The Algonquin Club of Boston, also known as The Quin House, is a private
social club
A social club may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation, or activity. Examples include: book discussion clubs, chess clubs, anime clubs, country clubs, charity work, criminal ...
in
Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1886. Originally a business-themed
gentlemen's club, it is now open to men and women of all races, religions, and nationalities.
History
The Algonquin Club of Boston was founded by a group, including
General Charles Taylor
Charles Henry Taylor (July 14, 1846 – June 22, 1921) was an American journalist and politician. He created the modern ''Boston Globe'', acting as its publisher starting in 1873. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in ...
.
Its clubhouse on
Commonwealth Avenue was designed by
McKim, Mead & White
McKim, Mead & White was an American architectural firm that came to define architectural practice, urbanism, and the ideals of the American Renaissance in fin de siècle New York. The firm's founding partners Charles Follen McKim (1847–1909), Wil ...
and completed in 1888, and was soon called "the finest and most perfectly appointed club-house in America" and more recently the "most grandiose" of Boston's clubs. At the time of founding women, Irish Catholics, Jews and blacks were not able to join the club.
It remains the only "socially elite" old-guard Boston club with a purpose-built clubhouse. The
Harvard Club
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, for example, built its Commonwealth Avenue clubhouse in 1912–1913. A real estate company bought the clubhouse in 2018. , the club is closed for renovations, including a new fitness facility and a roof deck. It will remain a private club, but plans to expand its membership.
["Permit Pulled for Renovations of Algonquin Club", ''BLDUP']
July 3, 2019
/ref> The Algonquin Club maintains reciprocal relationships with more than 150 social clubs worldwide.
See also
* List of gentlemen's clubs in the United States
The following is a list of notable traditional gentlemen's clubs in the United States, including those that are now defunct. Historically, these clubs were exclusively for men, but most (though not all) now admit women.
On exclusivity and as ...
References
External links
Web site archive
1886 establishments in Massachusetts
Clubs and societies in Boston
McKim, Mead & White buildings
Gentlemen's clubs in the United States
Organizations established in 1886
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