File:Men, women and children sitting in a boat near University of Washington Varsity Boat Club, Seattle, Washington, ca 1910 (SEATTLE 2791).jpg

English: Built in 1909 as a lighthouse for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, this building housed the crew team from 1910 to 1918.

Written on negative jacket: Boats on Lake Union. Varsity Boat House.

PH Coll 371.11

• Subjects (LCTGM): Men--Washington (State)--Seattle; Women--Washington (State)--Seattle; Children--Washington (State)--Seattle; Boats--Washington (State)--Seattle; Varsity Boat Club (University of Washington)--Facilities--Washington (State)--Seattle

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The building was never a lighthouse, at least not in the sense of having a beacon to warn ships. It was built as the U.S. Life Saving Station exhibit for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, and can be seen at File:US Life Saving Station, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909 (AYP 1333).jpg. The map at File:Bulletin No. 1; Headquarters Pioneers' Exhibit; Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; November 15, 1908 - Page 4 map.jpg shows it near upper right, on what it labels as Lake Washington (really, Union Bay of Lake Washington; certainly not Lake Union as apparently it says on the negative jacket). In 1910, Hiram Conibear founded the Varsity Boat Club as a social organization for varsity upperclassmen who rowed on the University of Washington crew and originally housed it in that building.(Varsity Boat Club photograph collection, 1906-1984, Archives West)