CLUBS: Somersen GEORGE B. DORR: SOCIAL CLUB MEMBERSHIP Boston: Engineer Club Not a member though visited as guest. Saturday Club Not a member though Samuel G. Ward was a founder. Somerset Club 1874-1937 Tavern Club 1904-1932 Union Boat Club 1889-1913 University Club No evidence of membership though visited as guest Union Club No evidence of membership though F.C. Gray and Samuel G. Ward were founders at the outset of the Civil War. New York, NY Harvard Club. No evidence of membership though visited as guest. Washington D.C.: Cosmos Club 1921-1935 Dorr Clubs821 THE SOMERSET CLUB "Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisi- militude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative." From The Mikado, Act II By HUGH WHITNEY AND WALTER MUIR WHITEHILL W HAT I like about the Order of the Garter," Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria's proto-Prime Minister, is reputed once to have observed, "is that there is no damned merit in it." At any time during the passage now jovially elapsed of the Somerset Club's first hundred years, a member, if driven to epitomize his sentiments re- garding that institution, might appropriately have deliv- The David Sears house as originally built ered himself, mutatis mutandis, in the same spirit. The world, to be sure, is replete with societies for the promo- tion of virtue or suppression of vice, for the cultivation of knowledge, useful and otherwise, and for the propagation of doctrines, salutary, pernicious, or merely demented. But the true "club," that characteristic invention of Eng- lish-speaking men, is properly concerned with no such matters. It is designed as a place where individuals mu- tually congenial should be able at will to enjoy, either one another's companionship, or a more than domestic priva- cy, and where, as far as kindly circumstances may favour, the chosen alternative will find itself enhanced by the availability of good food and drink. The founders of the Somerset Club a century ago proposed to establish ex- actly this kind of association, nor have the generations af- ter them, inheriting a tradition they fostered, thought fit to depart from it. The following comment, for instance, The David Sears house as enlarged which Mr. Charles E. Perkins wrote to his wife in 1873, The Somerset Club, 1872-1951 when she had been distressed at the measures adopted to Boston:1951. 8 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 9 deal with a certain troublesome member, reveals an add the lost "Version Q," dear to New Testament critics mirable grasp of their intent and unhesitating fidelity "higher" school, is recoverable today as an hypoth- thereto: only. Hence the authors, if they have heavily relied Your letter of Wednesday is very interesting & I wish upon a folklore of hearsay, and if on one really interesting could respond in kind. I note what you say about point they can but conjecture an explanation, may not suppose what Society wants is agreeable sensations-peace unjustifiably claim indulgence. plenty & politeness-and when anybody makes a noise & There is a quite staggering degree of vagueness about makes it unpleasant he is disliked, no matter how many real everything to do with the early history of the Club except virtues he may possess. Social clubs are not established to purpose. That is made unmistakably clear in a docu- protect men in their abstract rights, or to carry on disputes & with forty-one signatures reproduced in the 1913 controversies, but to promote cheerfulness, good feeling, har history. This reads: mony & pleasant intercourse, & when they don't do this they soon fade away. If a man makes himself agreeable, society WG the undersigned with a view of establishing a Club upon goes no deeper & the same is true if he makes himself dis plan of the London Clubs to afford the conveniences of agreeable-hence agreeable bad men & women are more high- Restaurant, Reading, Billiard and Card rooms etc agree to ly prized than disagreeable good ones. the sum of one hundred dollars each to a Treasurer or Committee to be chosen by the ballot of a majority of our- "Happy the nation that has no history." The same is it being understood that the sum resulting from this quite as true of microscopic communities, and among abscription is to be invested in furniture and stock for the these is far more likely to apply, two propositions for proposed Club, the buildings for which it is designed to hire which the Somerset Club can furnish demonstration at upon sufficient lease. once conclusive and comical. Whatever periodic vicissi- Thomas C. Amory, Jr. Rich. S. Fay tudes of cuisine and vintage they unmurmuringly en- Francis B. Crowninshield Chas. B. Fessenden dure, the present membership will not utterly deny that H. Whitwell G. R. Russell they have also been known to exhibit, at fairly frequent J. lasigi Tho. H. Perkins, Jr. intervals, identifiable symptoms of collective bien être. Thos. G. Cary, Jr. Geo. C. Crowninshield The dearth of historical substance, however, in a pro- Geo. T. Lyman James D. Russell fessed "history" might perhaps elicit surprise, and even S W. Rodman John Bryant, Jr. reproach. Yet in fact the records of the Club are sparse W Hooper Francis Codman in the extreme, and, when preserved at all, tantalizingly S G. Ward F. C. Loring laconic. The very dates of resignation or death, prior to N. Thayer Joseph Lyman, Jr. 1870, are herein derived from a list previously printed in John H. Gray David Sears, Jr. 1913, and this in turn must charitably be supposed to rep- Wm. Amory Henry Bryant James S. Amory S. Hooper resent a then surviving contemporary manuscript that, 10 THE SOMERSET CLUB J.L. Motley Edward N. Perkins R.M. Mason Thos. Motley, Jr. F.L. Dutton C. J. Higginson Fred R. Sears Edw. Motley, Jr. Fred A. Whitwell A. Tucker, Jr. Wm. S. Rogers Benj. E. Morse Edw. A. Crowninshield By way of explaining (or confusing) the issue, a later hand has added a heading "Originators of the Somerset Club-about - A.D. 1846" and a note reading: "The signers were all members of the Tremont Club at the time it OC- cupied rooms in Tremont Street opposite where the Bos- ton Museum now is (May 1885). This document was drawn up and signed about A.D. 1846." The 1913 history alleges that these gentlemen, at first called the Travel- lers Club and later the Tremont Club, occupied chambers in Tremont Street (between Beacon Street and Scollay Square); that they possessed no restaurant but that re- freshments were brought in as required. They are further alleged to have adopted on September 12, 1851, the name of Beacon Club, soon after changed to Somerset Club, and to have bought for their home a fine granite house on the corner of Beacon and Somerset Streets. This house was one of a pair built soon after the War of 1812 by David Hinckley. The easterly of these houses was bought in 1829 by Joseph Peabody for his son-in-law and daugh- ter, Mr. and Mrs. John Lowell Gardner, who lived there until 1867, while Mr. Hinckley occupied the westerly house until his death. It was purchased by Benjamin W. Crowninshield in 1831, and upon his death in 1851 the The Hall Club acquired it. It is said to have been opened to mem- bers on April 1, 1852, but the 1913 history (with its curious habit of contradicting itself) prints immediately 8 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 9 deal with a certain troublesome member, reveals an ad- like the lost "Version Q" dear to New Testament critics mirable grasp of their intent and unhesitating fidelity of the "higher" school, is recoverable today as an hypoth- thereto: esis only. Hence the authors, if they have heavily relied Your letter of Wednesday is very interesting & I wish I upon a folklore of hearsay, and if on one really interesting could respond in kind, I note what you say about X- I point they can but conjecture an explanation, may not suppose what Society wants is agreeable sensations-peace, unjustifiably claim indulgence. plenty & politeness-and when anybody makes a noise & There is a quite staggering degree of vagueness about makes it unpleasant he is disliked, no matter how many real everything to do with the early history of the Club except virtues he may possess. Social clubs are not established to its purpose. That is made unmistakably clear in a docu- protect men in their abstract rights, or to carry on disputes & ment with forty-one signatures reproduced in the 1913 controversies, but to promote cheerfulness, good feeling, har- mony & pleasant intercourse, & when they don't do this they history. This reads: soon fade away. If a than makes himself agreeable, society We the undersigned with a view of establishing a Club upon goes no deeper & the same is true if he makes himself dis- the plan of the London Clubs to afford the conveniences of agreeable-hence agreeable bad men & women are more high- Restaurant, Reading, Billiard and Card rooms etc agree to ly prized than disagreeable good ones. pay the sum of one hundred dollars each to a Treasurer or "Happy the nation that has no history." The same is Committee to be chosen by the ballot of a majority of our- selves, it being understood that the sum resulting from this quite as true of microscopic communities, and among subscription is to be invested in furniture and stock for the these is far more likely to apply, two propositions for proposed Club, the buildings for which it is designed to hire which the Somerset Club can furnish demonstration at upon a sufficient lease. once conclusive and Comical. Whatever periodic vicissi- tudes of cuisine and vintage they unmurmuringly en- Thomas C. Amory, Jr. Rich. S. Fay dure, the present membership will not utterly deny that Francis B. Crowninshield Chas. B. Fessenden H. Whitwell G.R. Russell they have also been known to exhibit, at fairly frequent J. Iasigi Tho. H. Perkins, Jr. intervals, identifiable symptoms of collective bien être. Thos. G. Cary, Jr. Geo. C. Crowninshield The dearth of historical substance, however, in a pro- Geo. T. Lyman James D. Russell fessed "history" might perhaps elicit surprise, and even S. W. Rodman John Bryant, Jr. reproach. Yet in fact the records of the Club are sparse W. Hooper Francis Codman in the extreme, and, when preserved at all, tantalizingly S. G. Ward F. C. Loring laconic. The very dates of resignation or death, prior to N. Thayer Joseph Lyman, Jr. 1870, are herein derived from a list previously printed in John H. Gray David Sears, Jr. 1913, and this in turn must charitably be supposed to rep- Wm. Amory Henry Bryant resent a then surviving contemporary manuscript that, James S. Amory S. Hooper THE SOMERSET CLUB 11 after that statement the text of a notice inviting members to meet there on March 26, and concluding with: "P.S. The Club House will be open to the families of members and their friends, on Wednesday the 24th inst., during the day and evening." The house, from the account given of it by Mrs. John Mason Warren (Mr. Crowninshield's daughter) in her Reminiscences of my life, must have been well adapted to the uses of the club. Two drawing rooms, with mahog- any doors and Italian marble mantels supported by Ca- ryatides, occupied the Beacon Street façade on the ground floor, while to the left of the front door ( which was on Somerset Street) was the dining room. At the end of a long hall with marble columns, interspersed with busts, a circular staircase led to the first floor, where were a music room, library and bedrooms. Nathaniel I. Bowditch, writ- ing in the Boston Evening Transcript for August 24, 1855, describes the club house as "so well known to 'Young America' for its elegant appointments; or, as de- serted wives sitting at home might prefer to call them, its seductive attractions." The last phrase seems singularly unkind in view of the fact that the Club maintained a la- dies' restaurant, reputed to be the first of its kind in the country. If the wives of members had had any gumption, they might easily have persuaded their husbands to take them there. If they sat at home, deserted, it was clearly their own fault. It does not follow that because, as already suggested, The Hall Dome history in the grand manner has hitherto fortunately passed by the Club's doors, its passing has always been very remote from their thresholds, or that inside them it has never made felt a closer approach than "the rumble of a distant drum" could convey. Through successive THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 13 many members have worn their Country's coat, and from "the steamer de Molay, off Cape Hatteras," only four have died wearing it. They are remembered, not days after the event: erated, here. The more I think of the passage of the Fifty-fourth through on the twenty-eighth of May, 1863, history em- Boston, the more wonderful it seems to me. Just remember marched in arms, with stern drums beaten loud, our own doubts and fears, and other people's sneering and fillours superbly spread, along Somerset Street, where pitying remarks, when we began last winter, and then look at Club occupied its original home, and of which it still the perfect triumph of last Thursday. We have gone quietly the name. The Negro infantry of the Fifty-fourth along, forming the