The Marconi Outing Club?

The Warren Outing Club?

A few weeks back I wrote about Jim and Patty Mazzu’s 70th anniversary. That’s where they met.

The club came up in something else I had read since then.

I had never heard of it. This story is the outgrowth of that. (Though I still don’t know the precise location so feel free to email me if you know….).

Photos courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society The Warren Outing Club or the Marconi Outing Club, depending on the date of the photo, was located along the Allegheny River in Mead Twp. The building was destroyed by fire in 1982.

“In June of 1902, a large group of prominent Warrenites, with Judge Wilton M. Lindsey as their leaders, chartered an organization that they hoped ‘would promote social activities and an interest in outdoor pleasures,'” accord

$30,000 was raised for the effort which equates to nearly $1 million today.

“(T)he newly founded group purchased several acres of riverfront property at the site known as ‘Hertzel’s Ferry’ in Mead Township and began the erection of a clubhouse of immense proportions which faced the meandering Allegheny,” the WCHS article explained.

“For three decades the Outing Club provided the need for nearby country escape from the everyday hustle and bustle of Warren. There were dinners and dances, picnics and parties, and summertime found the more athletic type spending their leisure hours at fishing, hiking, swimming and rowing, or even organized team sports. A cinder hiking trail was installed and followed the river for some distance.”

That piece says the Outing Club was “was beautifully landscaped, with an arched bridge crossing a former millrace to a small island and a stout lumber buoy, afloat on barrels, anchored in the river as a sunning or resting spot for swimmers. Flowers and ornamental paintings were everywhere and well kept.”

For all the work that went into establishing the facility, its original lifespan was decidedly short.

From the Warren Evening Mirror in July 1917: “Warren’s once popular Outing Club is on the decline. Members and stockholders manifest a lack of interest in its welfare to such an extent that the future interest of the club is imperilled and unless something is done in the near future to revive it the Warren Outing Club bids fair to become a thing of the past.

“The membership has dwindled until at the present time there are only a few who seem to care whether or not the Club continues. Many have resigned thinking to later become members of the new country club, and many others have dropped out for various reasons…. The buildings and grounds of the Warren Outing Club constitute a property easily worth between $12,000 and $15,000, and as every resident of the city knows, occupies the most excellently adapted site for the purpose in this section of the state.”

The Historical Society article also alludes to the impact of the Conewango Valley Country Club, which was established in 1918, and states that the facility “was finally leased to a local couple who maintained a private resort there.”

The switch to the Marconi Outing Club occurred in the 1940s.

“On May 1, 1942, the property was purchased by the Guglielmo Marconi Italian Mutual Benefit Society, known commonly as the “Marconi Club,” and happy days began again for the old rural refuge,” according to the Historical Society. “The Marconi Club was popular for some years until a fire destroyed part of the clubhouse.

An advertisement in an edition of the Warren Times-Mirror notes that the Marconi Club was located “In the Heart of the City – Next Door From Carver Hotel.”

The Carver Hotel was located where the Kwik Fill now stands on the north end of the Hickory St. Bridge.

A 1945 “curfew order issued by Uncle Sam” resulted in closing the Outing Club because it had to be closed to people by midnight.

“Activities will be shifted to the down town Marconi Club where a somewhat curtailed program in keeping with possible receipts will be carried on for the entertainment of the members and their women friends.”

“The remaining, damaged structure was converted into a restaurant by Warren Restaurants, Inc. in 1965, operating under the name of “Three Flags Inn” for more than a decade,” according to the Historical Society. “After being abandoned, this building was in turn destroyed by fire in May 1982. It had last operated as LaCantina Ristorante.”