The Philadelphia Club
Encyclopedia
The Philadelphia Club is a gentlemen's club
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
; the oldest club of its kind in the United States.
house at 260 South 9th Street, and changed the club's name to "The Philadelphia Club." In 1843 they moved to 919 Walnut Street, and since 1850 the club has occupied the Thomas Butler Mansion at 1301 Walnut Street.
, one of his few residential commissions. It was built as a city house for Thomas Butler, only son of South Carolina Senator Pierce Butler
. Thomas died before the building's 1838 completion, and it stood vacant until its 1849 purchase by The Philadelphia Club. The club added a billiard room, moved the kitchen to the basement, and opened the new clubhouse in 1850. It was altered in 1888-89 by Frank Furness
, building a rear addition and expanding its kitchens and main dining room. Wilson Eyre
renovated its interiors a decade later, and additional alterations were done by Horace Trumbauer
in 1905 and 1908, and by Mellor, Meigs & Howe
in 1916.
George C. Boldt, hired in 1876 to manage the dining room, went on to manage the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and build the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Jimmy Duffy, the noted Philadelphia Main Line caterer, was the club's bartender from 1895 to 1929.
In addition to card rooms, dining rooms, smoking rooms, and a bar, it contains a library, a large collection of Philadelphia prints, and lodging rooms on its upper stories.
, Captain James Biddle
, Adolph E. Borie
, George H. Boker, Mayor Richard Vaux
, and Owen Wister
, who wrote its 1934 centennial history.
Among the club's guests have been eleven U.S. Presidents: Martin Van Buren
, James K. Polk
, James Buchanan
, Franklin Pierce
, Ulysses S. Grant
, Theodore Roosevelt
, William H. Taft, William McKinley
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
, Gerald R. Ford, George H. W. Bush
; soldiers and sailors: George B. McClellan
, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
, William Tecumseh Sherman
, George Dewey
, George Goethals; writers, artists, actors and musicians: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
, William Makepeace Thackeray
, Bram Stoker
, Henry Irving
, Charles Kemble
, Edwin Booth
, Booth Tarkington
, John Barrymore
, Joseph Pennell
, Leopold Stokowski
, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
, Eugene Ormandy
, Louis Kahn
; and other public men: Talleyrand, Stephen A. Douglas
, Lord Randolph Churchill
, Grand Duke Alexander
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
, Winston Churchill
, Henry Cabot Lodge
, and Lord Louis Mountbatten.
In its first 119 years, women were admitted to the club on three occasions: balls in January 1851 and January 1869, and the centennial reception in October 1934. In May 1953 the membership voted to allow women guests at dinners. Many restrictions have since been eased, but women remain excluded from membership.
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
; the oldest club of its kind in the United States.
Founding
Its founders were a group of men who met to play cards at Mrs. Rubicam's Coffeehouse at the northwest corner of 5th & Minor Streets. In early 1834 they moved to the Adelphia Building at 212 South 5th Street, taking the new building's name as the club's name. "The Adelphia Club" held its first recorded meeting on March 21, 1834. The following year its members moved to the Joseph BonaparteJoseph Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...
house at 260 South 9th Street, and changed the club's name to "The Philadelphia Club." In 1843 they moved to 919 Walnut Street, and since 1850 the club has occupied the Thomas Butler Mansion at 1301 Walnut Street.
Clubhouse
Design of the Butler Mansion is attributed William StricklandWilliam Strickland (architect)
William Strickland , was a noted architect in nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee.-Life and career:...
, one of his few residential commissions. It was built as a city house for Thomas Butler, only son of South Carolina Senator Pierce Butler
Pierce Butler
Pierce Butler was a soldier, planter, and statesman, recognized as one of United States' Founding Fathers. He represented South Carolina in the Continental Congress, the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the U.S. Senate...
. Thomas died before the building's 1838 completion, and it stood vacant until its 1849 purchase by The Philadelphia Club. The club added a billiard room, moved the kitchen to the basement, and opened the new clubhouse in 1850. It was altered in 1888-89 by Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
, building a rear addition and expanding its kitchens and main dining room. Wilson Eyre
Wilson Eyre
Wilson Eyre, Jr. was an influential American architect, teacher and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area...
renovated its interiors a decade later, and additional alterations were done by Horace Trumbauer
Horace Trumbauer
Horace Trumbauer was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of the campus of Duke University...
in 1905 and 1908, and by Mellor, Meigs & Howe
George Howe (architect)
George Howe was an American architect and educator, and an early convert to the International style. With William Lescaze, he designed Philadelphia's PSFS Building .-Biography:...
in 1916.