Regiment, and at last left Boston amidst Milianchusetts, under Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, were a greater enthusiasm than has been seen since the first three to embark for the south, and the blood-offering be- months troops left for the war. Everyone I saw, from the Gov- Fort Wagner. ernor's staff (who have always given us rather the cold shoul- (mund this brief juxtaposition with the ceremonial der) down, had nothing but words of praise for us. to an heroic tragedy a luxuriance of legend has It must be remembered that, though the youthful Shaw virginated itself. In that cycle the most dramatic, and never belonged to the Somerset Club, several of his near credited, episode describes how when Colonel relatives, and a larger number of men with whom he was and his men came abreast of them they were hissed at least acquainted, were, or had been, members. He must Club windows. In the light of all surviving first- have known perfectly well which was its house, and it is dioridence that it has been possible to consult the story extremely difficult to believe either that a gross affront to be definitely apochryphal. Among the notices from such a quarter could have escaped his observation, parade printed in the course of the following week or that a justified contempt would have led him SO com- Boston papers, including William Lloyd Garri- pletely to ignore the occurrence as in some degree to falsi- Liberator, which could hardly have missed such an fy his actual experience. infurunity to point a moral, if not simultaneously to Moreover, the impression left by Colonel Shaw is most fill & tale, there is no reference to any show of hostility explicitly confirmed by the former Captain, Luis F. On the contrary, the Daily Journal for the Emilio, who also marched that day, in his history, A uternoon states that the spectacle was "vociferous- Brave Black Regiment, published not quite thirty years hired by vast crowds." The next morning the Post later, in 1891. And the short preface thereto testifies that what grandiloquently declares: "the Fifty-fourth "throughout the compilation General A. S. Hartwell, Event was yesterday wafted to glory"; while accord- Colonel N. P. Hallowell [Colonel Shaw's Second-in-Com- the Daily Courier one finds it "respectfully received mand during the parade, but transferred immediately many cases cheered." thereafter, on May 30th] and Captain Charles C. Soule, more telling, however, is the description fur- all of the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry mani- bv Colonel Shaw himself in a private letter dated fested unflagging interest." Thus the details presented 14 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 15 below may be presumed to rest on firmer authority than of the building, perhaps to some equally pleasant counter- one man's personal recollection might afford. part of the modern "Bricks." He may also have said, but "As the companies filed into the street," writes Captain here remembrance has regrettably faded, that they first Emilio, "the command was received with cheers from a pulled down the front blinds. large gathering. One hundred policemen, under the What thus remains unquestionably true is that a large Chief, Colonel Kurtz, were present to clear the streets. majority of the Club were out of sympathy with the exist- Unknown to the general public, reserves of police were ing Administration, at the very least unenthusiastic about held in readiness undercover, to repress any riotous pro- the war, and particularly opposed to the recruitment of Ne- ceedings." gro troops for service therein. Members who had attend- Preceded by Gilmore's band, the line of march was taken up ed Harvard must often have been close friends of men in through Pleasant, Boylston, Somerset and Beacon Streets the Confederate forces, since Southern students, while to the State House. All along the route the side-walks, win- not as numerous as formerly, continued to come to Cam- dows and balconies were thronged with spectators, and the bridge till war began. A son of General Lee, for example, appearance of the Regiment caused repeated cheers and way- was in the Class of 1858. Mrs. John Mason Warren men- ing of flags and handkerchiefs. The National Colours were tioned the habit of many Boston families of remaining in displayed everywhere. Passing the house of Wendell Phil- town during the last fortnight of August to entertain the lips, on Essex Street, William Lloyd Garrison was seen on the Southern friends, who invariably came to attend their balcony, his hand resting on the head of a bust of John Brown. sons' Commencement exercises. "My father [B. W. Only hearty greetings were encountered; not an insulting word was heard, or an unkind remark made. Crowninshield]," she wrote, "having been SO much in Washington, had many friends among the families of the It should be noted that the italicized closing sentence very Middletons, Pringles, and others. My father and mother distinctly echoes one contained in the Liberator's issue for and Mr. Harrison Gray Otis of Beacon Street, the Tick- June 5th, 1863: "There was nowhere along the line a nors, and many others gave a series of dinners, dances, word of disapproval-not a sneer was heard, nor an un- etc., at that season, and all felt that that was the gay time kind word expressed." in Boston, and that everyone should be there prepared for Finally, one of the present writers was told nearly the gaiety." The war had separated at least some Bos- twenty years ago by John Torrey Morse, Jr., the late dis- tonians from Southern cronies, and business interests had, tinguished editor of the American Statesmen Series, and of course, suffered, especially the cotton mills. The preva- biographer of Lincoln, that he had been in the Club on lent opinion was no doubt very similar to that which Colo- the same day, though not at the time, the Fifty-fourth pa- nel Shaw, writing on April 5th, 1861, acknowledges he raded, that the alleged hissing was to his certain knowl- had himself held prior to the attack on Fort Sumter-"] edge entirely fabulous, and that the members who were have been a Disunionist for two years." Only, unlike his, about simply withdrew in their disapproval to the back it had undergone no such conversion as impelled him to 16 THE SOMERSET CLUB continue in the same sentence, "but as there seems to be no way of making a peaceable separation without giving up everything, I am glad, for the credit of the Country, that they will probably act now with some firmness." But the attitude suggested, if preponderant in the Club, was by no means unanimous there, and the distaste aroused in them by its constant expression, often any- thing but restrained, caused a number of the minority, certainly as many as forty-eight and probably forty-nine, among whom were such men as James Russell Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton, to combine during the spring of 1863 with others like-minded, who were not members, in founding the Union Club, which by October 15th of the same year had taken up residence on Park Street in the quarters it has ever since retained. Union Club records show definitely that four additional members of the Som- erset Club were admitted that year. It is in fact quite like- lv to have been six. For two names, however, middle ini- tials do not coincide in both catalogues. It is also slightly dubious which of two John Codmans was a Union Club founder. An unidentified spokesman for those founders as a group was inspired to phrase their common motive with classical concision: "We want," said he, "a place where a gentleman may pass an evening without hearing copperhead talk." The quotation is borrowed from Sam- uel Lothrop Thorndike's Brief Sketch prepared for the Union Club in 1893. Feeling ran very high indeed. According to Mr. Morse, in the conversation previously mentioned, it was for a few years after the war SO acute that members of the re- spective clubs did not greet one another in the streets. Its disappearance he described as "sudden," and he claimed to have been the first man who subsequently belonged to THE SOMERSET CLUB 17 both. The last assertion is given precisely as it is remem- bered. What Mr. Morse doubtless meant to say was that he had been the first candidate elected to both clubs after amicable relations were restored. Seven Somerset Club men, though they participated in the Union Club's foun- dation, continued as members of the senior club for a decade or longer, two of them until they died, while an eighth, David Sears, had not withdrawn up to his death in 1871. Similarly, Mr. Morse must have meant that some, or most, members of each club exchanged "the cut direct" on meeting, unless we are to presume the few with dual membership had contrived to master an esoteric discipline whereby one is enabled conveniently to ignore one's own existence beyond club portals! That a certain abruptness may truly have characterized the renewal of amity is apparent from the fact that in 1872 fourteen founders of the Union Club re-entered the Somerset, to which they had all belonged in the fifties, though at un- specified intermediate dates they had resigned therefrom. It remains puzzling that three, otherwise exactly com- parable re-entries are recorded, one for 1863, and two for 1866, together with the first admission of another Union founder in 1865. Roger Wolcott (whose father, Joshua Huntington Wolcott, had resigned permanently in 1865) became a member of the Somerset Club for the first time in 1872, only to be sternly admonished by his mother for joining "that gang of wanton sybarites!" Unfortunately Mr. Morse's interlocutor, neither fore- seeing the present task, nor guessing what its pursuit would disclose, did not secure from him the solution, which he could indubitably have provided, to a further exceedingly curious relevant problem. The mystery is that between 1861 and 1865 only one member of the 18 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 19 Somerset Club, William Amory Prescott, in 1863, re- Houghton and Dutton. That firm demolished the house in signed never to return, and he did not join the Union Club 1904 in order to erect a department store building, now either then or afterwards. Yet in the year which brought devoted to recruiting offices, the Veterans Administra- the Confederacy's surrender there were seventy-three fi- tion, and other government functions. nal resignations, more than a fifth of all the 361 elected David Sears' house was built in 1819, from plans of from 1852 to January 1st, 1866, and nearer a quarter of Alexander Parris, upon land that had formed part of John the 327 members listed up to that date whose resigna- Singleton Copley's farm. As originally designed it was a tions or deaths did not precede the end of 1864. What is two story, free-standing, granite house-perhaps vaguely more, the total includes but fifteen, at most, whose Union inspired by the Hotel de Salm (1782-86) in Paris-with Club membership began in 1863! Some climax of dis- a single central semi-circular bay window [the present agreement must have been responsible for this exodus. Morning Room], flanked by a pair of windows on either Any specific provocation, however, that might have taken side. The decorated marble panels above the windows place within the Club to act as immediate cause would were carved by Solomon Willard, the architect of the surely have become traditional, and that, one may sus- Bunker Hill Monument. A water colour reconstruction pect, with no less embroidery than has been spun over the by the late Ogden Codman shows the original appear- lack-lustre realities touching Colonel Shaw and his regi- ance, with the principal entrance from a court to the east. ment. To the left of the entrance hall was the dining room, now In default of solid data, the most plausible assumption demolished, like the kitchens that were placed on the would seem to be that, when President Lincoln was assas- right. The entrance led into the present Hall, beyond sinated in April, men who had supported him throughout, which were two Drawing Rooms, with windows overlook- and had been increasingly irked by continual attacks on ing a garden that was between the house and the hand- his policies and ridicule of his person, found themselves some mansion at No. 45, built by Harrison Gray Otis in no longer able to tolerate an atmosphere the very exist- 1806. Around 1830 building on Beacon Hill was sharp- ence of which they had come to hold partly to blame for ly accelerated, and land became rather too valuable to be Booth's murderous undertaking. retained in gardens and courtyards. In 1831 David Sears Herewith the balance of this random chronicle de- bought twenty-five feet of the garden from Otis, and the scends precipitately, and for good, from the fringes of following spring both gentlemen began to build houses the sublime. It also descends to the familiar, for, in 1871, that covered the entire area between numbers 42 and 45. upon the death of David Sears, the Somerset Club pur- Otis built the present 44 as a separate brick house, but chased his house at 42 Beacon Street, and removed thith- Sears made number 43 (designed for his son-in-law, Wil- er in April 1872. The old club house was sold to the Con- liam Amory) as a granite continuation of his own house, gregational Association, who put it to more pious and with a second bay window and a lower level entrance from less genial uses until 1896, when it was again sold to Beacon Street. Presumably at this time a third floor was 20 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 21 added to number 42. In 1838-39 David Sears altered his tinue to do so! Above the Dining Room was a Billiard own house still more radically by building the present Room of equal size, and beyond that, above the kitchens, number 41 in the courtyard to the east. This involved de- a Bowling Alley. The Billiard Room gradually fell into molishing part of the dining room (reducing the windows disuse to such an extent that it did not seem worth while to the east of the original bay from two to one) and rig- to pay for attendants. It was consequently converted in- ging the present direct entrance from Beacon Street in its to a Badminton Court that was even less successful. In place. Another son-in-law, George C. Crowninshield, OC- 1949 it was altered into a series of small bedrooms that cupied 41 until 1852, when William Amory moved there, now admirably supplement those on the third floor. The leaving 43 for still a third son-in-law, William C. Rives, Bowling Alley continued to provide the occasion for Jr. When purchased by the Somerset Club in 1871, ex- sweaty congeniality until the fire of January 1945-to be tensive alterations were made by the architectural firm of alluded to later in this tale-that - caused its demolition. Snell and Gregerson, who built the present Dining Room Card rooms and private dining rooms occupied the front in the rear courtyard, 1-behind a screen wall-a maze of the second floor. of kitchens and other dependencies. The Drawing Room The court yard upon which the Dining Room western of 43 [Room No. 5], then revamped into a thoroughly windows open proved one of the most delightful assets of comfortable dark Library, was, in 1948, partially "re- the house. Completely enclosed, with high walls, whose stored" from the style of the seventies back to the thirties. covering of vines simulates a verdure tapestry, the noises The original Drawing Rooms of 42 were some years ago of the street seem far away. During the summer months, superbly decorated in the Empire style by the late Her- the awning-covered terrace, known affectionately as the bert Browne, in a manner that would have doubtless Bricks, becomes the center of the Club on fine days, in greatly pleased Alexander Parris, but Snell and Greger- spite of the Damoclean menace from the numerous birds son's Dining Room-with its leather walls, carpets and who nest in the vines, and even, occasionally, on the awn- damask table cloths-remains entirely untouched as an ing. Of the battery of ancient rocking chairs that former- example of the taste of the seventies. Twenty years ago ly furnished the Bricks, all but two-and they veritable there was talk of doing it over and altering its Victorian monsters, constructed from tree trunks of the primeval character to something approaching an architect's idea forest-have recently been replaced by Hong Kong cane of the English eighteenth century. Fortunately-at least chairs without rockers. To these, takers of tobacco quick- in the view of these writers-the architect, who was wait- ly retire after luncheon for the cigars, cigarettes and pipes ing upon the Executive Committee with drawings for that they are still forbidden in the Dining Room. these changes, was kept waiting SO long, by a press of The Ladies' Restaurant occupied the ground floor bay elections and other business, that his temper became of number 43, the door of which was used by ladies, somewhat frayed. Words passed, and the Committee de- guests at private parties and "strangers." It was connect- cided to let well enough alone. May their successors con- ed with the remote kitchens by a series of labyrinthine 22 THE SOMERSET CLUB catacombs of such length and complexity as to stagger the imagination. For several decades it consisted simply of the oval room, designed by Ogden Codman, but in 1924 a second, rectangular, room to the eastward, was contrived by Herbert Browne out of an area devoted in happier days to the wine cellar. This room, with its red plush banquettes and graceful wall brackets with Wedg- wood plaques is a triumphant proof of what an imagi- native architect can make out of a cellar! It served as a model for still a third room, added from designs of J. Hampden Robb, immediately after the late war. In 1896 the William Amory house at 41 Beacon Street was purchased by the Club and made over into apartments for permanent residents. The front room on the first floor was converted into an additional sitting room, known as the War Room-presumably from a few relics of the Spanish-American War there installed. Although very popular thirty years ago as a gathering place after lunch- eon, it is now chiefly used by members who wish to talk quietly with guests. The gastronomic inclinations of the Club are indicated by a circular-undated but, to judge by its typography, reaching back to the early years-that lists the variety of dishes that could be sent from its kitchens to members' houses. The Undersigned, Cook to the Somerset Club, is prepared to furnish Hot and Cold Dishes to Members of the Club at their Houses. As early notice as possible is requested. Among the dishes are the following: 24 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 25 Presumably he was prepared to offer an even greater va- in the club house and that none were wearing their hats. riety on the spot. The tradition of sound French cooking Fifty years ago smoking was forbidden in both masculine has continued for a century-even though the spelling on and feminine Dining Rooms, but by 1919 it was allowed the menus is frequently quite as bad as P. Rienzi's!- in the Ladies' Restaurant after 8:30 P.M. In 1924, when yet such essentially New England delicacies as fish balls, the east room was added to the Ladies' Restaurant, smok- fried cod with pork scrap, and clam pie have always been ing was permitted there, although it was still forbidden forthcoming and have not suffered in preparation by a in the oval room, but within a year that rule was relaxed French hand. Some ill-advisedly meddlesome innovator against everything but pipes. The men's Dining Room once successfully badgered the responsible authorities to stoutly remains tobacco-less, except on the nights of the purchase a complete set of "granite ware," and substitute monthly club dinners, when the bars are lowered. In it for the copper cooking utensils, which he declared were 1905 pipe smokers were confined to the War Room, "dangerous." Owing to an imperfect glaze on the new Bowling Alley and the Bricks. In 1918 they were toler- equipment, the very first meal prepared therein afflicted ated in the Morning Room and in private rooms "if there numerous partakers with acute lead poisoning. Copper is no objection by any one present," and by 1923 Rooms was forthwith restored, and has never again been deposed 8 and 10, the Billiard Room and the Lower Hall had been from its admirable offices. added to their bailiwick. In 1925 the present rule of no Every now and again an officer of the club will ques- tobacco in the Dining Room and no pipes in the Ladies' tion the validity of the French tradition: one of the writers Restaurant was adopted. has even had to do battle to convince a past president that It is an odd detail that for over sixty years members al- an admirably prepared brandade de morue was not to be most invariably wore their hats, after the fashion of the confused with fish hash. The action of the Executive Com- House of Commons, in all parts of the Club except to mittee on January 12, 1882, in cabling "Engage no serv- table. The shelved eyesore near the Dining Room, on ants for Club" to Joseph Peabody, who contemplated en- which they were formerly disposed, quit its post at last gaging a woman in Paris to make coffee for the Club, doubtless sprang from a distaste for French coffee rather only after it had held out close to a generation more. A facetious disquisition around this theme appears under than French cooking. Shortages, increased costs, O.P.A. "Club Life" in King's Dictionary of Boston, published in theories of cutting meat, and similar afflictions, have mul- 1883, where the differences between New York and Bos- tiplied difficulties, but a founder of 1851 would, were he able to attend, doubtless find the victuals offered at a ton are emphasized: Christmas buffet luncheon much to his liking, both as to There is a reserve in the social life of the New-England variety and quantity. metropolis, which is reflected in its clubs. This is noticeable Such a Rip van Winkle would be struck, however, by even in the gayest and most buckish of these establishments. the fact that many members of 1951 were smoking pipes The habitué of the "Somerset," that reservoir of Boston blue blood, can be readily distinguished from the swell whose head- 26 THE SOMERSET CLUB quarters are the fashionable "Union" in New York. The for- mer has a more composed, self-conscious air than the latter, as if the solemn traditions of Puritan decorum weighed even the jauntiest devotee of fashion. A cynic might ascribe upon herited this obligations inconsistency between genial phi- in- manner to the painful sense of and acquired tastes; while the losopher would set it down to the conflict between culture and and not burdened by intellectual aspirations, can have no con- climate. The New-York club-man, who is jaunty by nature, ception of the sense of responsibility which afflicts his Boston brother. A suggestive indication of this is shown in the eral custom in clubs here, - with the single exception of gen- the thought-stopper "Somerset,"-of of club-men permit The of members keeping their hats off. brains in the Puritan city are too active to in the shape of a tile, whereas in "Gotham" a from escaping upwards. this is a necessity to prevent such ideas as club-men there have In the same year, 1883, Matthew Arnold, engaged in land from the Somerset Club: "I am invited to all the a lecture tour of the United States, wrote home to Eng- clubs, and this is one of the best clubs in the world." Ei- ther hats indoors meant little to him, or he found them home-like, for-although he maintained an air of superi- or critical detachment when offered pie for breakfast in the Andover-he was quite unreserved in his descriptions of Somerset as a "first rate" and "capital" club. If the Civil War was analogous to a ravaging Septem- de siècle in Boston recalls rather our own sunlit Indian ber hurricane, the climate of the nineteenth-century fin Summer than the sadder autumn of Europe. And its fine the weather held, a triumphant anachronism, even beyond premonitory frosts that commenced in 1914. The air it breathed, the leisured relish, and stars-in-their-courses stability, wafts back delightfully from two momentary 34 THE SOMERSET CLUB THE SOMERSET CLUB 35 sages below, from an account carried by the Boston Post, As they burst into flames the flue became so hot it set fire have a native flavour to which the addition of much sea- to the [upper] floors the firemen had to use axes and hooks soning would be supererogatory: to get at the slowly burning laths and joists. The Somerset Club at 42 Beacon Street, Boston's oldest "John R. Capen" [sic], the Post winds up abruptly, "is and most exclusive club for men, sustained a $7,500 loss last night when the grease in the kitchen took fire. Deputy Chief president of the club." Louis C. Stickel sent in a second alarm when he arrived at While that evening's diners were thus signally main- the scene and found that the fire had mushroomed out through taining a brahminical detachment above (and below) the the ceilings of the second and third floors, where the bowling merely utilitarian tohu bohu, a taxi from the station, alley and the servants' quarters are located. adroitly threading impediments, deposited Mr. J. M. Although the fire created considerable excitement among Bullard at his destination, the entrance of No. 42. He was the firemen and police who were detailed there, the club mem- ushered in by its guardian, who proffered no comment bers were not disturbed in the dining room, where they sat at whatever, aside from a greeting of civility and the infor- dinner while the firemen fought the smouldering fire with gas mation, scrupulously delivered, "Mr. So-and-so was most masks on the first, second and third floors. The only recogni- anxious you should lunch with him here tomorrow." tion given the fire was the opening of one window in the first The proportionate concern this incident exemplifies is floor lounge at the front of the club to let some of the acrid smoke out. not perhaps without bearing upon a reminder which must conclude these notes. For it would be unpardonable if we [The hospitable precedent of the Arctic owl upon which, failed here to set down our warmest gratitude to all who had he been there, Saint Francis, who treats the