Rittenhouse Club was a private institution and

social club A social club or social organization may be a group of people or the place where they meet, generally formed around a common interest, occupation or activity with in an organizational association known as a Club (organization), club. Exampl ...

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 Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It was founded in 1875 to allow "businessmen, intellectuals and artists to socialize in a congenial, friendly atmosphere."

History

19th century

The Gentlemen's club was founded in 1874 as the Social Arts Club of Philadelphia by Dr.

William Pepper William Pepper Jr. (August 21, 1843July 28, 1898), was an American physician and medical educator, and the eleventh provost of the University of Pennsylvania, from 1881 to 1894. He was an advocate for the establishment of a university affiliate ...

and Silas Weir Mitchell. The club was renamed in late 1875 when it moved to a new building on

Rittenhouse Square Rittenhouse Square is a public park in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that is the center of the eponymous Rittenhouse neighborhood. The square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas ...

that had been the home of James Harper. James E. Carpenter, Esquire was later the governor of the Rittenhouse Club. He was instrumental at securing the former home of Congressman James Harper in 1875.''Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2009'' (DVD format), Subject is RIN 4293; work contains updates to the 1912 book on "Samuel Carpenter and his Descendants." By 1880, the northern side of Rittenhouse Square was the de facto "most fashionable address in Philadelphia." In 1900, the club expanded by adding an adjoining townhouse. This created not only a larger structure but also more prestige fronting the square."The Rittenhouse Club: Henry James’ Favorite Perch"
by Steven Ujifusa, January 26, 2015 The Rittenhouse Club had many of the faculty of 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 ...

along with gentlemen architects such as from the T-Square Club. Members of the Northern Pennsylvania business elite intermingled with architects, professors and clergymen. These included during the fashionable Gilded Age, steamship magnate Clement Griscom, architect Frank Furness, along with his Shakespeare scholar sibling Horace Furness. The University of Pennsylvania provost Dr. William Pepper, his nephew Senator George Wharton Pepper, and financier E.T. Stotesbury held prominent positions in the Club.

20th century

After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, due to tax loopholes being removed, general business changes and economics caused many members to move to the suburbs. The Rittenhouse Club suffered a slow decline of members and the "building slid from elegance into genteel decay." In the early 1990s, the Rittenhouse Club building was finally closed and sold. Today, "Only the discreet letters “RC” on the brass doorplates identify 1811 Walnut Street as the former home of one of Philadelphia's most prestigious clubs. The Beaux-Arts façade remains, but the building behind it is gone."

Early Members

* James Edward Carpenter (1841-1901). * Louis H. Carpenter (1839-1916). * Edward Walter Clark, Jr. (1857-1946). *

Frank Furness Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 – June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often inordinately scaled ...

(1839-1912). * George Fort Gibbs (1870-1942). * George Byron Gordon (1870-1927). * Robert Sturgis Ingersoll. * George W. Pepper (1867-1961). *

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 " ...

(1860-1938).

Selected publications

* Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p.264. * Nancy Heinzen, Perfect Square: A History of Rittenhouse Square (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009), p.95. * Liz Spikol, “Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Buys at 10 Rittenhouse,” CurbedPhilly, October 19, 2012. http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2012/10/19/comcast-ceo-brian-roberts-buys-part-of-10-rittenhouse.php

References

External links

* {{coord, 39.948738, -75.167070, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title 1875 establishments in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Philadelphia Clubs and societies in Philadelphia Organizations established in 1875 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia