The Princeton Quadrangle Club, often abbreviated to "Quad", is one of the eleven

eating clubs at Princeton University The eating clubs at Princeton University are private institutions resembling both dining halls and social houses, where the majority of Princeton upperclassmen eat their meals. Each eating club occupies a large mansion on Prospect Avenue (Prospe ...

that remain open. Located at 33 Prospect Avenue, the club is currently "sign-in," meaning it permits any second semester sophomore, junior or senior to join. The club's tradition of openness is demonstrated as far back as 1970, when Quadrangle became one of the first

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

eating clubs (Princeton University itself began admitting women in 1969, and the last eating clubs to include women did so in 1991).

History

The club was formed in 1896 in a house built on the south side of Prospect Avenue. In its early years, it changed its location several times. In 1901, it moved to the north side of "the Street," and in 1903 it moved back to the south side, where the

Princeton Tower Club Princeton Tower Club is one of the eleven eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, and one of seven clubs to choose its members through a selective process called bicker. Tower is located at 13 Prospect Avenu ...

now stands. In 1910 it moved to a house built in 1887 for

James McCosh James McCosh (April 1, 1811 – November 16, 1894) was a philosopher of the Scottish School of Common Sense. He was president of Princeton University 1868–88. Biography McCosh was born into a Covenanting family in Ayrshire, a ...

, the eleventh president of Princeton University. In 1915, Quadrangle Club sold the McCosh house and built its own house, designed by Henry Milliken, Princeton Class of 1905 in a classic brick

Georgian Revival Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover— George I, George II, Ge ...

structure. The club has existed in this building since 1916.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...

described Quadrangle Club in ''

This Side of Paradise ''This Side of Paradise'' is the debut novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. It examines the lives and morality of carefree American youth at the dawn of the Jazz Age. Its protagonist, Amory Blaine, is an attractive ...

'' as "Literary Quadrangle." Fitzgerald later commented that he might have felt more comfortable in "Literary Quadrangle" with contemporaries such as

John Peale Bishop John Peale Bishop (May 21, 1892 – April 4, 1944) was an American poet and man of letters. Biography Bishop was born in Charles Town, West Virginia, to a family from New England, and attended school in Hagerstown, Maryland and Mercersburg Acade ...

, an American poet. In 2016, Quad signed-in 115 new members, a 342% increase from the year before and more than any other sign-in eating club except for

Terrace Club Princeton Terrace Club is one of eleven current eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Terrace Club was founded in 1904 and is located at 62 Washington Road. It is the sole Princeton eating club located off ...

. The current Chairman of the Board is alumnus Dinesh Maneyapanda.

Musical tradition

With some funding from the Princeton Undergraduate Student Government, the Quadrangle Club has hosted to some of the biggest concerts on Princeton's campus, including Barenaked Ladies in 1993, Lifehouse in 2003, Maroon 5 in 2004, Rihanna in 2006, and T-Pain in 2013. These concerts have been documented as having drawn more than half of the university's entire undergraduate population. Below is a listing of the groups that have performed at the club in recent years at the semiannual University-wide festival called "Lawnparties". The club’s perspicacious interest in music also extends to identifying early musical talent and booking intimate club music evenings with future superstars. For example, in the late 1980s Blues Traveler played a party at Quadrangle before the release of their first album.

Notable alumni

Stephen Ailes Stephen Ailes (May 25, 1912 – June 30, 2001) was a prominent member of the District of Columbia Bar and a partner in the firm of Steptoe & Johnson. He served as the United States Under Secretary of the Army from February 9, 1961, to January 28, ...

'33 -

United States Secretary of the Army The secretary of the Army (SA or SECARMY) is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, insta ...

1964-1965 * R. W. Apple, Jr. '57 -

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

editor * Robert L. Belknap '51 - Russian literature scholar and dean of Columbia College *

Jeff Bezos Jeffrey Preston Bezos ( ;; and Robinson (2010), p. 7. ''né'' Jorgensen; born January 12, 1964) is an American entrepreneur, media proprietor, investor, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former preside ...

