In a previous article about the Rochester Women’s Club, I touched on two aspects of the club that sent me looking for more information. The first was the part that the Rochester’s Men’s Club played in the creation of the Women’s Club. The men had a clubhouse on Mary’s Pond Rd. next to the baseball field. Men gathered there to play cards, pool and to plan clambakes and chowder suppers along with other activities. For a while, Tuesday nights were set aside for women’s card parties. Eventually, as was previously mentioned, the women began their own club and became affiliated with state and national women’s clubs and had their own building.
The other thing that caught my attention was basketball at the Women’s Club. Looking at today’s building, I had trouble picturing a basketball court. I was assured that the basement had enough space for dances, volleyball, and yes, basketball. I was taking “basement” to mean “cellar,” an area under the main floor. However, in this case the basement is the large annex building which today houses some town hall functions (the women working there assured me that they were in the basement.) The addition, today’s annex, is six steps down from the main building, hence, its name.
So, back to basketball. The annex is a large, long area and without the dropped ceilings of today, had a high ceiling open to the rafters. A basket was set up at each end. There was also a wood stove in a wire cage at either end to provide heat. The bleachers were created using a double row of wooden benches on the floor and a third on top. A corner was curtained off to create a changing room for the players.
At one time, there were 4 to 8 town teams. Each team was sponsored by a business, like the Hartley Sawmill or an organization like the Grange. On Friday nights, there would be three games. Two were interleague games with hotly contested rivalries between the town teams. The third game would feature a Rochester team made up of the town’s best players against an out-of-town team. These games were well attended, and no doubt drew as much enthusiasm as today’s March Madness. If anyone has basketball memories to share, please send them to me at eshbach2@aol.com.
By Connie Eshbach