The Primrose Canoe Club was founded in 1890 by a few young gentlemen of Primrose Hill (now known as Nanny Goat Hill near Primrose Drive). Ed A. Oliver was Secretary-Treasurer and their first boathouse was built on the Rideau Canal right at the swing bridge on Bank St. in a sheltered bay of the canal at the terminus of the electric railway. This is likely Brown's Inlet which was open to the canal at that time before the embankments were reshaped for the Driveway. An extension was built onto the boathouse in 1892 due to growing membership and a second extension in 1894 brought the square footage to 3490. Although the club ordered a C15 in 1894, it was too late for delivery that year as they were training for the Ottawa Canoe Club regatta. The club folded in 1897, after a "good year" in 1896 due to many members taking up "wheeling." There were ineffectual attempts to reorganise in the years following. When Primrose held their regatta in 1895, they used the stretch of canal between the exhibition grounds and Patterson's creek. This is the exact same stretch of water where Rideau Canoe Club would be formed just a few years later in 1902. It is entirely possible that the founding of Rideau included former members of the Primrose Canoe Club looking for a more suitable location on the canal. Beginning in 1897, the building was rented out as a bath house by owner E.A. Oliver and by 1903, the Primrose boathouse had suffered a catastrophic fire.