element, have rendered the Club such tireless, faithful service, and jocondu e robostosu e forte, as male, might embarrassing- especially to those twenty-two men and women who last ly have insisted, seems somehow to have been overlooked.] Christmas had collectively been in its employ for more Otherwise there was no sign about the tightly curtained win- than half a thousand years. Our oldest friend, William dows that anything unusual was happening inside. O'Connor, had then stood by us in the bar since 1896; the The club members continued to come and go, swinging average reached almost a quarter of the century, and none their canes, undisturbed by the mass of fire fighting apparatus of the twenty-two could count less than thirteen years. outside. One, more curious than the rest, came out to the door with a glass of what looked like Scotch and soda in his hand, but he did not remain long. According to Deputy Stickel, the fire started in the kitchen where the chef was busy broiling chickens, steaks and chops [O quanta qualia?!] over an open grill. The grease laden fumes rose into the flue above and were carried up to the roof. OFFICERS OF THE SOMERSET CLUB Presidents Francis Boardman Crowninshield 1852-1853 Charles Henry Warren 1853-1855 Richard Sullivan Fay 1855-1857 David Sears, Jr. 1857-1860 Patrick Grant 1860-1863 Henry Greenough 1863-1866 Henry P. Sturgis 1866-1868 Nathaniel Pope Russell 1868-1872 John Nelson Borland 1872-1876 Nathaniel W. Curtis 1876-1881 Thomas Jefferson Coolidge 1881-1882 Francis Winthrop Palfrey 1882-1883 Jacob C. Rogers 1883-1888 Frederick Wainwright Bradlee 1888-1893 John Alden Loring 1893-1896 Eben Rollins Morse 1896-1901 Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer 1901-1905 Walter Cabot Baylies 1905-1911 Arthur Lithgow Devens 1911-1914 Walter Cabot Baylies 1914-1915 William Hooper 1915-1923 Herbert Mason Sears 1923-1929 Charles Kimball Cummings 1929-1934 Samuel Huntington Wolcott 1934-1940 John Revere Chapin 1940-1947 George Saltonstall West 1947-1950 Oliver Wolcott 1950- 38 OFFICERS OFFICERS 39 Treasurers Secretaries Samuel Hooper 1852-1853 George Theodore Lyman 1852-1853 George Theodore Lyman 1853-1857 Harrison Ritchie 1853-1857 Harrison Ritchie 1857-1858 Charles Russell Codman 1857-1859 William Boardman Rice 1858-1859 John D. Bates, Jr. 1859-1861 Henry Whitwell 1859-1860 H. Gardiner Gorham 1861-1865 Edward Wainwright Codman 1860-1861 Ives G. Bates 1865- George Bigelow Chase 1861-1863 Robert Marion Pratt 1866-1868 Francis Skinner Fiske 1863-1866 William P. Fay 1868-1869 Benjamin Crowninshield Mifflin 1866-1868 Franklin Burgess 1869-1870 Franklin Burgess 1868-1869 William P. Fay 1870-1871 William P. Fay 1869-1870 Joseph Lewis Stackpole 1871-1873 Franklin Burgess 1870-1871 Hall Curtis 1873-1881 Albert F. Heard 1871-1872 George Middleton Barnard, Jr. 1881-1882 Robert Marion Pratt 1872-1876 Francis Caleb Loring 1882-1887 Nathaniel Thayer, Jr. 1876-1877 Robert Grant 1887-1891 Benjamin E. Morse 1877-1881 George Stackpole Dabney 1891-1892 James Jackson 1881-1887 Edward B. Haven 1892-1895 Francis Caleb Loring 1887-1888 Samuel Hammond 1895-1898 Charles Whitney 1888-1889 John Torrey Burnett 1898-1899 John Torrey Linzee 1889-1895 Samuel Hammond 1899-1920 Thomas Sprague Edmands 1895-1897 John Revere Chapin 1920-1940 Arthur Lithgow Devens 1897-1911 Augustin Hamilton Parker, Jr. 1940-1942 James Lawrence, Jr. 1911-1919 Dunbar Lockwood 1942-1946 John Adams Blanchard 1919-1936 Augustin Hamilton Parker, Jr. 1946-1951 Frederick Josiah Bradlee, Jr. 1936-1950 Nelson Slater Bartlett, Jr. 1951- Robert Forbes Perkins 1950- 40 OFFICERS OFFICERS 41 Members of the Executive Committee Edward Brooks 1895-1900 Charles Francis Adams, Jr. 1947- Frederick Brooks 1893-1895 Franklin Burgess 1871-1872 Rodolphe Louis Agassiz 1919-1925 William Truman Aldrich John Appleton Burnham, Jr. 1883-1886 1943-1946 Oliver Ames William Appleton Burnham 1896-1905 1896-1908 Francis Hardon Burr 1948- Charles Walter Amory 1877-1879 Robert Amory Heman Merrick Burr 1916-1919, 1922-1930 1918-1920 Roger Amory Addison Child 1876-1877 1928-1943 William Appleton Francis Codman 1852 1901-1911 Francis Reginald Bangs 1907-1939 Ogden Codman 1886-1893 Russell Sturgis Codman, Jr. 1934-1949 Charles Lowell Barlow 1925-1934 Charles Benjamin Barnes 1918-1924 Amory Coolidge 1920-1921 Charles Benjamin Barnes, Jr. Lawrence Coolidge 1939-1942 1947-1951 Thomas Jefferson Coolidge 1921-1925 Nelson Slater Bartlett, Jr. 1949-1951 William Appleton Coolidge 1931-1933 John P. Bayley 1868-1871 Walter Cabot Baylies Charles Kimball Cummings 1927-1929 1899-1905 Willis Paine Beal Charles Pelham Curtis, Jr. 1920-1927 1936-1941 Edward Mauran Beals, Jr. Nathaniel W. Curtis 1875-1876 1941-1951 Charles Sumner Bird 1942- Richard Cary Curtis 1930-1933 Francis Blake George Stackpole Dabney 1881-1882 1893-1895 Francis Stanton Blake 1900-1903 Henry Rogers Dalton, Jr. 1912-1918 Henry Spring Blake Charles Stratton Dana 1890-1894 1910-1916 Archibald Blanchard Aaron Davis 1914-1919 1937-1947 John Adams Blanchard Frederick Myers Dearborn, Jr. 1951- 1917-1919 Thomas Spriggs Blumer Charles Devens 1951- 1934-1948 T. Dennie Boardman Frederic Dexter 1876-1878, 1880-1882 1884-1888, 1896-1905 John Perry Bowditch Gordon Dexter 1896-1907 1923-1924 Charles Boyden William Sohier Dexter 1871-1875 1879-1881 Frederick Josiah Bradlee 1913-1919 Robert Gray Dodge 1942-1947 Frederick Josiah Bradlee, Jr. 1925-1936 Daniel Appleton Dwight 1868-1871 Frederick Wainwright Bradlee Thomas Sprague Edmands 1888-1890 1868-1871, 1884-1888 John Lewis Bremer Philip Van Rensselaer Ely 1893-1895, 1909-1912 1918-1922, 1932-1937 Percival Lowell Everett 1882-1883 19 OFFICERS OFFICERS 43 Dudley Bowditch Fay 1890-1896, 1906-1913 William P. Fay Henry Lyman 1924-1934 1871-1875 Augustus Flagg Amos Lawrence Mason 1870-1871, 1879-1881 1876-1880, 1892-1894 Elisha Flagg George Burnap Morison 1919-1928 1905-1920 George Peabody Gardner, Jr. Eben Rollins Morse 1895-1896 1916-1918 Frederic Sprague Goodwin John Torrey Morse, Jr. 1878-1880 1933-1940 Robert Grant Warren Motley 1926-1932, 1942-1947 1897-1908 Edward Gray Henry Mulliken 1874-1876 1889-1893 George Saltonstall Mumford, Jr. 1942-1942 Francis Gray 1911-1918 Francis Calley Gray 1946-1949 1933-1939 Raiph Weld Gray James W. Paige 1852 1933-1940 Francis B. Greenough Augustin Hamilton Parker 1916-1925, 1929-1935 1877-1881 Heary Greenough Francis Stanley Parker 1909-1913 1852, 1871-1872 Frederic Parker Valcolm Whelen Greenough 1912-1916, 1919-1928 1929-1938, 1939-1941 Randolph Clark Grew Theophilus Parsons 1888-1892, 1896-1899 1902-1914 Samuel Hammond 1905-1910 1872-1874 William Samuel Patten Elward B. Haven 1905-1914, 1919-1923 1882-1886 Joseph Peabody 1881-1882 Charles Head 1899-1902 Augustus Thorndike Perkins 1869-1871 Rodert Homans 1911-1915 Rodert Chamblet Hooper Thomas Nelson Perkins, Jr. 1938-1941 1874-1875 Dudley Leavitt Pickman 1883-1885 Samuel Hooper Hooper 1897-1909 Robert Marion Pratt 1870-1871 Berry Sargent Hunnewell 1896-1899 Frederic Octavius Prince 1871-1872 Berjamin Jov 1942- Edward Hutchinson Robbins Revere 1914-1920 Charles H. Joy 1881-1883 Francis W. Lawrence James Hampden Robb 1940-1942, 1947- 1881-1882 Henry Sayles 1876-1878 James Lawrence 1928-1933 David Sears 1871-1872 Join Endicott Lawrence 1941-1942, 1949-1951 Hubert Corev Leeds Henry Francis Sears 1894-1896, 1898-1904 1904-1916 Herbert Mason Sears 1896-1900 Ribert Livermore, Jr. 1946- Berry Caboc Lodge Knyvet Winthrop Sears 1871-1872 1935-1936 Mexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr. Richard Dudley Sears 1889-1893 1895-1897 George Brune Shattuck 1882-1883 Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr. 1950- Robert Gould Shaw 1882-1884 Francis Bacon Lothrop 1925-1929 Francis Peleg Sprague 1875-1877, 1878-1881 44 OFFICERS Henry Stackpole 1885-1889 MEMBERS OF THE SOMERSET CLUB William Stackpole 1882-1890 Robert Hooper Stevenson 1872-1874 A single date, followed by a dash, indicates a present Robert Hooper Stevenson, Jr. 1920-1926 member. Two or more dates, followed by a dash, indicate Lawrence Mason Stockton 1899-1910 the years of election of a present member who resigned Richard Cutts Storey, Jr. 1936-1942 but subsequently rejoined the club. A dagger or asterisk Franklin Howard Story, Jr. 1874-1876 following the last date indicates the year of final resigna- Charles Edwin Stratton 1896-1897 tion or death of a former member. Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer 1886-1889, 1896-1901 Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer, Jr. 1908-1917 t-Resigned *-Died 0-No data John Eliot Thayer, Jr. 1925-1931 Alanson Tucker, 2d 1875-1877 George Abbot 1885-1901 Lawrence Tucker 1880-1882 Franklin Pierce Abbott 1893-1923* William Warren Tucker 1869-1871 Gordon Abbott 1899-1937* Leverett Saltonstall Tuckerman 1896-1898 Gordon Abbott 1935- George Phinehas Upham 1872-1875 Grafton St. L. Abbott 1891-1908- Arthur Wainwright 1894-1896 Grafton St. L. Abbott 1913-1915* William Phillips Walley 1875-1876 Henry W. Abbott 1852-1879- John Warren 1902-1912 Holker Abbott 1898-1930* Rudolph Weld 1917-1919 Jere Abbott 1872-1893- George Saltonstall West 1921-1947 Josiah Gardiner Abbott 1872-1876- Frank Stanley White 1943-1946 Marshall K. Abbott 1881-1899* Henry Austin Whitney 1872-1874 Samuel A. Browne Abbott 1872-1912- Hugh Whitney 1950- Walter Abbott 1890-1919* Samuel Whitwell 1852 Arthur Adams 1903-1943* S. Horatio Whitwell 1877-1879 Brooks Adams 1871-1913-1927* Alexander Whiteside Williams 1947- Charles Francis Adams 1872-1879- Oliver Wolcott 1941-1950 Charles Francis Adams 1893- Samuel Huntington Wolcott 1915-1921 Charles Francis Adams Jr. 1939- Charles Fuller Woodard 1940-1942 Edward L. Adams 1885-1895- Eben Wright 1868-1869 George Caspar Adams 1888-1900* Henry Adams 2nd. 1904-1932+ John Adams 1914-1931- Portland Public Library 588311 66 MEMBERS MEMBERS 67 Edward Delano 1875-1881* William Sohier Dexter 1858-1863-1908* Lyman Delano 1921-1941- Morton Lyndholm Deyo 1950- Clarence Bigelow Denny 1902-1920* Benjamin Harrison Dibblee 1924-1933- Clarence Holbrook Denny 1872-1924* Evans Rogers Dick 1929-1944- Daniel Denny Jr. 1892-1896* Watson Bradley Dickerman 1945-1947- George Parkman Denny 1922-1944- Brenton Halliburton Dickson 1885-1927* George Derby 1852-1867- Brenton Halliburton Dickson Jr. 1902-1943- George Strong Derby 1873-1875- Brenton Halliburton Dickson 3rd. 1928-1936- George Strong Derby 1910-1913- Richard C. Dixey 1882-1915* Hasket Derby 1872-1882 Benjamin H. Dixon 1853-1872- Hasket Derby 1945-1949- George Basil Dixwell 1873-1885- Arthur Lithgow Devens 1854-1859-1867* Edwin Sherrill Dodge 1931-1938* Arthur Lithgow Devens 1878-1914* James F. Dodge 1872-1877- Arthur Lithgow Devens Jr. 1908-1918-1931-1938+ Joshua Cleaves Dodge 1873-1888- Charles Devens Jr. 1872-1877-1891* Robert Gray Dodge 1932- Charles Devens 1950- Malcolm Donald 1929-1949* George Dewey 1875-1878- Arthur Donner 1878-1920- Arthur Dexter 1867-1897* Oscar W. Donner 1890-1911- Edward Dexter 1872-1878- Georges Frederic Doriot 1947- F. Gordon Dexter 1853-1863-1895 Benjamin Humphrey Dorr 1888-1894-1923* Franklin Dexter 1854-1857* Charles H. Dorr 1872-1879- Franklin Dexter 1879-1927* George Bucknam Dorr 1872-1876+ Franklin Dexter 1928- George Bucknam Dorr Jr. 1874-1937+ Frederick Dexter 1868-1895* Joseph Dorr 1889-1892- George Dexter 1872-1910* Samuel Dorr 1860-1872- George M. Dexter 1852-1865- William Ward Dorr 1873-1876- George Ticknor Dexter 1894-1927* Augustus Flagg Doty 1917-1951* Gordon Dexter 1887-1937* George Harmon Doty 1894-1923* John Lindsay Dexter 1938-1946- George William Webster Dove 1878-1889- Parkman Dexter 1896-1914- Tracy Dows 1904-1937* Philip Dexter 1890-1934* Benjamin Helm Bristow Draper 1931-1944* William Dexter 1920-1943* Eben Draper 1934-1937- William Endicott Dexter 1917-1944- Eben Sumner Draper 1904-1914* A Brief History of the 3/03 SOMERSET CLUB of Boston With a List of Past and Present Members 1852-1913 GBD. Sea 89.4 Prepared by A Committee of the Club 1913 Preface IT has been considered advisable to publish a brief history of the Somerset Club from its organization to the present time, a period of sixty years, that in this way the memory of the names and lives of many distinguished gentlemen of Boston who played an important part in making our COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE SOMERSET CLUB city what it was in a former generation, and who made this ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Club one of the most distinguished social associations of our country, shall be held in due honor by their succes- sors, and that there shall be preserved the roll not only of our predecessors but of all those also with whom we have been associated. The preparation of this volume has been entrusted to a special committee by the government of the Club. The Club is greatly indebted to Mrs. Charles W. Amory, Dr. J. Collins Warren, Dr. Henry F. Sears and Mr. Charles F. Read of the Bostonian Society for valuable information concerning the houses of the Club. 367 668341 History of the Somerset Club IN 1846 there existed an association of gentlemen (called at first the Travellers, later the Tremont Club), which occupied chambers in Tremont Street described as opposite the old Boston Museum, a playhouse. It possessed no restaurant, but refreshments were brought in from without as wanted. It consisted of forty-one members. These gentlemen, whose names are given below, adopted, September 12, 1851, the name at first of Beacon Club, soon changed to Somerset Club, and purchased for their new home the stone building on the eastern corner of Somerset and Beacon streets. This edifice, with the adjoining Gard- ner house, was built in 1816 by Mr. David Hinckley, and was called the finest house in Boston at that time. Its site had been previously occupied by the ancient "Stone house" of Rev. James Allen of the First Church, who owned " a far larger part of the territory of Boston than was ever owned by any other individual." The Hinckley house was in- herited and occupied by his daughter, who married W. G. Hodgkinson, Esq. It was purchased of her in 1831 by Hon. Benjamin W. Crowninshield, who removed at that time from Salem. The interior, filled with beautiful furniture, paintings, and statuary, is well described by his daughter, Mrs. J. Mason Warren, in her interesting Reminiscences privately published a few years ago. "Gleaner" (Nathaniel I. Bowditch) thus alludes to the Club house in one of his interesting communications in the 4 Somerset Club Boston Transcript, 1855, as "so well known to 'Young America' for its elegant appointments, or, as devoted wives sitting at home might prefer to call them, its seductive attractions." After Mr. Crowninshield's death in 1851 the house was purchased by this Club and opened to members April I, 1852. During its occupancy a ladies' restaurant was opened in connection with the Club, probably the first of its kind in the country. Here follows a copy of the call for the meet- ing of organization: - BOSTON, March 20th, 1852. SIR: The Subscribers to the Club, at the corner of Beacon and Somerset Streets, are requested to meet in their Club House, on Friday, the 26th inst., at 7 o'clock P.M., to receive the report of their Committee; to establish a Con- stitution and By-Laws, and transact such other business as may come before the meeting, preparatory to occupancy. JOHN D. BATES, For the Executive Committee. P.S. The Club House will be open to the families of members and their friends, on Wednesday the 24th inst., during the day and evening. The property was held under an instrument in the form of an indenture, which begins as follows: "Whereas by an indenture made on the Seventeenth of April in the year of our Lord 1852 between Francis B. Crowninshield, Esq., Samuel Hooper, Esq., and James Davis, the younger, merchant, all of the city of Boston, on the one part, and Somerset Club 5 Francis Bassett, Frederick H. Bradlee and David Sears, Jr., all of said Boston, Esquires, who executed the same on behalf of the members of the 'Somerset Club,'" etc. Messrs. Crowninshield, Hooper and Davis became trustees, under whom the property was held for the benefit of the shareholders; but in 1855, 240 six per cent bonds, of $250 each, to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, were issued, subject to a sinking fund of $1000 per annum, and shares to this amount were retired. After twenty years, in 1871, the Club again felt it neces- sary to obtain more capacious quarters, and purchased the Sears Mansion, 42 and 43 Beacon Street, at a cost of $210,000, to which it removed the following year. The old Club house was then sold to the Congregational Association, and was known as the Congregational Building. In 1896 it was purchased by Houghton and Dutton, who in 1904 took the structure down, and erected on its site the western corner part of their present stores. The land upon which the Sears Mansion was erected was a part of the eleven acres previously owned by John Single- ton Copley, the celebrated artist, and originally belonged to Blackstone. Copley speaks of it as his farm on Beacon Hill. There he painted many of his famous portraits. All that we know of the house is that it was painted yellow, and that near it was that of "Master Vinal" the schoolteacher, where the Otis house, now the residence of W. Austin Wadsworth, Esq., stands. In 1774 Copley left Boston, went to Europe, and did not return. The British forces erected fortifications upon his 6 Somerset Club lands. In his absence his house was sold without his knowl- edge. In 1796 he sent his son, later Lord Lyndhurst, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, to Boston to recover his property. The suit was compromised by Messrs. Otis and Mason on payment of four thousand guineas. The date of the demolition of the Copley house has not been ascertained. Upon this Copley lot Mr. Sears built his handsome stone house on the line of Beacon Street, and inserted a tablet with the following inscription: "Mansion House, erected by David Sears in the year one thousand eight hundred and nineteen - A. Parris, architect." The ornamental marble tablets upon the front were carved by Solomon Willard, who was the architect of Bunker Hill Monument. The original Sears house had but one bow, with windows from the basement to the roof on each side of it. The en- trance was upon its eastern side through a courtyard lead- ing to a stable in the rear. There were trees in this yard, as well as in that on the western side of the house, and an- other story was added. Behind the old house (Copley's) stood a barn, which was converted into a temporary hos- pital for the wounded British officers after the battle of Bunker Hill. When Mr. Sears was digging the foundations of his house the workmen came, a: a depth of several feet under the surface, to a gigantic moccasined foot, perhaps 21/2 feet long, broken off at the ankle, and carved from a kind of limestone not found in this vicinity, which he presented to the Boston Athenxum, where it seems to have been lost sight of. "Even Mr. Copley would admit that the houses of Messrs. Sears, Parker and Appleton have more than Somerset Club 7 made good the two domiciles which are delineated in all the dignity of yellow paint on the original plan of the Mt. Vernon purchase. Except the old powder house we have seen that only these two houses (Copley's and Master Vinal's) appear on a plan of an Estate containing a million of square feet, upon which now stand probably five hundred houses." Gleaner, in 1855 vide 5th Report of Record Com- missioners. Later the building was extended westward by the erection of an additional bow upon land adjoining belonging to the Harrison Gray Otis estate. (The house now standing be- tween the Club and the Otis Mansion, occupied by Mr. Richard C. Dixey, was built in 1823 by Mr. Otis, in his garden, for his daughter, Mrs. Ritchie.) In 1853 another house was built by Mr. Sears covering the courtyard of the mansion to the eastward, thus closing access to the stable. The main entrance was then changed to its present position facing Beacon Street. Before occupation by the Club certain additions were made to the house in the rear under the direction of Messrs. Snell and Gregerson, architects. The old stable was razed, and a large and stately dining-room was erected as an L, with a billiard hall above it. At right angles to it a kitchen was built, and in the story over it was constructed a bowl- ing alley. Enclosed by these structures a large and pleasant court was constructed, some sixty feet square. Sodded and surrounded by vines, shrubs and flowers, it forms a delight- ful outside lounging place in summer. Many changes were made within the old edifice to fit it for the purposes of a club house. In the process of reconstruction a secret 8 Somerset Club chamber in the attic was discovered, filled with old Madeira wine, stored there at an unknown period and apparently forgotten by the former owner. Several dining-rooms for private entertainments were included in the alterations. In one of them, a large and beautiful room, many college class dinners and notable banquets have been served. Among its adornments may be mentioned an immense Chinese punch-bowl, the gift of Mrs. Henry P. Sturgis, and the handsome dinner service, twenty-one pieces of Sheffield plate, which was brought to Philadelphia from Paris by Richard Rush, our Minister to France, 1847-1849. He purchased it from an old French family which was in posses- sion of it for fifty years. Mr. Rush had his coat of arms engraved upon it. He and Webster, it has been said, were intimate friends, and the former, knowing Webster coveted it, offered to sell it to him. Some of Webster's friends, knowing this, bought it and presented it to him, and had his name inscribed upon the pieces. After Webster's death, October 24, 1852, the "Marshfield Club," consisting of some twelve members of the Somerset Club, purchased a large part of the service and presented it to the Club. A ladies' restaurant was also constructed, with a separate entrance, on the lower floor of the western bow. In 1872, when the Club first occupied their new premises, all sup- plies (such as coal, ice, provisions) and ashes, were carried through a passage from the rear of No. 43 Beacon to Spruce Street. Complaint having been made to the Supreme Court that although the estate No. 43 owned a right of way to Spruce Street, estate No. 42 had no such right, there- fore the Supreme Court granted an injunction against its Somerset Club 9 further use by No. 42. It thus became necessary to build a tunnel or subway under the house from Beacon Street to the rear of the Club, otherwise everything must have been carried through the front doors. During his occupancy of the mansion many distinguished men were entertained in it by Mr. Sears, among others Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, Prescott, Everett, Motley, and often, before the Civil War, gentlemen from the South. In 1896 the adjoining house, 4I Beacon Street, formerly occupied by William Amory, Esq., was purchased by the Club and annexed. Its site was once the courtyard of the Sears estate. At the opening of the Club house, April 30, 1872, a re- ception was given to ladies, and its rooms were beautifully decorated with flowers. During the "Peace Jubilee" in 1872, a notable concert was given in the courtyard by the band of the English Grenadier Guards under the leadership of the well-known Dan Godfrey. The front of the building was at one time covered by the luxuriant growth of the Japanese vine, Ampelopsis Veitchii, sometimes called the Boston ivy, imported from England by Mr. Robert M. Pratt, perhaps its earliest introduction into this city. After having been for years one of the most attractive sights in Beacon Street, it was partly winter- killed, and reluctantly removed. Certain public events and celebrations have brought many notable personages to Boston from time to time, to whom the hospitalities of the Club have been extended, including several Presidents of the United States, members 10 Somerset Club of Royal Families, representatives of foreign governments, Governors of other States, officers of visiting military forces and of foreign and national squadrons, and men well known in literature, science and art. Their names will be found in the list of Distinguished Visitors. It is pleasant to write that the Club still retains the popularity it has SO long enjoyed and with its 600 members Officers, Trustees, and Honorary has a waiting list of nearly 1000. Members 32 Somerset Club 1903 PROF. H. E. ARMSTRONG, England. 1904 LORD MONSON, England. 1904 MAJ. GENERAL THE EARL OF DUNDONALD, Canada. 1904 HON. COSMO GORDON-LENNOX, London. 1904 REAR ADMIRAL RIVET and Officers of Cruiser Duplière. 1904 EARL OF EUSTON, England. 1904 LORD CLAUD HAMILTON, England. 1904 RT. REV. BISHOP POTTER, New York. 1904 HON. FRANKLIN MURPHY, New Jersey. Past and Present Members 1904 GENERAL VON LOEWENFELD, Germany. 1904 COUNT VON SCHMETTOW, Germany. 1905 SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, London. 1905 HON. CHARLES NAPIER LAWRENCE, London. 1905 VISCOUNT ST. CYRES, London. 1905 SIR CHARLES RIVERS WILSON, London. 1905 PRINCE KOUDACHEFF, St. Petersburg. 1905 ADMIRAL SIR EDWARD H. SEYMOUR, London. 1905 SURGEON GENERAL S. SEEKUZI, Japanese Navy. 1905 BARON SCHOENBERG, Austria. 1906 His EXCELLENCY TAI HUNG C111, Imperial Commissioner. 1906 His EXCELLENCY JUAN FONG, Imperial Commissioner. 1906 COUNT GLEICHEN, London. 1907 SIR HORACE CURZON PLUNKETT, Dublin. 1907 MONSEIGNEUR LE COMTE VAYDE VOYA, Budapest. 1907 PROF. PAUL VINOGRADOFF, Oxford. 1907 GILBERT MURRAY, England. 1907 CAPTAIN SIMONETTI CAR and Officers of Italian cruiser Varese. 1907 ADMIRAL SIR A. H. MARKHAM, England. 1908 U. S. GRANT, Washington. 1908 ADMIRAL SIR LEWIS BEAUMONT, London. 1908 LORD REVELSTOKE, London. 1909 ADMIRAL Z. D. BARAUDON and Staff, German Navy. 1909 PRINCE SAN FAUSTINO, Italy. 1911 COUNT VON BERNSTOFF, Washington. 1911 COMTE DE CHAMBRUN, Washington. 