Farnsworth, James A. Armstrong, and John Chester were among the founding members, prominent men in Detroit's society.

Brush, and began to hold two-mile (3 km) races from Hog Island (Belle Isle) and the clubhouse.

By 1873, the club was ensconced in plush quarters at the foot of Joseph Campau Street, the easternmost end of Detroit, and had become the center of all water sports.

A half-dozen new clubs formed nearby, and most displayed their sailing and rowing trophies at Bidigaire's saloon up Joseph Campau.

When its Joseph Campau lease expired in 1889, the City of Detroit invited the DBC to move to Belle Isle.

In an attempt to save the structure, club member and fire commissioner Fred Moran ordered all available firefighting apparatus to the scene.

The fire tug James Battle became grounded in the shallow water and remained stuck fast until the following noon.

Fire equipment failed to get close enough to the burning building due to mud and the distance of the old clubhouse from the shore.

During a 1923 regatta in Detroit, two middle-aged Grand Rapids Canoe Club oarsmen issued a challenge to any pair whose total ages equaled or exceeded their own—114 years—to a match race in double sculls at a mile straightaway.

In 1956, the Detroit Boat Club put seven members on the U.S. Olympic team coached by Walter Hoover, the DBC Seven brought home two silver medals.

Rowers James Gardiner and Pat Costello placed second to the Russians in double sculls while identical twins Art McKinlay and John McKinlay, John Welchli and James McIntosh, placed second to Canada in the four without coxswain event.

In 1960, under coach Ken Blue, DBC crews were invited for the first time to take part in the classic Henley Royal Regatta on the Thames River in England.

A team made up of Doug Latimer, Jim Plath, Bob Walker, Bill Thorpe, Roger Taylor, Joe Callanan, Al Arbury, Mike Ernesman, and coxswain Bob Kroll placed second to Harvard in the final.

He won the national singles titles in 1904 and 1905 and also rowed in doubles, pairs, fours and eights that took major championships.

Few know that member commodore Dr. Charles Godwin Jennings and his 65-foot (20 m) schooner, Agawa, won the first Mackinac Race held in 1904.

The old Belle Isle Bridge, which burned in April 1915, had a swing section which opened at midnight, preventing anyone on the island from reaching the mainline until the next morning.

In 2005, the Detroit Boat Club had the largest presence at the USRowing Youth Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A new young talent has surprised the club by placing third at the USRowing National Championships and first at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.

Both girls were invited to a national selection camp with the opportunity to make the United States Junior World Team.

The property and building are currently leased for 30 years to the Detroit Boat Club Crew from the State of Michigan.

As of March 2022, a storage room containing oars collapsed causing extensive investigation of the integrity of the Boat House by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources causing rowing shells to be moved from the boathouse's boat storage room to outdoor racks.