Mid Hudson Schoolboy Rowing Association (MHSRA) was organized in 1949 and incorporated in 1950 by the Jaycees and the Junior Chamber of Commerce of Poughkeepsie after the departure of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (I.R.A.) Championship from the Hudson River in 1949. Many of the colleges participating in the I.R.A. constructed boathouses along the Hudson River. These buildings housed their crews and shells for periods of up to 6 weeks to allow for practice prior to the annual IRA regatta. When the regatta left the Hudson River, the boathouses and equipment were left behind and made available to the local high school crews. Using this equipment, MHSRA offered competitive rowing programs to boys from Poughkeepsie, Arlington, and Roosevelt High Schools, from the Washington, Cornell, and Wisconsin/Rutgers shell houses. The Navy Boathouse had been torn down but the crew quarters remain to this day.

In 1957, the University of Washington boathouse burned down so the Poughkeepsie, Roosevelt, and Arlington High School crews began sharing the Cornell Boathouse and in 1959, Roosevelt High School moved to the Wisconsin/Rutgers shell house. The Washington boathouse fire destroyed most of the MHSRA equipment so the Pocock company built 6 shells and sets of oars that arrived in 1958 in a railway express boxcar which was parked on a siding above the Cornell boathouse for unloading by the crews. In 1962, the schools’ athletic departments took ownership of the rowing programs and the rowing shells and oars were divided among them. Rowing was expanded to include high school girls (around 1973 after the passage of Title IX), and MHSRA began doing business as Mid-Hudson Rowing Association (MHRA).

MHRA created and operated the Mid-Hudson Invitational Regatta from 1950 to 2000, and the high school coaches continued to run the regatta until 2010. This regatta was a 2000 meter sprint race that drew high school crews from public and private schools all over the Northeast and fielded as many as 34 teams. To minimize costs for the visiting crews, local crews housed the visiting rowers in their homes on the night before the regatta.

In 1991, several adult rowers were looking for a rowing venue and found no community access to the sport in the region. They contacted the MHRA President, John Mylod, who agreed to assist in creating a community rowing program. Poughkeepsie High School Crew and the Poughkeepsie City School District agreed to allow MHRA to use their equipment and boathouse during the summer and fall and, in return, MHRA would include the Poughkeepsie crew members in the rowing program at no cost. A free learn-to-row program was offered with assistance from Arlington High School coaches. Rowing was offered to the community in mixed 8+ and 4+ boats.

In 1992, the region celebrated when Patrick Manning, a Roosevelt High School alumnus, won a silver medal in the 4- event at the Olympics in Barcelona. After the Olympics, he returned to Poughkeepsie and held a rowing clinic for over 100 high school rowers. That year, MHRA bought its first 8+ shells to enable it to provide rowing programs out of the Cornell Boathouse but independent of Poughkeepsie High School equipment.

As rowing continued to expand, MHRA moved to the New York State Psychiatric Center waterfront (now the Quiet Cove Park) in 1999. By converting an existing utility building into a boathouse they were able to support community rowing and share space with the fledgling Lourdes High School Crew. MHRA constructed docks as well as outside racks to store equipment for a steadily growing community of rowers.

Rowing continued to grow in the area with new high school crew programs and increasing interest among adults. This led the high school coaches to form the Hudson River Rowing Association, which worked with Marist College, Vassar College, Dutchess County, the City of Poughkeepsie and MHRA to push for a community boathouse to support all of the high school and adult rowing programs. Extensive fundraising efforts led to support from New York State, Dutchess County, the Dyson Foundation and other local foundations. The Hudson River Rowing Association Community Boathouse was opened in 2006, at a cost of $3M, and MHRA moved in as a founding tenant.