The Rainier Club is a private club in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, Washington; it has been referred to as "Seattle's preeminent private club."Priscilla Long
Gentlemen organize Seattle's Rainier Club on February 23, 1888
HistoryLink.org, January 27, 2001. Accessed online 2009-06-24. Its clubhouse building, completed in 1904, is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

. It was founded in 1888 in what was then the

Washington Territory The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from th ...

(statehood came the following year). As of 2008, the club has 1,300 members.The Rainier Club of Seattle Campaign for Funds for Historical Renovation
The Rainier Club, March 2008. Accessed online 2009-06-24.

History

The Rainier Club was first proposed at a February 23, 1888 meeting of six

civic leaders; it was formally incorporated July 25, 1888. The attendees of the original meeting were J. R. McDonald, president of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway; John Leary, real estate developer and former Seattle mayor; Norman Kelly; R. C. Washburn, editor of the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. Th ...

''; Bailey Gatzert, former mayor associated with Schwabacher's (Seattle's and the state's most prominent Jewish-owned business of the era); A. B. Stewart; and James McNaught. Other founding members were lawyer Eugene Carr, Judge Thomas Burke, and William Allison Peters. The club is named after British Admiral Peter Rainier. The name may have been chosen because of Seattle's rivalry with nearby Tacoma. Tacomans at the time were ardent in their support for the native name "Mount Tacoma" for the mountain now officially known as

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a ...

rowley 1988 Rowley may refer to: Places Canada * Rowley, Alberta * Rowley Island, Nunavut United Kingdom * Rowley, County Durham, a hamlet * Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England * Rowley, Shropshire, a location in Shropshire, England * Rowley Regis ...

p. 15–16. In 1892, the club sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to argue the "Rainier" side of the case. The club's logo was modeled on that of the Union Club in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. T ...

, founded 1877. Since territorial law in 1888 did not recognize private clubs, the Rainier Club was initially incorporated as a men's boarding house and restaurant. It reincorporated January 18, 1899 as a private club under a revised 1895 state law.

p. 26.

Buildings

The club's first home was in part of James McNaught's Fourth Avenue 22-room mansion

p. 16. (on the site of today's Seattle Central LibraryWalt Crowley
Rainier Club (Seattle)
HistoryLink.org, January 27, 2001. Accessed online 2009-06-24.). McNaught was happy to have a tenant: he was moving to

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

to take a position as chief counsel for the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, wh ...

. The house also functioned—along with the armory at Fourth and Union—as an interim city hall after the Great Seattle Fire destroyed most of the City in 1889. This brought additional city leaders into the club. McNaught and the club did not remain on good terms over the lease

p. 23. and the club relocated to the Bailey Building at Second and Cherry (now

Broderick Building Broderick is a surname of early medieval English origin and subsequently the Anglicised versions of names of Irish and Welsh origin. It is also a given name. English origin A toponymic name the broad ridge and Bawdrip, a manor near Bridgwater ...

, after Henry Broderick). After a brief period there, from February 1893, the clubhouse was located in rooms at the then newly erected Seattle Theatre, on the site of today's Arctic Building. The Rainier Club purchased its current property at Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street in downtown Seattle in 1903. The clubhouse, designed by

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

architect Kirtland Cutter was completed and occupied in 1904. Seattle architect

Carl F. Gould Carl Frelinghuysen Gould (24 November 1873 – 4 January 1939) also spelled Carl Freylinghausen Gould, was an architect in the Pacific Northwest, and founder and first chair of the architecture program at the University of Washington. As the lea ...

added the south wing in 1929, plus a Georgian-style entry and interior

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

ornamentation.

Activities

In 1899, the Club was the launch point for many members of the Harriman Alaska expedition. E. H. Harriman,

John Burroughs John Burroughs (April 3, 1837 – March 29, 1921) was an American naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement in the United States. The first of his essay collections was ''Wake-Robin'' in 1871. In the words of his bio ...

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

, Edward S. Curtis and

Henry Gannett Henry Gannett (August 24, 1846 – November 5, 1914) was an American geographer who is described as the "father of mapmaking in America."Evans, Richard Tranter; Frye, Helen M. (2009).History of the Topographic Branch (Division) (PDF). ''U.S. Geo ...

set out to Seal Island and other

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Amer ...

islands and to the coast of

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

and the Bering Strait from the Club, and celebrated there on their return.

Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Penns ...

was a guest at the Rainier Club on the trip that led to the creation of the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

and Mount Rainier National Park. A decade later, Edward S. Curtis, a club member from 1903 to 1920, accompanied

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

on Roosevelt's visit to the then-new park. The Rainier Club has more than 35 photogravures and 27 original signed platinum and silver prints by Curtis from that journey. Club members, including club president I. A. Nadeau and John C. Olmsted of the

Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...

landscaping firm, planned the

Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, acronym AYP or AYPE, was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909 publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest. It was originally planned for 1907 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Go ...

(A–Y–P Exposition) of 1909, which has been said to have "put the City of Seattle on the map." Among the physical legacies of the exposition is the landscaping of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

campus, which served as the fairground. The Olmsted firm also played a crucial role in the design of Seattle's system of parks and boulevards.

Prohibition and Great Depression eras

As a private club, the Rainier Club had been exempt from Seattle's and Washington's early experiments in

Prohibitionism Prohibitionism is a legal philosophy and political theory often used in lobbying which holds that citizens will abstain from actions if the actions are typed as unlawful (i.e. prohibited) and the prohibitions are enforced by law enforcement.C Canty ...

, but when Washington went dry on a statewide basis in 1916, the club could no longer serve liquor by the drink. Throughout the Prohibition era, the club repeatedly reasserted a policy that "no employee of the Club will be permitted under any circumstances to buy, sell, or have any liquor in their possession for sale on the Club premises." In Walter Crowley's words, "This policy was notably silent on members' possession of alcohol..." The Rainier Club was not exempt from the Great Depression. Having built a new wing to the clubhouse in 1929, they soon faced a loss of members and difficulty in recruiting new ones who could afford the dues. In hopes of recruiting new members, the initiation fee was cut in 1932 from $500 to $200, and in October 1933 to $100. At that time, membership had declined from 851 to 615 over the course of 36 months. According to Crowley, the club benefitted greatly from the end of Prohibition: the "bureaucratic tangle" of the state's new liquor laws allowed liquor by the drink only in private clubs. Indeed, the 1948 relegalization of liquor by the drink in Washington was followed the next year by a reduction of the club's initiation fee from $650 to $400.

Role in city events

Half a century after the A-Y-P Exposition, Rainier Club members played a nearly equally prominent role in the Century 21 Exposition, Seattle's 1962

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

. Most notably, Eddie Carlson, President of Western International Hotels (later Westin), was prime mover of the fair, and most organizing meetings were held at the clubhouse. In 1993, U.S. president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...

held two Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meetings with Japan and China at the Rainier Club. These were the first APEC meetings in the U.S., and the first high-level U.S. meetings with China since the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourt ...

Membership

Originally all-white and all-male, the Rainier Club admitted its first

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest As ...

member, Saburo Nishimuro, November 25, 1966; its first African American member prominent contractor Luther Carr, July 25, 1978; and its first woman member, Judge Betty Fletcher, August 22, 1978. Fletcher was also the first woman head of the Seattle-King County Bar Association. The Japanese consul to Seattle had been a courtesy Associate Member from 1923 until the 1941

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawa ...

. Other prominent members have included several members of the Blethen family (owners of ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington s ...

''); and art collectors Dr. Richard Fuller (founder of the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on C ...

) and H. C. Henry (founder of the Henry Art Gallery). Besides the members, prominent visitors to the clubhouse have included

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to di ...

, Buffalo Bill Cody,

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, Lt. General Arthur MacArthur, General Douglas MacArthur,

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

, Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary, and the members of the early (1893–1911) Japanese trade delegations to the United States.The Rainier Club of Seattle Campaign for Funds for Historical Renovation
The Rainier Club, March 2008. The source refers to "Robert E. Perry", presumably a typo for "Robert E. Peary". Accessed online 2009-06-24.

Notes

References

* Celeste Louise Smith and Julie D. Pheasant-Albright, ''Private Clubs of Seattle'', Arcadia (Images of America series), 2009. . *

Walt Crowley Walter Charles Crowley (June 20, 1947 – September 21, 2007) was an American historian and activist from Washington state. He first entered the public sphere in Seattle through his involvement with the social and political movements of the 1960s ...

, ''The Rainier Club, 1888-1988'' (Seattle: The Rainier Club, 1988)

External links

Rainier Club
official site
Architectural drawings of the Rainier Club
University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections. {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Seattle Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington (state) Clubs and societies in the United States Kirtland Cutter buildings 1900s architecture in the United States Tudor Revival architecture in Washington (state) National Register of Historic Places in Seattle Organizations based in Seattle Organizations established in 1888 Gentlemen's clubs in the United States Downtown Seattle 1888 establishments in Washington Territory