1912 SIR WILLIAM Ramsay, England. Past and Present Members NOTE. - Owing to the fact that the early records of the club are incomplete, data regarding certain members are not recorded. Symbols indicate as follows:- - Present Membership, t Resigned, * Deceased, O No Data. ABBOTT, HENRY W. Boston 1852-18791 AMORY, CHARLES Boston 1852-1874-1884 AMORY, JAMES S. Boston 1852-1884* AMORY, THOMAS C. Boston 1852-1889* APPLETON, NATHAN| Boston 1852-1861* APPLETON, SAMUEL A. Boston 1852-1865* APPLETON, THOMAS G. Boston 1852-1872-1884* APPLETON, WILLIAM, JR. Boston 1852-1877* AUSTIN, EDWARD Boston 1852-1865 AUSTIN, JAMES T. Boston 1852-1865 AMES, SAMUEL Boston 1853-1865 AMORY, WILLIAM Boston 1855-1872-1888 APPLETON, CHARLES H. Boston 1856-1873* AMORY, GEORGE W. Boston 1861-1875-1899* ANDERSON, JOHN F. Boston 1861-1902* ARKLAY, DAVID Boston 1862-1865 AMORY, ARTHUR Boston 1865-1895-1911 AMES, JOSEPH Boston 1865- 0 APPLETON, NATHAN, JR. Boston 1865-1906* AMORY, WILLIAM, JR. Boston 1865-1907* ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY Boston 1866-1894* AMORY, FREDERICK Boston 1867- AMORY, COPLEY Boston 1868-1879* APPLETON, FRANCIS H. Boston 1870- AMORY, E. LINZEE Boston 1870-1911* AMORY, CHARLES W. Boston 1871-1913* ADAMS, BROOKS Boston 1871-1913- ABBOTT, JERE Boston 1872-1893 ABBOTT, JOSIAH G. Boston 1872-1876 ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS Boston 1872-18791 ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JR. Boston 1872- AMORY, FRANCIS I. Boston 1872- ANDREWS, F. W. Boston 1872-1903* APPLETON, WILLIAM, JR. Boston 1872- ARKLAY, PATRICK Boston 1872-1874 AUSTIN, IVERS J. Boston 1872-1876 ABBOTT, S. A. B. Boston 1872-1912 AMES, ALBERT T. B. Boston 1872-1879 44 Somerset Club Somerset Club 45 DWIGHT, THOMAS Boston 1852-1875-1876* DOVE, GEORGE W. W. Andover 1878-1889 DURANT, HENRY F. Boston 1852-1865 DWIGHT, JAMES Boston 1879- DEXTER, F. GORDON Boston 1853-1863-1895 DALAND, EDWIN F. Boston 1879-1888 DIXON, BENJAMIN H. Boston 1853-1872 DEXTER, FRANKLIN Boston 1879- DEXTER, FRANKLIN Boston 1854-1857* DUPEE, WILLIAM R. Boston 1880-1911* DEVENS, ARTHUR L. Boston 1854-1859-1867* DANA, CHARLES S. Boston 1880- DEXTER, WILLIAM S. Boston 1858-1863-1908* DIXEY, RICHARD C. Boston 1882- DWIGHT, DANIEL A. Boston 1859-1911* Davis, CHARLES, JR. Boston 1883- DORR, SAMUEL Boston 1860-1872 DUMARESQ, HERBERT Boston 1885- DWIGHT, HOWARD Boston 1861-1863* DICKSON, BRENTON H. Boston 1885- DALE, THERON J. Boston 1863-1871* DEXTER, GORDON Boston 1887- DALE, EBEN Boston 1863-1875* DALE, WILLIAM J., JR. Boston 1887-1897* DUNCAN, DAVID Providence 1864-1872- DORR, BENJAMIN H. Boston 1888-1894- DALE, EBEN, JR. Boston 1866-1889* DORR, JOSEPH Boston 1889-1892 DEXTER, ARTHUR Boston 1867-1897* DEXTER, PHILIP Boston 1890- DWIGHT, CHAPMAN Boston 1867-1875 DONNER, OSCAR W. Boston 1891-1911 DEXTER, FREDERIC Boston 1868-1895* DAVIS, BANCROFT C. Boston 1891- DEACON, EDWARD P. Boston 1868-1875 DENNY, DANIEL, JR. Boston 1892-1896* DANA, SAMUEL B. Boston 1869-1911* DOTY, GEORGE H. Waltham 1894- DEIION, WILLIAM Boston 1870-1875* DUNCAN, HON. G. A. P. Boston 1894- DALTON, SAMUEL F. Boston 1871-1872* DABNEY, FREDERICK L. Boston 1894- DABNEY, GEORGE S. Boston 1871-1900* DEXTER, GEORGE T. Boston 1894- DELAND, EDWARD F. Boston 1872-1876 DABNEY, WILLIAM H. Boston 1895-1897 DERBY, HASKET Boston 1872-1882 DEXTER, PARKMAN Boston 1896--- DEVENS, CHARLES, JR. Boston 1872-1877t DALTON, HENRY R., JR. Boston 1896- DEXTER, EDWARD Boston 1872-1878 Davis, HORATIO Boston 1900-1910* DEXTER, GEORGE Boston 1872-1910* DAVIS, AARON Boston 1900- DODGE, JAMES F. Boston 1872-1877 DENNEY, CLARENCE B. Boston 1902- DABNEY, WALTER Boston 1872-1899* DICKSON, BRENTON H., JR. Boston 1902- DENNEY, CLARENCE H. Boston 1872- Davis, C. CLAFLIN Boston 1902- DORR, CHARLES H. Boston 1872-1879 DABNEY, GEORGE B. Boston 1903- DORR, GEORGE B. Boston 1872-1876 DRAPER, EBEN S. Boston 1904- DODGE, JOSHUA C. Boston 1873-1883 DANA, HAROLD W. Boston 1904- DWIGHT, THOMAS, JR. Boston 1873-1911 Dows, TRACY New York 1904- DERBY, GEORGE S. Boston 1873-1875 DUPEE, WILLIAM A. Boston 1906- DIXWELL, GEORGE B. Boston 1873-1885 Davis, LIVINGSTON Boston 1907- DORR, WILLIAM W. Boston 1873-18767 DEVENS, ARTHUR L., JR. Milton 1908- DABNEY, ALFRED S. Boston 1874-1911* DALTON, PHILIP S. Milton 1909- DORR, GEORGE B., JR. Boston 1874 DERBY, GEORGE S. Boston 1910-1913 DABNEY, FREDERICK Boston 1874-1884 DABNEY, ALFRED S., JR. Boston 1910- DEACON, HARLESTON A. Boston 1875-1896-1898 DRESEL, ELLIS L. Boston 1911- DELANO, EDWARD Fairhaven 1875-1881 DEWEY, GEORGE Charlestown 1875-1878 ELLIS, PAYSON P. Boston 1856-1863* DABNEY, LEWIS S. Boston 1875-1908* ELLIS, MATTHIAS Boston 1858-18797 DAVIS, EDWARD L. Boston 1876-1912* EVERETT, HENRY S. Boston 1866-18837 DALAND, TUCKER Boston 1877-1883 EVERETT, PERCIVAL L. Boston 1871-18917 DONNER, ARTHUR Boston 1878- EMMONS, N. H. Boston 1872-18737 DEVENS, ARTHUR LITHGOW Boston 1878- EMMONS, ROBERT W. Boston 1872-18737 64 Somerset Club Somerset Club 65 TUCKER, WILLIAM W. Boston 1852-1862-1885* THOMAS, RUFUS K. Boston TUDOR, FREDERICK Boston 1905- 1852-1865* THORNDIKE, LOTHROP Boston TAPPAN, LEWIS W. Boston 1906-1911* 1853-18741 THORNDIKE, RICHARD K. Boston TRAIN, ENOCH Boston 1907- 1853-1865 TIMMINS, GEORGE II. THORNDIKE, JOHN R. Boston Boston 1908- 1854-1873 TYSON, GEORGE Boston THORNDIKE, CHARLES Boston 1908- 1858-1910* TURNBULL, CHARLES D. Boston TUCKERMAN, NEWCOMB C. Boston 1908- 1858-1860* THAYER, JOHN E., JR. Lancaster TILDEN, CHARLES L. Boston 1911- 1859-1865 Boston THAYER, EZRA R. Boston THOMPSON, JOHN DIXWELL 1912- 1863-1875* TURNBULL, CHARLES N. Boston 1868-1875 THAYER, S. V. R. Boston UPHAM, GEORGE P. Boston 1852-1901* 1870-1871* Boston UPTON, GEORGE B., JR. Boston TAPPAN, WILLIAM R. 1856-1872-1904* 1870-1873* Tyson, GEORGE UPHAM, J. BAXTER Boston Boston 1872-1890 1870-1881 TUCKER, RICHARD D. UPHAM, HENRY Boston Salem 1880-1882* 1871-1899* THORNTON, WALTER S. New Bedford UPHAM, GEORGE P., JR. Boston 1882-1891* 1871-1905* TREDICK, T. S. UPDIKE, D. BERKELEY Boston Portsmouth 1898- 1871-1872 TUDOR, WILLIAM Boston 1872-1875 TUCKER, ALANSON, 2d Boston VAN BRUNT, DUDLEY B. Boston 1872-1877t 1872-1909* THAYER, NATHANIEL, JR. VAN BRUNT, CHARLES Boston Lancaster 1880-1899* 1872-1911* TUCKER, LAWRENCE Boston VAN ALEN, J. H. New York 1882-1886* 1872-1912* TUCKERMAN, LUCIUS Boston 1872-1876 TOWNSEND, HENRY E. Boston WAINWRIGHT, PETER Boston 1852-1865 1873-1876 TURNER, N. DANA Boston WARD, SAMUEL G. Boston 1852-1861-1865 1874-1893* TWOMBLY, H. McK. Boston WARD, GEORGE C. Boston 1875-1910* 1852-1865 TUCKERMAN, LEVERETT S. Boston WARD, H. ARTEMUS Boston 1875- 1852-1870 TYLER, SIDNEY F. WARREN, CHARLES H. Boston Philadelphia 1879-1885t 1852-1870-1873 THAYER, E. V. R. Lancaster WELCH, FRANCIS Boston 1880-1907* 1852-1865 TILDEN, GEORGE H. Boston WELLS, BENJAMIN S. Boston 1880-1882 1852-1865 TOUZALIN, A. E. Milton WHARTON, WILLIAM CRAIG Boston 1882-1889* 1852-1881 TESCHEMACHER, HERBERT E. Boston WHEELWRIGHT, ANDREW C. Boston 1882-1907* 1852-1894-1908* THORNDIKE, GEORGE QUINCY Boston WHITNEY, HENRY A. Boston 1883-1886* 1852-1889* THORNDIKE, JOHN L. Boston WHITNEY, ISRAEL Boston 1883- 1852-1865 THAYER, BAYARD Lancaster WHITWELL, FREDERICK A. Boston 1883- 1852-1881-1912* TWEED, CHARLES H. New York WHITWELL, SAMUEL Boston 1885- 1852-1865 TUCKERMAN, CHARLES S. Boston WHITWELL, S. HORATIO Boston 1885-1889-1904* 1852-1904* THAYER, JOHN E. Lancaster WHITWELL, HENRY Boston 1885- 1854-1887* THACHER, THOMAS C. Boston WINTHROP, ROBERT C., JR. Boston 1886- 1855-1905* TOWER, RICHARD G. Lexington WOLCOTT, J. HUNTINGTON Boston 1887- 1856-1865 THOMAS, WASHINGTON B. Boston WEBSTER, SIDNEY New York 1889- 1858-1870 TRASK, WILLIAM ROPES Boston WHITNEY, WILLIAM M. 1894- Beverly 1859-1879 THORNDIKE, HARRY H. Boston WRIGHT, JOHN H. Boston 1894- 1861-1879* THORNDIKE, AUGUSTUS Boston 1895-1910- WRIGHT, EBEN Boston 1862-1865-1881 THAYER, FREDERICK W. Boston WHEATLAND, GEORGE, JR. Boston 1896-1913* 1864- TAYLOR, FREDERICK S. Boston WHIPPLE, JEREMIAH Boston 1896- 1864-1872 TOOKER, JOHN S. England WINCHESTER, THOMAS B. Boston 1900- 1864-1883-1902-1904* THORNDIKE, PAUL Boston WINSOR, HENRY, JR. Boston 1902- 1865-1882-1894* THACHER, LOUIS B. Boston WRIGHT, GEORGE W. Boston 1904- 1865-18701 THAYER, E. V. R., JR. Lancaster WELD, B. RODMAN Boston 1904- 1865-1909* WELLES, GEORGE D. Boston 1866-18741 iBoston - Your Guide to Massachusetts History Page 1 of 1 Boston BOSTON HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE David Sears House / Somerset Club Alexander Parris, 1819 / 1832 "Architecture is inhabited sculpture." Constantine Brancusi At 42 and 43 Beacon St. the Somerset Club dominates its section of Beacon hill. Its double bays rise above the roof line, and a substantial rusticated wall in front of it sets a monumental tone. Though French in design, the cartouches on its bowed front and the strong roof line give it styling which fits with its federalist is styled neighbors. Perhaps the most interesting element of the building is how it has been remade as the Beacon Hill neighborhood grew. Originally the mansion of David Sears, this was a free standing building, with only the bay on the right, and a garden between it and the Charles Bulfinch at 45 Beacon St. As land values skyrocketed through the 1820's, maintaining yards and separate structur become financially impractical. The Sears family doubled the home's size, establishing i expensive dwelling in 1830's Boston. Merging these mansions was clearly not a consideration when they were constructed. TI neighboring Otis House had a large oval salon facing the Sears House. When these buil connected, the Sears House had to be built around the Otis' curved side. In the 1860's Sears relocated to his country estate, the Longwood Cottage and Farm, in Brookline enclave which he had developed. The Sears House underwent a final expansi Somerset Club took it over in 1872 and added the third floor which is seen here. This fin Search iBoston completed the Sears House's transformation from being a distinctive granite mansion, to like row-house seen here as the Somerset Club. Massachusetts Architecture I Public Art & Places I Historic People & Events I Research About Copyright © 1997-2002 David Wieneke. All rights reserved. I Terms of Use Contact Us http://www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=sears 4/22/2002 ONLY BEEN TO THE CLUB." Boston Daily Globe (1872-1960); Apr 12, 1892; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Boston Globe (1872 1901) pg. 5 "ONLY BEEN TO THECLUB." Whether to the Somerset or Some Other. Dis Wife May Determine by Reading the Terms of Admission. What it Costs to "Belong," to Say Nothing of Refreshments. Inasmuch as Austin Corbin. rich man and railroad king. was blackballed by the gov. ernors of the Union Club of New York the other day. the conditions of admission to some of the "swell" clubs of this town may be interesting. There is not a club in Boston that sets RO gh an entrance fee as the Union of New ork, although in several Boston clubs the early dues are larger than in the Union. he constitution and by-laws of the club iat has excluded Austin Corbin provide at the executive function connected with 16 management of the institution shall re- de in a governing committee consisting of 1 members. The SIX blackballs that are said to have sen cast in the vote on the question of Mr. orbin's membership were unnecessary. It ould have taken only two blackballs to ave done the business. The constitution rovides that one adverse ballot in every 10 otes is sufficient to decide unfavorably the undidature of any person attempting to on the club. The membership of the union IS limited to 200. The admission fon is $300, three mes as large as that of the tip-top Somer- et of this city. The yearly assessments of he Union Amount to $75. It IS said that the blackballing of Austin 'orbin is regarded by a great many men as D interesting development of the antagon- im of certain elements in the Union Club award millionnaires and the club that the millionnaires are organizing. But this statement is absurd. becauso any of the members, indeed, the main- tays of the club. are all wealthy men. The Somerset Club of this city 14 looked ipon generally as the most exclusive insti- ution of the kind in Boston. The number if members. it is provided first. must not xceed 550, and many aristocratic "fellahs" ave to wait for years sometimes before her can get in. There is n committee on elections that loes the work of determining the eligibility 1 candidater. The Somersot. like nearly it the "swell" clubs, does not admit to membership persons under 21 years of age. he committee on elections consists of the cretary of theclub and 14 other members. obert Grant, writer and water commis- oner. is the present secretary. The elections Are Held Annually, 1d by open or secret ballot, as the dis. nguished gentlemon of the committee ay decide. There must beatleast 10 mom- ers of the committee present, and one Iverse ballot in every five votes will ox- udo the candidate. The non Iv-elected member must pay 100 within (ii) days and the proportionate art of the annual assessment for the un- cpired portion of the current club year. :ckoning from the first day of the month Iter that in which the member was elected. Any officer of the ariny and navy on duty ithin the New England States may be ad- itted in the use of the club in the manner rovided for the election of members. by aying one-half the annual assessment. hich entities him to SIX months member- hip. He may renew this six months' mem- ership at the beginning of every six months by paving half the annual assess- rent in