Two years away from its centennial celebration and Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club is already preparing. The club is in the process of rebuilding their clubhouse and they’d like it to be done by spring. The construction of the $150,000 to $200,000 project is getting the support of members and their friends. President Robert De Lisle said they are not sure of the final cost because people keep stepping up to help, often offering services for free or at cost. “They are donating their time and saving us a lot of money,” Mr. De Lisle said.

The new one-floor building completely replaces the old and is built on the same footprint, in Dividend Meadow, overlooking Sengekontacket Pond. The significant differences from the old is that the new building has a cedar shingle roof and walls, is built to code, has larger windows and is expected to do a better job of keeping the wildlife out than its predecessor did.

The original club was built 60 years ago, during difficult economic times.

A Vineyard Gazette article printed on March 26, 1949 reports: “The first meeting of the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club held in their new quarters took place on Wednesday night, a combination business and labor session, as there are many arrangements, and other work to be done before the club can actually go to housekeeping.

“The membership is well satisfied with the new quarters, and gifts of paint and other material, plus much free labor, have assisted materially in getting the rooms into shape. However there is yet more to be done and president Carlton Staples has extended a broad invitation to all to come in on Sunday afternoon and next Wednesday night, if they are looking for a chance to brighten the local corner.”

It is déjá vu for the 98-year-old club. Building quarters with the talents of the membership seems to be routine. Mr. De Lisle said that when the old building was taken down last fall, they discovered it was put together like a quilt, with a lot of scrap wood.

“When it was built 60 years ago, it wasn’t insulated. There were plenty of cracks. Snakes and mice were coming in. The walls were Mickey Mouse, the wood was all spliced together,” Mr. De Lisle said.

The new cathedral ceiling and windows will lighten the room making it warm and cozy in the winter. The larger windows will give those inside a panoramic view of Sengekontacket Pond. The footprint, the kitchen and bathroom space changes little.

With a smile, Mr. De Lisle says they are talking about getting a new refrigerator. “The old one is shot,” he said.

The fireplace that has warmed many cold winter Monday nights for fishermen who tie flies is being rebuilt and will be considerably safer than the old. “The old chimney was crooked,” Mr. De Lisle said.

From the Vineyard Gazette of May 31, 1963: “The first fire was kindled in the new fieldstone fireplace, built by Fred Thifault, who was assisted by several dozen of the club members.”

Mr. De Lisle credits the history of the club to people who have since passed on. Memories are still vivid of the enthusiasm that went with being a member, of Howard Andrews and Edwin (Ed) G. Tyra and their spirit in getting the members together for meetings.

For many years early in the last century, meetings were held on the second floor of a Circuit avenue building.

The club was organized in September, 1911 by eleven Islanders and it was proactive when it came to providing game for hunters in the future.

According to an April 24, 1938 article in the New Bedford Standard Times: “Most spectacular of the club’s projects, and most recent, is its importation of ten female deer for release on the Island, but records show that the type of work has been carried on for a number of years. For instance, during 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1933, the club imported 32,148 fish, including trout, bass and pickerel; 1,825 birds, including grouse, pheasants, and quail, not to mention 66 rabbits.”

During a cold winter in 1961, the club held an impromptu fundraising program to provide 3,600 pounds of grain to feed starving wild fowl during one of the coldest winters on record. Basil Welch, then secretary, was praised for his fundraising efforts to raise $168 for the cause, according to an article that appeared in the Feb. 24, 1961 Vineyard Gazette. Mr. Tyra was the president back then.

While times may be hard for a number of nonprofit organizations, this club seems to have weathered good and bad times with few scars. Newspaper articles report through the years that the membership of the club has varied as much as the Wall street stock market.

Mr. De Lisle said he recalls getting involved in the club ten years ago: “We had 190 members and just enough in the checking account to pay bills.”

The club reached a high of 518 members about 2 years ago. Membership is currently 460, with a few new members coming in each year. Membership costs $150 for individuals and includes members of their immediate families. The annual cost for seniors is $75.

The reason for the growth is easy to explain. Mr. De Lisle credits the members themselves for stepping up when work is needed, but he is especially grateful to help from treasurer Cliff Meehan, an Island general contractor who knows the right people to do the work that needs to be done.

Why the success? “The big reason is that it is no longer a rod and gun club, it is really a sportsman organization. We are trying to do more,” Mr. De Lisle said.

The club hosts a skeet and trap field, a pistol range and a 25-yard three-dimensional practice archery range. “People have donated canoes and canoe racks. We have 30 boats that are owned by the members. So now more people are using the facility.

“People will come here on a hot summer evening and use the cookstove. They come with their own hot dogs and burgers. It isn’t like it was years ago when the old timers would come sip a beer and sit and talk about the fish they caught or the squirrel they shot.”

Each year the club hosts the spring trout tournament at Duarte Pond off Lambert’s Cove Road, which includes stocking the pond with farm-raised trout. In June they hold their nationally recognized catch and release striped bass fly-fishing tournament. In the summer, the club hosts a day for Camp Jabberwocky campers. They are given fishing rods and are coached in the fine art of freshwater fishing. Every year the club sends two lucky Island kids off to the state’s conservation camp for two weeks in western Massachusetts, all expenses paid. They also help sponsor an annual free hunting firearm safety course.

The club also publishes a loaded newsletter with plenty of information about activities.

But it is the monthly dinners that are the club’s biggest attraction and it happens in the winter. Their most recent dinner was Wednesday night at the American Legion Hall at Katama when it was pouring rain outside. Forty-eight members showed up, though there was food for 60. Mr. De Lisle said normally the evening dinner costs $5 a head, but during this temporary period, the cost is $7 to cover renting the hall. Dinners are held on the last Wednesday of every month from September to April. Attendance is anywhere from 40 to over 60.

Looking ahead, Mr. De Lisle said the club will step up its fundraising efforts to minimize the final cost of their future mortgage on the new building. “The more we can raise, the less we will have to pay off the principal,” Mr. De Lisle said.

They want to add a horseshoe and an Italian bocce course on their grounds which totals 16 acres, nearly all of it wetlands, but the greater goal is to have the property ready for the centennial year, only two years away.