'86 - founder of

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential econo ...

Eduardo Bhatia Eduardo Bhatia Gautier (born May 16, 1964) is a Puerto Rican attorney and politician. Bhatia is a former 15th President of the Senate of Puerto Rico and executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration. Early life and educa ...

'86 - 15th

President of the Senate of Puerto Rico The president of the Senate of Puerto Rico ( es, Presidente del Senado) is the highest-ranking officer and the presiding officer of the Senate of Puerto Rico. The president has voting powers as it is elected amongst the own members of the Senate ...

'17 - writer, poet *

Kit Bond Christopher Samuel "Kit" Bond (born March 6, 1939) is an American attorney, politician and former United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Republican Party. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, he defeated Democrat Harriett W ...

'60 - former U.S. senator and

governor of Missouri A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

* Ralph D. Denunzio '56 - investment banker and chairman of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

* Fred E. Fox '39 - collector of

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

traditions known as "Keeper of the Princetoniana" * Robert F. Goheen '40 - president of Princeton University and U.S. Ambassador to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

* Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers '87 - US District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California * J. Robert Hillier '59 - Founder of Hillier Architecture (sold to

RMJM RMJM (Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall) is one of the largest architecture and design networks in the world. Services include architecture, development management, engineering, interior design, landscape design, lead consultancy, master planning, ...

in 2007) *

David Huebner David Huebner (born 1960) is an international arbitrator based in Southern California. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He was the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration and the third ...

'82 -

United States Ambassador to New Zealand The United States has maintained a consular presence in New Zealand since 1838. The first consul was James Reddy Clendon. Born in England, Clendon was a ship owner and merchant who bought land and settled in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. In 18 ...

and Samoa *

Wentworth Miller Wentworth Earl Miller III (born June 2, 1972) is an American-British actor and screenwriter. He rose to prominence following his starring role as Michael Scofield in the Fox series ''Prison Break'', for which he received a nomination for the ...

'95 - Actor, model and screenwriter *

Jerome Powell Jerome Hayden "Jay" Powell (born February 4, 1953) is an American attorney and investment banker who has served as the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve since 2018. After earning a degree in politics from Princeton University in 1975 and a ...

'75 - Chair of the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

* Neil L. Rudenstine '56 - Former president of

Harvard University 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 high ...

. *

George P. Shultz George Pratt Shultz (; December 13, 1920February 6, 2021) was an American economist, businessman, diplomat and statesman. He served in various positions under two different Republican presidents and is one of the only two persons to have held fou ...

'42 - Former

United States Secretary of Labor The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

, Secretary of State, and president of Bechtel. * Adlai Stevenson '22 -

governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

nominee for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

and

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

Princeton - News - Mudd Library Completes Catalog, Preservation of Adlai E. Stevenson Papers
/ref> *

Robert Venturi Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major architectural figures of the twentieth century. Together with h ...

'47 - Architect (at Princeton: Wu Hall, Lewis Thomas Laboratory,

Frist Campus Center Frist Campus Center is a focal point of social life at Princeton University. The campus center is a combination of the former Palmer Physics Lab, and a modern addition completed in 2001. It was endowed with money from the fortune the Frist family ...

) * Sir

Gordon Wu Sir Gordon Wu Ying-sheung,Gordon WU Ying-Sheung biography
- website o ...

'58 - Chairman of

Hopewell Holdings Hopewell Holdings Limited (), established on 17 October 1972, is a major property developer in Hong Kong headed by Sir Gordon Wu. History It was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchanges in 1972 and delisted when taken private in 2019. Hopewell ...

Notes

References

External links

Princeton Quadrangle Club undergraduate websitePrinceton Quadrangle Club alumni website
{{Princeton Eating clubs at Princeton University Georgian Revival architecture in New Jersey Historic district contributing properties in Mercer County, New Jersey