In 1894 William Jennison, a yachtsman for fifty years, founded the Bay City Boating and Fishing Club. The first clubhouse, located on the Saginaw River, was moved across the ice to this site around 1902. A larger, stylish building was soon erected. The Saginaw Bay Yacht Club, as it was later known, hosted regattas, national boat races and social activities connected with launches from Bay City's shipbuilding yards. The present clubhouse opened in 1960.