Rhode Island Post Cards
The New York Yacht Club - Station No. 6 - Newport, RI - 1914
(Scroll Down for Background Information about the New York Yacht Club
in Newport, RI and Huckleberry Hunting)

The Card was sent from Grandma in Newport, Rhode Island in 1914 to Mr. John B. Southworth in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The message reads:

Dear John,
This is just to tell you that we are all well. What a good time we would all have if you and your sister were here. We are all going huckleberrying tomorrow.
                                                                      Love, Grandma

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB

The New York Yacht Club was founded on July 30, 1844 by John Cox Stevens and 8 other yachtsmen aboard his yacht "Gimcrack." Stevens was elected commodore and three days later the group sailed their respective yachts to Newport, Rhode Island on what has since become an annual summer event.

The first meeting of the club took place at Windham's Tavern on March 17, 1845 at which time Stevens was reelected as Commodore. The first clubhouse was constructed in 1845 at Hoboken, New Jersey and dedicated on July 15. The clubhouse was later moved to Glen Cove, Long Island where it became Station Number Ten. 

The Yacht Club maintained  11 different stations along the Northeast coast including Station Number Six at Newport, Rhode Island, (Shown above). Commodore J. Pierpoint Morgan donated a site on West 44th street in Manhattan for a new club building in 1898, which opened in 1901. The original clubhouse, (Station Nr. 10) was moved by barge and placed on loan to Mystic Seaport for the next 50 years. After the Yacht Club acquired Harbour Court in Newport, RI in 1987, (the former summer home of Commodore John Nicholas Brown); Station Nr. 10 was placed on the grounds there.

In 1851 Commodore Stevens accepted an offer to race his 30 meter schooner America against 14 of Great Britain's fastest yachts. America won the race and the cup, which was donated to the New York Yacht Club in 1857. It is said that nearing the end of the race, when Queen Victoria asked, "who was first," the reply was, "America." She then asked, "who was second?" The answer was, "No One."

During the period of 1897 to 1920, every defender of the America's Cup was built by Nathaniel Herreshoff of Bristol, Rhode Island. Herreshoff's successful designs included Vigilant in 1893, Defender in 1895, Columbia in 1899 & 1901, Reliance in 1903, and Resolute in 1920.

For more on the History of America's Cup Race See:
Postal Stationary - America's Cup - Artcraft Cover - with History 

The New York Yacht Club's Station Number Six in Newport, RI was established in 1890 and the America's Cup race was moved to Newport, RI in 1930. 

HUCKLEBERRIES

In the text of the card, Grandma spoke of going huckleberrying. There are an abundance of wild huckleberry bushes growing in fields throughout Rhode Island. I remember several of these in an open field near the end of the street we lived on. (They were delicious too!)

Huckleberries are found in the wild throughout the North Eastern United States. The fruit is considered to be sweet and delicious.  The berry is actually a drupe or stony-seeded fruit with 10 large hard nutlets making it less marketable than blueberries.