Crescent Boat Club is a Boathouse Row film location at #5 Boathouse Row, 5 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130. We are a member-run rowing club, organized in 1867 and a member of the Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia since 1868. We work with location scouts, production managers, photographers, journalists, and historians, and we have hosted film, television, and commercial shoots on the property.
Planning a wedding, party, or meeting? See Event Space Rentals. Visiting rather than shooting? See Visiting Boathouse Row. Other club business? See Information.
On this page: At a Glance · The Boathouse and the River · How Productions Use the Property · Power and Connectivity · Getting Here, Parking, and Staging · Access, Timing, and Permits · Photography, Editorial, and Research · Common Questions · Make an Inquiry
At a Glance
| Address | #5 Boathouse Row, 5 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130 |
| Building | Stone boathouse completed 1868, enlarged from 1871 by Davis Supplee, largely Charles Balderston’s 1891 revision as it stands today |
| Designation | Contributing building in Boathouse Row, a National Historic Landmark designated February 27, 1987 |
| Interiors | Boat bays under cast steel spans, tower stair, second-floor club room with bar and kitchen |
| Club room | Holds up to 140. Air conditioned and heated. |
| Exteriors | Kelly Drive frontage and tower, riverfront deck over the water, dock and ramp |
| Access inside | The club room is on the second floor and is reached by stairs. There is no elevator and the building is not wheelchair accessible. |
| Load-in | From Kelly Drive |
| Connectivity | Internet and cable television on site, strong cellular service including 5G. Temporary fiber can be arranged with notice. |
| Parking | Limited and time-restricted on the Row. Trucks, trailers, and basecamp are staged off the Row. |
| Restrooms | In the building. Portable units by arrangement. Public restrooms at Lloyd Hall, two minutes downriver. |
| Permits | A signed club agreement. Work on park land may also need a Philadelphia Parks & Recreation media permit. |
| Insurance | Certificate of insurance required |
| 911 and 311 address | 842 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130 — not 5 Kelly Drive |
| Inquiries | Location inquiry section on this page |
The Boathouse and the River
Boathouse Row is a National Historic Landmark: fifteen nineteenth-century clubhouses along Kelly Drive on the east bank of the Schuylkill, outlined in lights after dark, with the Fairmount Water Works and the Center City skyline downriver. Crescent was organized in 1867, when the Pickwick and Iona barge clubs merged. The boathouse was completed in 1868 and shared at first with the Pennsylvania Barge Club, enlarged from 1871 to a design by Davis Supplee, a Crescent member, and raised and refaced in 1891 by the Philadelphia architect Charles Balderston. The building went up in stages and the layers are still visible. The boat bays, the tower stair, and the Victorian club rooms need no dressing to look like what they are.
- Exterior and tower – Stone and gabled roofline in late Victorian dress: post-and-beam neo-Tudor, brick chimneys, and eyebrow windows in the roof, all from Balderston’s 1891 work. The street-side tower dates from the earlier expansion begun in 1871.
- Boat bays – Racked eights, fours, and singles under cast steel spans, with ramps running down to the dock. A working space rather than a set dressed to resemble one.
- Club room and bar – Period interior on the second floor, air conditioned and heated, with a bar and a kitchen, holding up to 140 people.
- Deck and dock – An outdoor deck over the water, plus dock and ramp access for work on the river.
- Sightlines – Kelly Drive and the river path, the Schuylkill and its bridges, the Water Works, Lemon Hill, and the skyline. Our club history carries archival images of the building across the last 150 years.
One detail is worth knowing before a dolly or a level comes out of the truck. The 1891 wing stands on pilings driven into soft riverbank soil, and it settled: the club room floor falls about nine inches from one side of the room to the other.
Photographs of the Property
These are reference images rather than a full location package. We can send more, including bays, stairs, and river elevations, once we know what you are looking for.
How Productions Use the Property
The 140-person figure describes the club room. It is not the limit of what the property can support. Productions have used Crescent as their whole footprint and as one piece of a larger one, and both arrangements work.
- The full site – Interiors, exteriors, deck, dock, and river frontage, with the club room serving as holding, wardrobe, or production office.
- Camera and talent only – Trailers, trucks, and basecamp staged off the Row, with the boathouse kept clear for the shoot itself. This is a common arrangement here and it keeps the footprint on the Row small.
- Support space – Craft services, catering, warming, or crew shelter at the club while the camera works elsewhere on the Row or along the river path.
- Added capacity – Tenting, portable restrooms, generators, and similar equipment can be brought in or sited nearby, subject to park permitting and our approval. Tell us what the job requires and we will tell you what is workable.
Power, Connectivity, and Utilities
A nineteenth-century boathouse in a park is not where crews expect to find good connectivity. This one has it.
- Cellular – Strong coverage across the property, including 5G. Crews working here have not needed to rig for dead spots.
- Internet – Wired and wireless internet on site, serving the club room and the building generally.
- Temporary fiber – A dedicated temporary fiber circuit can be arranged for productions that need guaranteed bandwidth for live transmission, remote review, or large-volume transfer. Lead time matters, so raise it in your first message.
