The Seafarers Yacht Club is the oldest African American boat club on the East Coast. It was founded in 1945 by Lewis T. Green, Sr., a vocational arts teacher in the DC Public Schools who built boats as a hobby. Needing a dock, he contacted the U.S. Department of the Interior about renting this site but was ignored until Mary McCleod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt intervened. Members of "Green's" Boat Yard (later, "Seafarers"') improved the marshy land, built docks and a clubhouse. The club also promoted boating safety and community service. The annual Anacostia River Cleanup Day evolved from efforts started by the Seafarers in 1985.