The Franklin Inn Club is a private social club in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1902 as a literary society, it is one of the four historic gentlemen's clubs in Philadelphia's Center City and was the first to open membership to women in Philadelphia.

Early history

The Franklin Inn Club was founded by the Philadelphia physician and writer Silas Weir Mitchell; J. William White, and seven other members of the University Club at Penn as a social venue for published authors and illustrators.Seymour Toll, “The Franklin Inn Club,” published in A Centennial Catalogue of the Franklin Inn Club of Philadelphia, pp. viii-xviii, Washington: Ross & Perry, 2004. It soon became a gathering place for novelists, poets, scholars, actors, playwrights, and journalists. The clubhouse hosted amateur theatricals, and also served as home to The Philobiblon Club, founded in 1893 for book collectors and dealers. Visitors to the club in the early 20th century included

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

Christopher Morley Christopher Darlington Morley (May 5, 1890 – March 28, 1957) was an American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet. He also produced stage productions for a few years and gave college lectures.

,Thom Nickels, Legendary Locals of Center City Philadelphia, p54, Arcadia Publishing, 2014

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg w ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

, and

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. His '' Spring and All'' (1923) was written in the wake of T. S. Eliot's '' The Waste Land'' (1922). ...

. Following World War II, qualifications for admission were broadened to include those “contributing notably to the literary, artistic or intellectual life of the community." The club's all-male membership policy ended in 1980. The charter, bylaws, and lists of its original founders and directors are documented in the 1914 Book of the Franklin Inn Club

Clubhouse

First located at 1218 Chancellor Street, the Franklin Inn Club in 1907 moved to its current home at 205 South Camac Street. To create the Inn, the architect Francis G. Caldwell combined several small rowhouses, dating from the early 19th century, in neocolonial style. The building was added to the

Philadelphia Register of Historic Places The Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (PRHP) is a register of historic places by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Buildings, structures, sites, objects, interiors and districts can be added to the list. Criteria According to the Phil ...

in 1961. The interior of the building was designed to evoke the 18th century coffeehouse envisioned by the club's namesake, Benjamin Franklin. Its original sign is now part of the collection of the McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture.

Modern club

The club hosts conversations and debates among its members regarding current events and art, and hosts speakers. Events include the club's annual J. William White dinner that is held near the birthday of Benjamin Franklin. The clubhouse continues to serve as a playhouse for stage performances, and is a venue for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The Inn's second floor library holds its collections of art and books written by, illustrated by, and about club members. In 2018 the club served as the set for parts of an episode of the television series ''

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee ''Full Frontal with Samantha Bee'' is an American late-night talk and news satire television program that aired on TBS from 2016 to 2022. The show was hosted by comedian Samantha Bee, a former correspondent on ''The Daily Show''. In July 2 ...

'', airing on TBS.

Notable past members

* E. Digby Baltzell - Sociologist, academic and author. He became an eminent professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. * Lenora Berson - Philadelphia political strategist and commentator. * Judith Eden - Philadelphia lawyer, civic activist, and anti-blight crusader. *

Daniel Hoffman Daniel Gerard Hoffman (April 3, 1923 – March 30, 2013) was an American poet, essayist, and academic. He was appointed the twenty-second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1973. Early life and education Hoffman wa ...

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(1973-1974) and author of works on

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

and

Paul Bunyan Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His tall tales revolve around his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox, his pet and working animal. The character originate ...

. * Silas Weir Mitchell - Distinguished physician, Founder and first president of The Franklin Inn Club *

Howard Pyle Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator, Painting, painter, and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life ...

- Illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. Known for ''

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'' (1883), ''

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights ''The Story of King Arthur and His Knights'' is a 1903 Children's literature, children's novel by the American illustrator and writer Howard Pyle. The book contains a compilation of various stories, adapted by Pyle, regarding the legendary King ...

'' (1903) among the books he authored. *

John C. Raines John Curtis Raines (October 27, 1933 – November 12, 2017) was an American Methodist minister, religion professor, anti-war activist, and whistleblower. He was a member of the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, which conspired to stea ...

- Methodist minister, political activist, professor of religion at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

for over 40 years. *

Nathan Sivin Nathan Sivin (11 May 1931 – 24 June 2022), also known as Xiwen (), was an American sinologist, historian, essayist, educator, and writer. He taught first at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the University of Pennsylvania until his r ...

aka Xiwen (席文), Eminent China scholar, historian, essayist, and writer. Emeritus Professor at University of Pennsylvania * J. William White - Surgeon, teacher, explorer, author, and early promoter of physical culture. Appointed to the John Rhea Barton Professorship of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital from 1900 to 1912. *

Owen Wister Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer. His novel ''The Virginian (novel), The Virginian'', published in 1902, helped create the cowboy as a folk hero in the United States and built Wister's reputation as the " ...

- Historian, novelist and “father” of

western fiction Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and ...

. He is best remembered for writing '' The Virginian''. * N. C. Wyeth - A pupil of artist

, became one of America's greatest illustrators. Wyeth created more than 3,000 paintings and illustrated 112 books. He's best known for illustrating

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

and

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' ( ) is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary novel, epistolary, Confessional writing, confessional, and Didacticism, didactic forms, the ...

. His youngest son

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist and one of the best-known American artists of the middle 20th century. Though he considered himself to be an "abstractionist," Wyeth was primarily a realis ...

is one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1902 establishments in Pennsylvania Culture of Philadelphia