The Ivy Club, often simply Ivy, is the oldest eating club at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. It was founded in 1879 with Arthur Hawley Scribner as its first head.

Club culture

The club is described by F. Scott Fitzgerald in '' This Side of Paradise'' (1920) as "detached and breathlessly aristocratic". A more recent account described Ivy as the "most patrician eating club at Princeton University" where members "eat at long tables covered with crisp white linens and set with 19th-century Sheffield silver candelabra, which are lighted even when daylight streams into the windows."

Membership

The club was one of the last to admit women, resisting the change until spring 1991 after a lawsuit had been brought against the Ivy Club, Tiger Inn, and Cottage Club by the Princeton student Sally Frank and her lawyer Nadine Taub. The members of each class are selected through the '' bicker'' process, a series of ten screening interviews, which are followed by discussions amongst the members as to whom of the remaining to admit. Current undergraduate members host regular "Roundtable Dinners" featuring talks by faculty and alumni.

Clubhouse

The first clubhouse was Ivy Hall, a brownstone building on Mercer Street in Princeton that still stands. It had been constructed by Richard Stockton Field in 1847 as the home for the Princeton Law School, a short-lived venture that lasted from 1847 to 1852. From the time of its founding until its incorporation in 1883, the club was generally known as the "Ivy Hall Eating Club." In 1883 the club purchased an empty lot on Prospect Avenue, which was a country dirt road at the time. Ivy erected a shingle-style clubhouse in 1884 on what is today the site of Colonial Club. The clubhouse was remodeled and extended in 1887–88. Following Ivy's move to new quarters across Prospect Avenue some ten years later, its second clubhouse was used by Colonial before being sold and moved to Plainsboro Township, New Jersey. Ivy's third and current clubhouse was designed in 1897 by the Philadelphia firm of Cope & Stewardson. In 2009, the club completed its most significant renovation to date. The expansion added a second wing to the facility, changing the club's original L-shaped layout to a U. Designed by Demetri Porphyrios, the new wing includes a two-story Great Hall and a

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to provide additional study space.

Notable alumni

The following is a list of some notable members of the Ivy Club: * Hobey Baker (1914) –

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, member of the

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and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame *

James A. Baker III James Addison Baker III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, diplomat and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House chief of staff and 67th United States secretary of the treasury under President ...

(1952) –

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; Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of State for

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* Lem Billings (1939) – confidante and "first friend" of President John F. Kennedy who was Kennedy's freshman-year roommate at Princeton * Joshua B. Bolten (1976) –

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* Philip Bobbitt (1971) –

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

scholar and author of '' The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History'' * Lauren Bush-Lauren (2006) – fashion model and niece of

* Joey Cheek (2011) – speed skater who won gold and silver medals in the

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and co-founder and president of Team Darfur * Leonard S. Coleman, Jr. (1971) – president of the

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* Frank Deford (1962) – author and sports commentator * Richard B. Fisher – philanthropist and chairman of

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* Moira Forbes—president and publisher, ForbesWoman * Bill Ford (1979) –

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* Thomas F. Gibson – first political cartoonist of ''

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(1920) –

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* Frederick Hitz – Inspector General of the

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(2002) - American actress, comedian, and writer * Arthur Krock – four-time

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* A.B. Krongard (1953) – executive director of the

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Jim Leach James Albert Smith Leach (October 15, 1942 – December 11, 2024) was an American academic and politician. He served as ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013 and was a member of the U.S. House of Representat ...

(1964) – U.S. Congressman from

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and chairman of the

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* Blair Lee I (1880) –

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* Blair Lee III (1938) –

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(1982) – author of ''

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(1874) –

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whose Marquand diagram was a forerunner of the

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* Richard King Mellon – financier, banker, and philanthropist who led the

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– entrepreneur specializing in political campaigns who became famous for attempting to design a nuclear weapon while a student. *

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(1931) –

political philosopher Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from de ...

, author of ''

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'', originator of the concepts of original position and

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* Laurance Rockefeller (1932) –

venture capitalist Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number ...

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(1978) – president and CEO of the

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* Saud bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz (1964) –

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* Arthur Hawley Scribner (1881) – first head of the eating club and president of publisher

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Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and ''Alice Adams (novel), Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to w ...

(1893) –

–winning novelist * Jim Thompson (1928) – OSS officer and Thai silk entrepreneur who famously and mysteriously disappeared in

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in 1967 * Terdema Ussery – president and CEO of the

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professional

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Rodman Wanamaker Lewis Rodman Wanamaker (February 13, 1863 – March 9, 1928) was an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune. In addition to operating stores in Philadelphia, New York City, and Paris, he was a patron of the ar ...

– arts patron, aviation pioneer, and founder of the

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(PGA) *

–

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, 1913–1921 (Associate Graduate Member) * John Gilbert Winant –

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom * Frank G. Wisner (1961) – public servant and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

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, the Philippines, and

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. * Jacob Candelaria -- New Mexico state senator, first openly gay man elected to the New Mexico Legislature and civil rights attorney.

References

Bibliography

External links

Official Ivy Club Website

of the clubs, at Princeton's official site.

from James Bradberry Architects website

from the New York Times {{Princeton Eating clubs at Princeton University Jacobean architecture in the United States Jacobethan architecture Historic district contributing properties in Mercer County, New Jersey Secret societies in the United States