advance. The entrance teo ot the Puritan Club is nly $30. and the annual assessment $35. The Puritan Club is composed for the lost part of Harvard graduates. and a pro- ision of the club is that no undergraduate all be admitted to membership. There is n committee on elections. coin- osed of the secretary and 14 other mem- ers of the club. who pass on candidates re- uesting admission. The request must be 1 the form of a written application. and 10 ballot of the election committee may be pen or secret. Ten members of the elec- on committeo constitute a quorum. and no adverso ballot in every five votes is suf- cient to exclude a candidate. The executive committee may expel mom- ers on a two-thirds vote. but au appeal to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. he club can follow. either in the case of ex- ulsion or a defeated candidacy, and a two- hirds vote of the club May Overritte the Action f the election committee or the executive ommitree. Such a vote must be by secret allot. In the Algonquin Club there is a commit- 30 on admissions. That "does the busi- less" for the candidate. The entrance fee t the Algonquin is $100. The successful andidate must pay his proportion of the an- uni assessment at the times of entering the lub. The membership in the AlgOnquin is limited to 700. The constitution of the Algonquin pro- ides that the action of the committee on dmissions shall be secret, confidential and inal. and that no member of the commit- ce shall be questioned or allowed to state LS to the action of the committee in the aso of any candidate. Two negativo votes in the committee on admissions are suflicient to exclude the andidate. An expelled member hns a right to appeal to the club. The committee S composed of 16 members. The annual dues in the Alconquin are $100 a year in advance. Army and navy nembers have greater privileges so far ns admission fees are concerned in the Algon- quin than in the Somersot. Payment of $100 entities an army or navy member to admission unconditional. The bedrooms in the Algonquin and Som- erset are engaged for no longer than a week. with the condition that the bedroom may 10 retained so long as no other member wishes one. In this as in all clubs there is a distinct provision of the constitution (which provision, it is needless to say. is daily disre- garded) that no mony shall be paid to any servant under any circumstances. The membership of the Union Club is limited to 600. The committee on elec- tions consists of the secretary and 15 other members, and the presençe of nine mom- bers of the committee constitutes à quorum for business. The entrance fee is 8100 and the annual assessment is $75. Tho committee on elec- tions simply passes on a candidato's eligi- bility. and a majority of the committee May Vote the Candidate Eligible, The members of the club elect the candi- late directly. In all cases of elections the roting is by secret ballot. Thirty votes are necessary for a ballot in any case. and six votes in 30, or one-fifth of any number of votes cast for a candidate, if the one-fifth be adverse, may reject. Votes are not counted unless marked for or against the name on the slate. A member elected after the first of July pays one-half the assessment and his entrance fee to get into the club. Two thirds vote of the executive committee expels a member. and a two-thirds vote of the club on an appeal may reverse the action of the executive committee. Army and navy officers have privileges such as the Somerset. Algouquin and other clubs afford. In regard to games, the Somerset Club prohibits any kind of card playing between the hours of closing on Saturday night and opening on Monday morning. The Union Club prohibits any games on Sunday, and the Algonquin and Union pro- hibit the presence of dogs on the premises. One of the Union's laws is against pipe smoking at all, and another is against smok- ing during club meetings. The Somersou Club prohibits any whist- ling in the building, and any conversation in the library, and charges 35 cents for every game of cards played. and prohibits any gaine of cards in bedrooms. The membership of the Tavern Club is limited to 126. The admission fee is S50, and the annual assessment is $30. A com- mittee on elections determines the candi- dacy of any prospective member, and the candidate is elected by four-fifths of at least 25 votes. There is an election committee in the Country Club: it consists of 11 members. and at every voting on a candidate at least SIX members must be present. Two black balls exclude. The entrance fee is 850 and the annual assessment 850. The entrance fee to the Boston Athletic Association is 850. The annual dues are $40. Elections are made by the governing committee of 20 members. One adverse ballot in every six votes excludes a candi- date. The membership is limited to 2000 active members, In most of the "swell" New York clubs the entrance fee is $300 and the annual assessments $75. Providence Y. M. c. A. Election. PROVIDENCE April Y. M C. A. elected officers tonight as follows: Presi- dent. William A. Spicer: vice-presidents. James S. Kenyon and J. William Rice: re- Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Boston Daily Globe (1872-1960); Jun 19, 1892; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Boston Globe (1872-1901) pg. 28 IN LEAFY BOWERS. heavy swelling blossoms swing in the Brower, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Dwight, Gen. breeze On either side of the old carriage and Mrs. Francis A. Walker. Mr. and Mrs, way is a tree whose leaves sinko softly the H. W. Haynes, Mrs. Julia Ward Howo and windows at one end of the house. Mr. and Mrs. John Elliott are all. some The porch is hung with vines, and in the heavily. some lightly. covered for one or Boston Houses with Walls of lower windows are potted plants. There is two stories with vine4. young tree also in the space before the Besides these there are a good many house that is shut off by a mo lern iron rail. others. but the most picturesque at this Living Green. Inc. end of the street IS Nos 272 and 274. Clinging Wisteria Makes Somerset Club a Baronial Castle. Edwin Austin's House is Perhaps the Most Picturesque. HADOWS disappear along Beacon kt. in summer who thefun is high. The level avenue stretches away in an unbroken blaze of light. From any point nt either end. the jour- noy up or down the estect is not inviting. Put there are green spots in the desert of brick and stone. and these present the appearance of verl. table bowers of bliss They are seen best In the cooi of the evening, when the sun's raya are 110 longer direct, but at any umo they are sweet and fair to look upon. In the crowded Janes of the tenement house districts one may catch an occasiona glimpso of a single struggling plant in it cracked flower pot, or, more frequently, in a broken cup or a box or n tin dish, among the debris that litters the fire-escapes; and one imagines the wealth of foliage that would appear If the flower-loving feeling could find sinple expression. In the homes of the rich this feeling finds MR. P. 1.. HIGHINSON'S HOUSE 273 AND 274 BEACON ST. expression as ample as may be wished. The green spots 111 the desert of brick and stone on Beacon st. are the vine clad walls Two tall columns support on each This IS the house of Mr. and Mis. Francia of the houses and the blussom-filled win- side the roof of the porch. and 1. Maginson. The effect of the arrange- dows. the postman lingers An the cool Alisdo ment here 14 as beautiful as anywhere on while he tells the young woman in the the street. only the growth 14 not no large A walk un Beacon st. or Commonwealth doorway how hot 10 is down the bare street. The house itself 14 very handsome, with av. or Marlboro or Nowbury sta any day You can imagnio what heinterior of such its large portico and sweeping front. The after the 16th of May, or botter, after the n housa must be. In every room there vines or the entire length and about 1st of June, will develop a multitude of would be the evidences of the master's love one-third of the height of the building. beautiful pictures. for the simple and the beautiful, and the l'her are trained across a succession of small port-holes, which are almost entirely concealed by the leaves of the plant. You may catch a elimpso occasionally of the fresh young face of a protty housemard though one of these portholes. The vines form thick clusters in the spaces between en the windows, and when they flower the blossoms fall into the rooms when the win- dows are open. Mrs. Robert C. and Mr. William Hooper occupy the house next door. No. 276, and this 14 also handsomely decorated. But the house noxi door. that of Mr. and Mrs. John Shepard, is bare, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Princo, nt 200, Mr. and Mrs. 1. Stackpolo, at 202, Mr. and Mrs F. Warren. nt 201 and Dr Olivor Wendell Holme< at 290, where Judge O. W. Holmo". Jr.. and his wife also live, are training vines over the fronty of their houses Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Riley, at 300, have rather abundant growth of vines on then honso. On Commonwealth nv. on what is somo- times called the swell side, the most pict- uresquely garlanded house 19 No. 1. in which Mrs. James S. Amory and Frederic Amory live. Noxi door is the house of Mis. Bonjamin Roteh, and this is also prettily covered with wisteria vinery. Mrs. Otis Norcross at No. O. Mrs. J. Amory Codman, at 13. Miss R. A. Amory Mrs. John O. Burnham and Mi. .and Mrs. Charles Fry, at 21, have their dwellings present n handsomo appearance. The vines here are not very strong yet, however. At No. 61, where Georgo C. Gardner lives. with MISS Olza E., and John L. Gandner, 2d. there are spreading vines over the front of the house, and at 177. the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Quiney Adams, and 197 the home of Dr. and Mrs F. M. Rotch. there handsome appearance of green leaves and bright-hued plants. There are many other houses on the nvenue that are decorated. but none so beautifully as somo on Marlboro and Beacon sts. On the lower and of Marlboro st. there are reveral houses that present an extremo- 1y handsome appearance. Such a house 14 that on the corner of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. modern structure with a great many cornicos and angles and windows linmense trails of the wisterin vino run entirely Around the building, and the house is in n position so comparative oly isolated that every feature stands out conspicuously. The whole structure presents an imposingly handsome front. THE SOVERSET CLUB, Probably the house of the cosiest appear- anco in summer on Marlbolo st. is that of Mr. and Mrs. Donjamin W. Crowninshield, in half nn hour's walk. more than n hun- very walls would breatho comfort and 161. died houses may be seen whose occupants peace From Dartmouth to Exeter ste. on Marl. failfill literally the scriptural injunction to In that chamber at the top of the house, boro, there are about n dozen abundantly his under ouo's our vine and fur tree. where the big bunches of the heavy vino foliaged trees which preserve in that par. No building or Beacon st. presents a more have erept over the sill and must bo lifted ticular portion of the thoroughfare n degree striking appearance than the Somerset out beforo the window can be closed, you of shado on the hottest days that Is truly Club. From the top of Beacon hill it may might look across the trees of the Common rural. The cal's in gome through the sheet be seen 11 little way down the street; and if and CC the ships in the offing, and on n there appear to bo PASSING through a a man could exclude from his vision all nd. quet might the voices of whispering lovers densely staded country road. sacent scenery and from his mind all on the shaded sents below unglit mingle The hon-0 of the Crowninshields has knowledge of present surroundings he with the bounds of revelry in the adjacent several trees 111 the front yard. and the could very easily imagine the tower-like club. heavy branches nlmo-t completely obstruct walls of the Somer-ot Club to be the abid. You look at this house twice, and say: n view of everything except the front door. the place of some lord of the castled Rhone "That should have been the birthplace of a Resides this, the walls of the house are Tho very modern window shados dispel great figure in history. this illusion, to be sure. but thore Is little Moro than a AC010 of houses in the next hung heavily with the wisteria vine, and the lilac blossoms in the dooryard' bloom else about the building that would not fit fow blocks are hung more or less heavily profusely. Into picture of a sylvan rular's abode. with vinos. No. 103, occupied by Mr. and No. 182, occupied by Drs. J. Orno Green A very heavy growth of th8 wisterin vino Mrs. S. Tilton: 110, the house of S. Hain- and H. Derby, 19 tastefully decorated with covers the entiro building. It begins bolow mond 117. