The Reliance Athletic Club was an athletic club and

gentlemen's club A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, United States. Founded in 1885, the organization grew rapidly as it added other sports and social activities, reaching its peak in the mid-1890s before financial troubles led to its bankruptcy and disestablishment in 1910.

History and activities

The club was founded as a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

club in 1885 in downtown Oakland. The club's focus was on developing physical fitness for its members in its gymnasium, including sports such as

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

and

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

teams representing the club competed with other west coast athletic clubs, including the

Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and the

Multnomah Athletic Club The Multnomah Athletic Club (MAC) is a private social club, social and sports club, athletic club in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1891 as the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, a coordinating body for team and individual spor ...

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, and also played college teams, most commonly those of

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

and

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. The club was one of several in the Bay Area that trained young boxers, and the club staged regular boxing events at its facilities. In 1905, the club organized and sponsored an outdoor

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

meet. In addition to sports, club members played billiards and card games and hosted social events to which women were also invited.

Growth

The club moved several times to various locations around Oakland as it grew. The club was incorporated in 1892 with a membership of 300, and by 1893, had 350 members and held a gala affair as it moved into a three-story building at the corner of San Pablo Avenue and 17th Street. The club remained in this facility into the first decade of the 20th century, but after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

was forced to relocate to accommodate San Francisco businesses that moved to Oakland when their buildings were destroyed. The new location was renovated in early 1907, but by the summer of 1907, the club had moved again near the Piedmont Baths.

Demise and legacy

By 1910, the club had moved several more times but was apparently facing financial difficulties; in August 1910, a contractor sued the members for $2,300 owed to him. With no money in the treasury, the club declared bankruptcy and dissolved the organization. The building at 17th and San Pablo in which the club was at its peak was converted to the Reliance Theater in 1916. The theater was later known as the American Theater and finally the Esquire Theater. The building was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a

Mel's Drive-In Mel's Drive-In refers to two American restaurant chains, the successors of a chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. The original chain operated until the 1970s. A new generation of Mel's Drive-In restau ...

References

{{Coord, 37.807288, -122.272441, type:landmark_region:US-CA, format=dms, display=title 1885 establishments in California 1910 disestablishments in California Athletics clubs in the United States Sports clubs and teams in Oakland, California Organizations based in Oakland, California Gentlemen's clubs in California Defunct clubs and societies of the United States