was set aside for stables, consisting of 150 5'x9' stalls. large windows opened out on every side and in one corner there was a saddle and harness room. As with the carriage room, the stable floor occupied the entire 13,000 square foot footprint.

The ring featured a double floor, overlaid with six inches of clay and twelve inches of tank bark, making the perfect riding surface. Seven circuits of the ring equaled a mile of riding distance. Large windows surrounding the ring afforded riders views of Rock Creek Valley, the hills of Virginia, Arlington, and Fort Myer. A wainscoting of handsome oiled wood surrounded the ring. This floor also featured an office and reception room, and the western end featured a broad entrance for riders. There were two other entrances, one east of the office for the ladies, and one on the west which opened directly into the office itself. A four-foot-wide galley surrounded the ring, and the floor was illuminated with gas and electric light.

On the north, or front side, and level with the galleries will be the ladies and gentlemen's dressing rooms. The ladies’ dressing room was fitted up with 80 lockers and the men's dressing room with 100 lockers. these rooms were so arranged that they could be thrown open into one long apartment suitable for dancing. 

Above the dressing rooms were the club parlors, reception rooms and dining room. Here subscribers could find daily papers and a well-managed buffet. 

About 1898 the building was used as a market and remodeled for that purpose, with the basement being used for storage. The first floor contained room for 150 market stalls. The second floor of the building as it then stood was taken out to provide more room and light to the main floor. The new market also features a ladies reception room and a on part of the second floor there was a first-class dining room and restaurant.

This did not last long and in 1901 it was converted to a storage warehouse. Then in 1905 it was leased for use as a garage for renting automobiles.

The Riding Club acquired the building in 1910 and altered its appearance from an unsightly structure full of market stalls, into a handsome riding hall with paddocks underneath. The purchase of the land and improvements to the building were estimated to cost $200,000. The building was remodeled, and a wing was added running all the way back to P Street, creating 30,000 square feet of floor space. The new clubhouse had one of the largest riding rings in the country at that time and featured a gallery surrounding it for spectators. In the basement were stables to accommodate 300 horses as well as storage for carriages. The clubhouse also had an attractive tearoom, and the new wing featured lockers, reception and toilet rooms. The exterior of the clubhouse was finished in cement with green trimmings, and bridle paths lead from building, ran under the bridge and along the banks of Rock Creek connecting with Rock Creek Park.

The clubhouse formally opened on January 12, 1911.

In March 1912, the Rock Creek Hunt Club was organized, only to merge shortly thereafter in April of that year with the Riding Club of Washington to form the Riding and Hunt Club of Washington.

When out riding to hounds, the Riding and Hunt Club wore scarlet coats with blue collars with buff piping, colors later adopted by the Potomac Hunt after the dissolution of the Riding and Hunt Club

In June 1925, the Club purchased the land behind the clubhouse, between P Street and Q Street, and between Rock Creek Parkway to 22nd Street, totaling 35,000 square feet. This purchase was to allow for the construction of a 302'x117' building with 100'x200' tan bark riding ring, a large promenade, seats, lounges, offices, and stabling area for 300 horses, as well as contemplating a sun porch 300' long overlooking Rock Creek. However, none of those plans were realized. However, when boxing was first legalized in Washington, it was the Riding and Hunt Club which fight moguls chose it for the venue.

In 1933, the club operated their kennels for hunting hounds at Bradley Farms in Potomac.

Eventually in the clubhouse closed December 1934 because of the failure to meet fire department regulations. The location was sold to Gulf Oil and after the old clubhouse was torn down, the site became a gas station.

On January 1, 1935, the Riding and Hunt Club announced the relocation of the club from its old home at the southwest corner 22nd Street and P Street NW, to newly leased clubhouse at East West Highway and Beach Drive in the Maryland Rock Creek Park area, and by March of that year was in their new home.

This new home was originally opened in May 1934 as the Meadowbrook Saddle Club, an organization with whom they now shared a home. Built at the cost of $25,000, it featured a stable accommodating 58 horses and attractive club rooms for members. The clubhouse unit at the west end of the building was built in the style of an old Charlottesville tavern, with a brick terrace and a huge French provincial chimney. It featured a blue and white color scheme throughout, with antique white pine woodwork and brick flagstone flooring in the clubroom, office, pantry, and tack rooms. Old Washington pavements with years of age upon them, yielded the material for the unique flagstone flooring of the clubroom. Firmly set in the flagstone before the enormous stone fireplace, which boasted a real Dutch oven, was a large compass. Upstairs was complete with a second club room, showers, dressing rooms, a balcony with steps to the terrace, and a country ballroom finished in simple stained wood. This facility was first run by the proprietor of the Shoreham Saddle Club, which this the Meadowbrook Saddle Club replaced.

On June 10, 1938, the Riding and Hunt Club dissolved having no physical location for almost two years, implying that the new location was not one shared for very long after their move. While some of its members moved on to form the Potomac Hunt, claiming the old colors of the Riding and Hunt Club as their own, the old club was no more.