George C. Boldt, hired in 1876 to manage the dining room, went on to manage the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and build the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. Jimmy Duffy, the noted Philadelphia Main Line caterer, was the club's bartender from 1895 to 1929.
In addition to card rooms, dining rooms, smoking rooms, and a bar, it contains a library, a large collection of Philadelphia prints, and lodging rooms on its upper stories.
Presidents and guests
Among the club's presidents have been General George CadwaladerGeorge Cadwalader
George Cadwalader was a general in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and American Civil War.-Biography:He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, studied law, and was admitted to the bar...
, Captain James Biddle
James Biddle
James Biddle , of the Biddle family, brother of financier Nicholas Biddle and nephew of Captain Nicholas Biddle, was an American commodore. His flagship was USS Columbus.-Education and early career:...
, Adolph E. Borie
Adolph E. Borie
Adolph Edward Borie was a United States merchant and politician who briefly served as Secretary of the Navy in the Ulysses S. Grant administration.-Biography:...
, George H. Boker, Mayor Richard Vaux
Richard Vaux
Richard Vaux was an American politician. He was mayor of Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania....
, and Owen Wister
Owen Wister
Owen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...
, who wrote its 1934 centennial history.
Among the club's guests have been eleven U.S. Presidents: Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
, James K. Polk
James K. Polk
James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States . Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. He later lived in and represented Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as the 17th Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 12th Governor of Tennessee...
, James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...
, Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, William H. Taft, William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, Gerald R. Ford, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
; soldiers and sailors: George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union...
, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
, William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
, George Dewey
George Dewey
George Dewey was an admiral of the United States Navy. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War...
, George Goethals; writers, artists, actors and musicians: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker
Abraham "Bram" Stoker was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula...
, Henry Irving
Henry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
, Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
, Edwin Booth
Edwin Booth
Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...
, Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
, John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
, Joseph Pennell
Joseph Pennell
Joseph Pennell was an American artist and author.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, and first studied there, but like his compatriot and friend, James McNeill Whistler, he afterwards went to Europe and made his home in London...
, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. KBE was an American actor and a highly decorated naval officer of World War II.-Early life:...
, Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
, Louis Kahn
Louis Kahn
Louis Isadore Kahn was an American architect, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935...
; and other public men: Talleyrand, Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
, Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill MP was a British statesman. He was the third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and his wife Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane , daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry...
, Grand Duke Alexander
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович Aleksandr Mihailovits was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, and an advisor of the said Emperor.-Biography: Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke...
, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
, Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot "Slim" Lodge was an American Republican Senator and historian from Massachusetts. He had the role of Senate Majority leader. He is best known for his positions on Meek policy, especially his battle with President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 over the Treaty of Versailles...
, and Lord Louis Mountbatten.
In its first 119 years, women were admitted to the club on three occasions: balls in January 1851 and January 1869, and the centennial reception in October 1934. In May 1953 the membership voted to allow women guests at dinners. Many restrictions have since been eased, but women remain excluded from membership.
Notable members, past and present
- Walter AnnenbergWalter AnnenbergWalter Hubert Annenberg was an American publisher, philanthropist, and diplomat.-Early life:Walter Annenberg was born to a Jewish family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 13, 1908. He was the son of Sarah and Moses "Moe" Annenberg, who published The Daily Racing Form and purchased The Philadelphia...
- William Wallace Atterbury
- Edward Julius BerwindEdward Julius BerwindEdward Julius Berwind was the founder of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Company. He was head of the company from 1886 until 1930.-Biography:...
- Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle
- Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr.Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr.Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. , also known as A. J. Drexel Biddle, Jr. or Tony Biddle, was a wealthy socialite who became a diplomat of the United States, and served in the United States Army during World War I and after World War II, reaching the rank of major general.-Biography:Biddle was the...
- Francis Beverly Biddle
- Captain James BiddleJames BiddleJames Biddle , of the Biddle family, brother of financier Nicholas Biddle and nephew of Captain Nicholas Biddle, was an American commodore. His flagship was USS Columbus.-Education and early career:...
- Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.Livingston L. Biddle, Jr.Livingston Ludlow Biddle, Jr. was an American author and promoter of funding of the arts, from a wealthy Pennsylvania family.-Life:Livingston Ludlow Biddle was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on May 26, 1918....
- George Henry BokerGeorge Henry BokerGeorge Henry Boker was an American poet, playwright, and diplomat.-Youth:Boker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father was Charles S...
- Adolph E. BorieAdolph E. BorieAdolph Edward Borie was a United States merchant and politician who briefly served as Secretary of the Navy in the Ulysses S. Grant administration.-Biography:...
- General George CadwaladerGeorge CadwaladerGeorge Cadwalader was a general in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and American Civil War.-Biography:He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, studied law, and was admitted to the bar...
- John Cadwalader, Jr.
- Alexander J. Cassatt
- Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr.Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr.Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr. was an American educator, sportsman, and philanthropist.-Biography:He was the son of banker Fitz Eugene Dixon, Sr. and his wife Eleanor Widener, a member of the wealthy Philadelphia Widener family. His grandfather, George D. Widener, and uncle, Harry Elkins Widener, had both...
- Anthony J. Drexel
- Henry Francis du PontHenry Francis du PontHenry Francis du Pont , Harvard 1903, married 1916 Ruth Wales was an American horticulturist, an expert on early American furniture and decorative arts – particularly of the Federal furniture, and a member of the prominent du Pont family....
- Pierre S. du Pont, IVPierre S. du Pont, IVPierre Samuel "Pete" du Pont IV is an American lawyer and politician from Rockland, in New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. He is a member of the Republican Party, who served three terms as U.S...
- Thomas Sovereign GatesThomas Sovereign GatesThomas Sovereign Gates was an American investment banker and educator. He was the first president of the University of Pennsylvania from 6 October 1930 until 1944, and was the father of United States Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Gates, Jr.Born in Philadelphia, Gates was a student at University...
- Thomas S. Gates, Jr.
- T. Truxtun Hare
- John G. JohnsonJohn G. JohnsonJohn Graver Johnson was an American corporate lawyer and art collector. The Philadelphia law firm that he founded in 1863 continues under the name Saul Ewing...
- James McCreaJames McCreaJames McCrea was the 8th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad . He completed the construction of Pennsylvania Station in 1910, bringing the PRR lines under the Hudson River and, for the first time, into New York City....
- Robert Lincoln McNeil, Jr.
- Spencer PenroseSpencer PenroseSpencer Penrose was a philanthropist in and around Colorado Springs at the turn of the 20th century. He was born into a prominent Philadelphia family of Cornish descent and was brother to Boies Penrose and Richard Penrose...
- Eli Kirk Price IIEli Kirk Price IIEli Kirk Price II was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, called "the foremost civic and cultural leader in early twentieth-century Philadelphia". He was the commissioner of Fairmount Park during the planning and development of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, of which he was one of the principal...
- Samuel ReaSamuel ReaSamuel Rea was an American engineer and the 9th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad . He was awarded the Franklin Medal in 1926.-Early life and career:...
- Robert Montgomery Scott
- Thomas A. Scott
- Frank ThomsonFrank ThomsonFrank Thomson was a railroad executive from the United States, and the sixth president of the Pennsylvania Railroad .-Life:Frank Thomson was born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1841. At age 17, Thomson became an apprentice in the PRR machine shops in Altoona, and studied mechanical engineering...
- Mayor Richard VauxRichard VauxRichard Vaux was an American politician. He was mayor of Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania....
- George D. Widener, Jr.George D. Widener, Jr.George Dunton Widener, Jr. was an American businessman and thoroughbred racehorse owner; one of only five people ever designated "Exemplars of Racing" by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.-Biography:...
- Owen WisterOwen WisterOwen Wister was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.-Early life:Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of...
Assessment
An April 2008 assessment from Philadelphia Magazine:External links
- The Philadelphia Club from Bryn Mawr College.
- The Philadelphia Club from wikimapia.