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gray vino and wv. the stone wall along the street and cans the 127, Mrs. W. C. Wharton: 130, H. 11. Hun- The houses of Dr. and Mrs. F. W. Draper. top of the tower front. At a little distance nowe.) 131, Mrs. () Browster 133, Harry of Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Whitwell. of Mh. and the windows look as if thoy might have Burnott 136, the house of Mr and Mrs. Mrs. Herve of Mis. 11. G. Hutchins, been cut out of the vine. Frederick C. hooks, which is conspicuous of Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Sawy of M19 Ben- When the sun's mass are firercest their for the beauty of the arch of wisterinsover jamm W. Thayer, of Mrs. Lucian Skinner, darts are sheathed in the heavy folds of the the doorway 137, Mr. and Mrs. 11. C. Gib. of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Seabury, in which clambering plant and all is cool twilight son 145. the house of Mayor and Mrs. Na- live the 50114 Frank and W. H. of Mr. within the room. than Matthews 49. the 111,509 Collins, and Mrs. John E. Hudson, of Mrs. Henry he house that presents the most beauti. 165, Mr. and Mrs. 1. C. Richardson 176, Upham. of Mr. and Mrs. A. II. Hardy, of ful appearance Beacon st. No 15. The tho home of John C Gray: 178, William Mr. and Mr S. M. Crosby are more or less Somerset Club occupies No, 42 and 13. No. G. Russell 180, Mrs. Benjamin T. Reed abundantly hung with wisteria. 41. which is occurred by Mrs. William 181. 111. and Mrs. F. G. Morrill 187, Mr Throughout the Back Bay there are hun- Amory, and No. are on either sido of the and Mr. William S. Appleton 191, Mrs. S. dredy of houses that apparently are only club. hese have few lengths of vine on Chayer, 107. Mr. and Mrs. Edwin just beginning the decoration of the fronts tho walls, but No. 15. which is occupied by l'ord; 182, Mr. C. Allen Browne; 200, Mrs. with wisteria and Ivy, and there are many of these on Newbury and Marlboro sts. which in n few years will present an ex. tremely handsome appearance. but are now somewha ragged Hooking Throughout the South End the use of the Back Bay vvy IS becoming common. On great number of the houses on the side streets vely pretty effects have been accom. plished by the 1190 of ivy and the Wisterna vinc. MR LDWARD AUSTIN'S HOUSE os BEACON ST. Mr. Edward Austin, 13 far and away the F. 1. Norton: 211. Mis A. S. Josselyn 213, more me ght on the street. Mi and Mrs. C Kenny 215, Mr. H. C. Noll door, No All. IS the house of Mr and Hutchins, 21 Mr. W. c. Lovering 219, Mrs Eben 1. Jordan. and it receives ome Mri Will un Mixter 221. Mr. Charles 1.. vindo and beauty from the wealth of Thaver M. and Mr. S. B Dana, 190, followe of 4:; but the house of Mr and Mrs. Mr. and Mr. Fre berick H. Prince: 102. Martin brimmer. which 1. next to the Jor- Mrs. Item Date 191. Mr. G A Meyer dais stands out in unleated mudity. It 196, Mr and Mrs. James Means: 105, the gh and narrow building with a stucco Misses Pre scott, Mr June, 11 Dinforth and front of nondescript color, and 11 looks like Mr. and Mrs Almon U. Strout: 200. Rev. 11. a swell fat. Allen; 202, Mr. and Mrs G. P. Motley: The house of Edward Austin has a very 204, Mrs. Harvey Jewell: from 218 to 232, old-fashtoned appearance The root is Hat, in which live Dr. Edward H. Bradford and and the chimnoys are the kind that almost Mrs. Charle F. Brodford, Mrs. H. H. Allen always surmounted the fashionable res). and Mrs. Waldo Adams: and from 239 to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ONCE THE SOMERSET CLUB. Boston Daily Globe (1872-1960); Dec 11, 1892; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Boston Globe (1872-1901) pg. 15 ONCE THE SOMERSET CLUB. of the American College and Education Society On the third floor beside the offices al. ready enumerated are the office of the Con. grovational Church Building Society the But Now the Congregational Non West Education Commision and the Boston Seaman's Friend Society. All these organizations are oitner directly House Its Name. related to the American Board or under its control. The building WRA occupied by the board in 1872. In the d. dicatory exercises It was Where Wine Flowed Copiously Long said: n the winter of 1620 the Pilgruns found for themselves a permanent home in Ago, God's Word Prevails. Piymouth in the winter of 1872 their prin- ciples of church order first find a lodgment in they have founded and inade illustrious. Busy Hive Where Religion Finds Work At this dedication Rev. Dr. M. M. Dexter presented n part of a bown stone window. Meet for Pious Hands, cap taken by himself from the ruins of the old Manor House at Sorooby, Eng.. in which, while it was occupied by William Brow-ter. the Mayllower church was When you walk up Reacon st. again ob. crailed. He exhibited also one of the serve the massive granite building on the rudely-carvcc oaken boams from woodon corner of Somerset at High up on the face ceiling of the little chanel of the Mauor of the building are the words in raised Iron House. which beain In bia opinion was over the heads of the litt'e company when ther letters: covenanted together "to walk in all His "Congregational House." ways made known or to be made known 10 If you care to go to the trouble of reading thoin. at whatever cost, the Lord assisting them. the directory In the hall of the building Dr. fimothy Gordon presented a piece of you will find that every room in the house the rock on which the Plymouth fathers is occupied by some religious society or the and mothers first landed in 1020. representative of memissionary endeavor. The rolics are preserved in the library today across the hall from the parlors Perhaps you may be tempted to enter the through which the Sonierset Club swells rather forbidding hall on the Somerset st. sauntered carlessly 30 years and more nga side and walk up the broad winding stairs. The Gardner house, 7 Beacon st., 13 now a THE CONOREOATIONAL HOUSE. The floors are wooden and evidently very part of the Congregational House. In 1828 old. and there is all air throughout of misty the record of the deeds is that William antiquity. Appleton sold this house to Joseph Pea- body. Francis and George Penbody deeded You would be right If you should guess the property In 1814 to Catherino. who be. that this venerable building has a strange came the wilo of John L. Gardner. In history. For what contrast could be more 1871 John In and Catherine Gardnor sold Interesting and improssive than that which the house to the American Congregational Association. is afforded by the fact that A quarter of a The house which is the Congregational century ago thosmartest set of Boston club- House proper was originally the old Hinok- dom hold Its nightly revels where the ma. loy mansion. chinory of a great religious factory grinds More than 230 years ago the first stone house over built in Boston was erected on on today with unvarylue energy and regu. this very spot by Rev. James Allen, in larity. whose family the property remained about Hero. indeed, was the home of the Somer- 150 years. set Club. and if It ever should interest you It was about 1812 that David Hinokley, merchant, horan the erection of what lie enough to make the effort you would find called "a large. elegant atone mansion. after n slight search the room in which was Even in these days 11 might, under favora- the buffet of the club. and which is now the bio conditions, be called large and elegant, office of Rev. O. C. Creagan, Held and in tho.o days it was pronounced far and away the handsomest house in Boston. tary of the American Board of Commission. David Hinckley WAS vory rich, and he Im- ers for Foreign Missions. ported. the glass for the windows of his And directly across the way from this mansion from England. mom you may find Rev. Dr. Edward E. But in 1813 war broke out between this Strong at work as the editor of the Mis. country and Great Britain. and the work on sionary Herald in the apartment where the David (linckley's mansion was suspended. swell clubmon of a past genoration lounged Whon it was finally, completed It was at the card tables of a dreary alternoon. without doubt the handsomest house In The main entrance to the Congregational Boston. House is on Beacon st. Entering hero. the David Hinckley sold the entire estate in first door on the right leads to the rooins of 1820 for 340.000 to Hen'nmin Wiggin. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the woman's board. You may find hero at property included all the original estate, of any time of six days of the week abundant old Samuol Eliot, ovidence of the hard work that IS doing by In 1833 it is found that the property has this organization. come into the hands, of William f. Otty. Noxt door 18 the librarian's office, and dl- who for the nominal consideration of $100 rectly ahead is the lbbary. "This is the de- disposes of the property to William G. partment of which everybody in the build- Hodgkinson. ing is proudest. Indeed it WAS the effort to For $38,500 William G. Hodgkinson sold establish a suitable library that lod to the the property in 1832 to Benjamin W. occupancy of the building. The room for Crowninshield, who, when he was gathered the library. which contains many thousands to his fathers, left the estate to his six chil. of very rare works of the thoologians of dren. Elizabeth Crowninshield, Mrs. Mary conturies dead and gone, was added to the Mifflin. Francis B. Crowninshield, George original building. 0.0 owninshield and Mrs. Anna Warren. On the loft of the entrance nro the par- These six children sold the house and lors of t110 old house, and beyond these is property to John D. Bates and Samuel the office of the treasurer of the A. B. C. F. Hooper in 1857 for $43,000. M. On the right 18 a room that is occupied Thereupon James Davis, Hooper and by the clorks of the treasurer, and a little Francis B. Crowninshield made arrange- farther is the business office of the Congre- ments with the Somersot Club to occupy gationalist, which is noxt door to the mail. the "stone mansion.' ing department. In 1871,* Jamies Davis, Samuel Hooper. On the noxt floor are the several socre- and F. O. Prince as trustees disposed of the taries of the Amorican board, the offices of property for $140,280, to the American the editor of the Herald, of the prudential Congregational Association. committee. the City Missionary Society. the The purchase of the Gardner and the American Congregational Union. the Amer- Soinersat Club estates cost the association Ican Missionary Association and the Massa. 3,484.12. chusetts Homo Missionary Society. Besides Today the ASHESSORS rockon that there is these are the musoum of curiosities and the $501,000 worth of real property in the offices of the clerk and copyists of the Congregational house. Of tlile, 8335,000 board. worth is taxed, and $266,000 worth is ex- On the fourth floor is Pilgrim Hall, where empt. the Congregational ministers meet every Is It not interesting that out of this house Monday morning. which was the home of fashion and wealth On the first floor 19 the book store of the for more than hall n century, 5,000,000 of Congregational Sunday School and Publica. copies of religious periodicals annually are tion Society. and here is the office of the distributed over the world amonz Seaman's Friend Society. those whom the humble Christ CRIME to The American Peaco Society Is on the sec- save, the children and the feeble, and the ond floor. On this floor are the offices also ignorant and two poor. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7/17/2019 Athena Holdings Information Need help locating a book? Guide to Cutter Books Guide to Library of Congress Books I Make a Special Collections Appointment Log Athena BOSTON ATHENJELM ON:INECAIALOL Search My Searches My List My Account - New Search : Author Go Search History This item The Somerset Club, 42 Beacon St., Boston, ca. 1875 [graphic]. Record View Staff View Main Author: J.W. Black & Co., photographer. Title: The Somerset Club, 42 Beacon St., Boston, ca. 1875 [graphic]. Actions Contributors, etc.: Sears, David, 1787-1871. Pick up at Circulatio Boston : Black & Co., ca. 1875. Print Publishing Details: Description: 1 photographic print : b&w ; image 23 X 18.7 cm., mount 25.4 X 21 cm. Export Subject: The Beacon St. facade of the Somerset Club building. Email Summary: Notes: Graphite inscriptions on verso identify location and donor. Add to My List Photographer's imprint blindstamped into blue cardboard mount below the lower right corner of the image. Originally the home of David Sears (1787-1871), the building was purchased by the Somerset Club in 1871, and the Club house opened in 1872. Local Notes: Gift of Miss Dorothy Codman, 1952. #1952.6. Retrospective conversion record. Subjects: Sears, David, 1787-1871--Homes and haunts--Pictorial works. Somerset Club (Boston, Mass.)--Pictorial works. Boston (Mass.)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works. Beacon Street (Boston, Mass.)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works Genre Terms: Photographs--United States--1870-1880. Provenance/Publisher/etc.: Codman, Dorothy. donor Linked Resources: Scanned image available here Location: Prints and Photographs Dept. (Appointment required) Call Number: (photo) A B64B6 Cl.so.(no.1) Number of Items: 1 Status: Not Charged Actions: I O der Digital Scans Reference URL: http://catalog.bostonathenaeum.org/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibld=433451