- Cable television – Cable service and a television in the club room, useful for live feeds and for holding.
- Power – Standard building power throughout. Anything beyond normal building load, including generators, is arranged in advance and sited with our approval and any park approval required.
- Climate – The club room is air conditioned and heated, which is not universal on the Row and matters for equipment and cast alike.
Getting Here, Parking, and Staging
Where We Are on the Row
We are #5, roughly the middle of the Row, at 5 Kelly Drive. Pennsylvania Barge Club at #4 sits under the same original roofline to our south, and Bachelors Barge Club is #6 to our north. Counting up from Lloyd Hall at #1, Crescent is the fourth building you pass. All fifteen are listed on Rowing Links.
Distances below are measured on foot from our door. Visiting Boathouse Row measures everything from Lloyd Hall instead, so its figures for the same landmarks read a little differently.
| From our door | Distance | On foot |
|---|---|---|
| Lloyd Hall (#1) — public restrooms, the only lot on the Row | 0.1 mi | 2 min |
| Fairmount Water Works | 0.4 mi | 9 min |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art garage, Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive | 0.45 mi | 10 min |
| Girard Avenue Bridge, upriver | 0.8 mi | 17 min |
| William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, by the river trail | 1.6 mi | 35 min |
Three designations attach to this building and they are not interchangeable. #5 Boathouse Row is our position on the Row, not a postal address. 5 Kelly Drive is the postal address, and the one to give a map, a driver, or a delivery. 842 Kelly Drive is the address Philadelphia dispatch recognizes, and the one to give when calling 911 or 311. The reason for the difference is set out on our Information page, and the emergency address belongs on the call sheet.
Parking and Vehicle Staging
- On the Row – Parking along Kelly Drive is limited, time-restricted, and posted, and it fills on regatta days and event weekends. The boathouse sits inside Fairmount Park, so park regulations apply to a production as they do to everyone else.
- Lloyd Hall lot – The only lot on the Row, two minutes downriver at #1. It is small and time-restricted and fills by mid-morning on weekends. It is also the practical drop-off and pickup point, and the address to give a car service or a rideshare, because the rest of the Row is a park road with nowhere to stop.
- Museum garage – The Philadelphia Museum of Art underground garage on Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive, ten minutes downriver on foot, is the largest reliable paid parking near the Row and the usual answer for crew cars.
- Free parking upriver – The lot under the Twin Bridges at 4100 Ridge Avenue, in East Falls, holds about fifty cars and sits three and a half miles up the drive. Useful for holding vehicles rather than for anything you need close at hand.
- Trucks, trailers, and basecamp – Staged off the Row, along the drive or elsewhere in the park, subject to city and park approval. Raise vehicle sizes and counts in your first message and we will walk through the options with you.
- The west bank – Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, directly opposite, is the standard camera position for the Row itself. It closes to motor traffic on weekends from spring into late November, generally 7 a.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Monday, between the East Falls Bridge and Eakins Oval. The Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems publishes the season’s dates and holiday extensions.
Transit, Trail, and River
- SEPTA – Bus routes 7, 32, 38, 43, 48, and 49 serve the Kelly Drive area, and the 38 stops at the Art Museum.
- Philly PHLASH – The seasonal loop bus stops at Pennsylvania and Fairmount Avenues, a short walk from the Row, and runs daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with weekend service on either side of the season.
- Schuylkill River Trail – The paved trail runs past the front of every boathouse and continues to 30th Street Station without a road crossing. It is public and it is busy, so a shoot on the path has to account for pedestrians and cyclists.
- The river – The dock and ramp put a camera on the water. Traffic on this stretch follows the Schuylkill Navy’s Rules of the River, and crews from every club on the Row use it.
Full detail on lots, transit, trail approaches, and where to drop someone at the door is set out on Visiting Boathouse Row. It is the page to send to anyone traveling in.
Access, Timing, and Permits
Timing
- The club is active – Rowing runs early mornings and evenings, our junior and novice programs use the bays and dock through the season, and two resident crews keep boats in the house. See Programs. Midday and off-season weekdays are usually the easiest to schedule.
- Regatta season – Spring and fall race weekends close Kelly Drive and fill the river, and the largest of them bring tens of thousands of people to this stretch of the park. Check the Schuylkill River Schedule and our Calendar of Events before locking dates.
- Light and the lights – The building faces west across the river, so the river elevation and the deck hold late afternoon light. The Row is outlined in lights after dark year-round, which makes night exteriors here unlike anywhere else in the city.
- Load-in and access inside – Access is from Kelly Drive. The club room is on the second floor and is reached by stairs, there is no elevator, and the building is not wheelchair accessible. Anything heavy is carried up, so budget the time.
Permits and Paperwork
Two approvals sit side by side here: ours, for the building and the ground we control, and the city’s, for the park around it. We handle the first and can tell you what the second usually involves, but the city process runs on its own clock and its own fees.
- Our agreement – A signed agreement covers use of the building, dock, and grounds, and a certificate of insurance is required.
- Park land – The boathouse stands within Fairmount Park, so work that extends onto park property may require a media permit from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, which is the department that permits filming and photography on city park property. Applications are filed by mail, ask for a certificate of insurance and payment, and are due at least ten business days before the first shoot day; later filings carry additional charges. A copy of the permit has to stay on site, and permits are not transferable.
- Larger footprints – Tents, portable toilets, amplified sound, stages, and other production elements on park land may fall under a separate large event permit from the same office.
- City process – The Greater Philadelphia Film Office is the single point of contact for filming in Philadelphia and walks productions through insurance approval, the city license agreement, street closures through the Streets Department, and specialty permits. Most productions run the city side through them and the property side through us.
- Drones – Commercial drone work falls under FAA Part 107. Philadelphia sits inside controlled airspace, so an airspace authorization through LAANC is generally needed, the city asks Part 107 operators to file a notification, and taking off or landing from park property may require park approval as well. Raise drone plans early, not on the day.
- On the water – Anything afloat has to fit around club traffic and the Schuylkill Navy’s rules for this stretch of river, and it is effectively impossible on regatta weekends.
- Emergency address – Give 842 Kelly Drive when calling 911 or 311, not 5 Kelly Drive. Put it on the call sheet.
Photography, Editorial, and Historical Research
Not every request is a production. Professional photographers shoot portrait, editorial, and architectural work here, and writers and historians ask about the building, the club, and the early years of Philadelphia rowing. We handle those the same way: tell us what you are working on and what you need, and we will find a time.
Crescent is a working boathouse with no public visiting hours, open to members, program participants, event clients, and scheduled productions. Our club history is the best starting point for background, and the Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia can help place Crescent in the wider story of the river.
Common Questions
Can we film inside the boathouse?
Yes. Interiors, boat bays, the tower stair, the second-floor club room and bar, the deck, the dock, and the river frontage are all available by agreement. Crescent is a working boathouse with no public visiting hours, so every visit is scheduled in advance, including scouting. Use the inquiry form to arrange a walk-through.
What does it cost?
Location fees are quoted by project. The number depends on crew size, how much of the property you need, how many days including prep and strike, and the time of year. Send the shape of the job and we will come back with a figure.
Where do cast and crew park?
Parking on the Row is limited, time-restricted, and posted. Crew cars generally use the Art Museum garage ten minutes downriver, and trucks, trailers, and basecamp are staged off the Row with city and park approval. Lloyd Hall at #1 is the practical drop-off and pickup point. See Getting Here, Parking, and Staging.
Is there internet and cell service on site?
Yes. The building has internet and cable television, and cellular coverage across the property is strong, including 5G. If a job needs guaranteed bandwidth, a temporary fiber circuit can be arranged with enough notice.
Do we need a city permit as well as your agreement?
Often, yes. Our agreement covers the building, the dock, and the grounds. Work that extends onto park property may require a media permit from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, filed at least ten business days ahead with a certificate of insurance, and larger footprints with tents, portable toilets, or amplified sound may need a large event permit as well. The Greater Philadelphia Film Office handles the city side, including insurance approval and street closures.
Is the building wheelchair accessible?
No. The club room is on the second floor of a nineteenth-century boathouse and is reached by stairs. There is no elevator, and the building cannot be made accessible for a shoot. If that affects anyone on your crew or cast, tell us early rather than late.
Can we shoot on the dock or on the water?
The dock and ramp are available by arrangement. Work on the water has to fit around club traffic, the crews of other boathouses, and the Schuylkill Navy’s rules for this stretch of river, and it is effectively impossible on regatta weekends. Tell us what you have in mind and we will tell you what the river allows on your dates.
Make an Inquiry
Every location inquiry goes through the form below, whether you want to hold a date, ask about fees, or arrange a walk-through of the boathouse and the river. Crescent is run by its members rather than by full-time staff, and the club has no staffed telephone line, so the form and email are the fastest routes to an answer. The more you can tell us up front, the sooner we can confirm what is possible.
- Project – Feature, series, commercial, documentary, stills, editorial, or research.
- Dates – Shoot days plus prep and strike, and how much flexibility you have.
- Footprint – Crew size, and which parts of the boathouse, dock, and river you expect to use.
- Equipment – Generators, lighting, drones, watercraft, tenting, or anything staged outside the building.
- Vehicles – Truck and trailer sizes and counts, and what you expect to stage on or near the Row.
- Support needs – Holding, catering, craft services, restrooms, power, or connectivity.
Send a location inquiry
Use the boathouse inquiry form and write “location inquiry” in the first line of your message, with the checklist above. It reaches the members who schedule the building. Crescent is run by its members rather than by full-time staff, and the club has no staffed telephone line, so the form is the fastest route to an answer.
Contact
- Media, film, and photography – Send a location inquiry
- Private events – Event Space Rentals
- Club business – Contact Crescent Boat Club · Club Officers and Officials
- Address – #5 Boathouse Row, 5 Kelly Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130
- Follow us – Facebook · Instagram
Crescent Boat Club was organized in 1867 and has rowed from #5 Boathouse Row since 1868, the year it joined the Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia. Club history · Visiting Boathouse Row · Event rentals · Information · Programs