CLUBS: University Union Club I Union Club of Boston - Wikipedia Page 1 of 3 Coordinates: 42°21'27.5"N 71°3'45.8"W WIKIPEDIA Union Club of Boston The Union Club of Boston, founded in 1863, is one of the oldest gentlemen's clubs in the United States. It is located on Beacon Hill, adjacent to the Massachusetts State House. The clubhouse at No. 7 and No. 8 Park Street was originally the homes of John Amory Lowell (#7), and Abbott Lawrence (#8). [1] The houses were built c.1830-40, and they were remodeled for club use in 1896. [2] The clubhouse overlooks the Boston Common, and has views of the Common itself, Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, and the hills to the west of the ciy. The Union Club was formed by members of another prominent Boston gentlemen's club, the Somerset Club, after disagreement over whether to support the Union cause during the American Civil War, about which the members of the club split along political lines. In response, defectors formed the Union Club, which demanded The clubhouse at 7-8 Park Street on "unqualified loyalty to the constitution and the Union of our Beacon Hill United States, and unwavering support of the Federal Government in effort for the suppression of the rebellion." The founders of the club did not restrict membership to those of a single political party, but accepted all those willing to support the Union Cause in the Civil War. The club later became the first male club in the city to welcome women as members, years before such equity was the norm. Former members President of the United States Calvin Coolidge, Republican (1923-1929) Vice-President of the United States Henry Wilson, Republican (1873-1875), under Ulysses S. Grant Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Frederick Huntington Gillett, Republican (1919-1925) United States Senators Charles Sumner, Free Soil, Liberal Republican, Republican (1851-1874) Edward Everett, Whig (1853-1854) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Club_of_Boston 2/18/2020 Union Club of Boston - Wikipedia Page 2 of 3 Henry Wilson, Republican (1855-1873) George Frisbie Hoar, Republican (1877-1904) Henry Cabot Lodge, Republican (1893-1924) Winthrop Murray Crane, Republican (1904-1913) Frederick Huntington Gillett, Republican (1925-1931) Sinclair Weeks, Republican (1944) United States Supreme Court Justices Horace Gray (1881-1902) Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1916-1939) Governors of Massachusetts Edward Everett, Whig (1836-1846) Emory Washburn, Whig (1854-1855) John Albion Andrew, Republican (1861-1866) Alexander Hamilton Bullock, Republican (1866-1869) William Claflin, Republican (1869-1872) William Gaston, Democrat (1875-1876) Alexander Hamilton Rice, Republican (1876-1879) John Davis Long, Republican (1880-1883) Benjamin Franklin Butler, Democrat (1883-1884) William Eustis Russell, Democrat (1891-1894) Roger Wolcott, Republican (1896-1900) Winthrop Murray Crane, Republican (1900-1903) Curtis Guild, Jr., Republican (1906-1909) Eben Sumner Draper, Republican (1909-1911) Samuel Walker McCall, Republican (1916-1919) Calvin Coolidge, Republican (1919-1921) Channing Harris Cox, Republican (1921-1925) Frank G. Allen, Republican (1929-1931) Joseph Buell Ely, Democrat (1931-1935) Presidents of Harvard University Josiah Quincy (1829-1846) Edward Everett (1846-1849) Jared Sparks (1849-1853) Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Willian Barton Rogers (1862-1870) Francis Amasa Walker (1881-1897) Karl Taylor Compton (1930-1948) James Rhyne Killian, Jr. (1948-1959) Men of letters, authors, poets, scholars, politicians, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Club_of_Boston 2/18/2020 Union Club of Boston - Wikipedia Page 3 of 3 Charles Francis Adams, Jr. - author and historian John K. Burgess, state representative ³ Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, - abolitionist Richard Henry Dana, Jr., - author Charles Deven, Jr. - general Ralph Waldo Emerson - philosopher John Murray Forbes - merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist Asa Gray - botanist Edward Everett Hale - theologian Henry Lee Higginson - founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - poet, novelist and physician James Russel Lowell - poet Charles Eliot Norton - editor and man of letters Francis Parkman - historian Josiah Quincy, IV - Mayor of Boston Charles Storer Storrow, civil engineer and industrialist William Fiske Whitney - anatomist, curator and pathologist See also List of American gentlemen's clubs References 1. Union Club of Boston website (https://www.unionclub.org/The_Club 2. Southworth, Susan & Southworth, Michael (2008). AIA Guide to Boston (3rd ed.). Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-7627-4337-7. 3. "John K. Burgess of Dies at His Dedham Home"(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39335832/obituary_of_john_k_burgess_of_dedham/ The Boston Globe. December 10, 1941. p. 17. Retrieved November 20, 2019. a External links Official website (http://www.unionclub.org) Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Union_Club_of_Boston&oldid=927178293° This page was last edited on 20 November 2019, at 21:22 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Club_of_Boston 2/18/2020 THE Past Members OF THE UNION CLUB OF BOSTON Maass - AND A Brief Shetch OF THE HISTORY OF THE CLUB JULY, 1893 Re: S SKETCH. McClellan's fight at Antietam in September, 1862, had proved a barren victory. He had passed his command over to Burnside, with the result that in December ten thousand Federal soldiers lay killed or wounded upon the field at Fredericks- burg. The Emancipation Proclamation, published within the week after Antietam, had for the time united the South and divided the North. The fall elections had almost doubled the opponents of the administration in the popular branch of Congress, and even its professed adherents in that body fell far short of cordial support. The "Southern sympathizers " throughout the North were more rancorous than ever The war Democrats were discouraged at the lack of military success, and alienated by seeing the contest definitely placed upon an anti-slavery basis. Even many Republicans were distrustful of the policy of the administration and beginning to despair of the repub- lic. The new departure of the government was espe- cially obnoxious in Boston, as elsewhere, to many men before patriotic. By some of these a commis- sion in a colored regiment was considered a dis- grace. Governor Andrew was even doubtful about drilling one of these regiments SO near Boston as Readville. The change of sentiment was most discouraging. "There was considerable talk of the right of seces- sion," writes Mr. C. W. Loring, "and unfortunately among men of social standing. Some of this talk prevailed in our most fashionable club. " The state of feeling," writes Mr. Martin Brimmer, **was more conspicuously critical than patriotic. Some privately denounced the war in all its aspects; some attacked indiscriminately all the acts of the government, and peppered their remarks with a liberal supply of sar- casm: some were indifferent: some were wavering some, with the best intentions, were made doubtful or timid by the tone of people about them. For those, and there were happily many, who were unhesitating in their support of the government in the war. there was no common centre, no rallying place. We agreed that a club of some sort was greatly needed to serve this purpose." So the Union Club came into being. It was not intended, like some other leagues, to be itself an SKETCH 7 active organization against active disloyalty, @@@@@@@@@@@@@ for that did not exist in Boston,- nor a rendezvous of partisan politics, but rather a rallying point for gen- tlemen of intelligence, public spirit, and social prominence, who believed that the Union could be preserved, and that it could be preserved by the an- nounced policy of President Lincoln. Its member- ship was to consist of clubbable men. who not only thought and felt alike upon the great questions of the day, but who would find it pleasant to meet socially and converse upon those questions. "We want," said one of its founders, "a place where gentlemen may pass an evening without hearing copperhead talk." Testimony varies a little, as must be the case with recollections of thirty years ago, as to the person with whom and the precise time at which the idea of the club originated. Where SO many prominent men were interested and earnest, it would be invidious to award precedence. The matter was perhaps discussed as early as 1861 or 1862, and some of these discus- sions took place at the house of the late William Gray WM. gray and at the office of Mr. Samuel G. Ward. A more S.G.W. formal meeting was held on February 4. 1863, at Mr. Communication Ward's house and it is evident that the active for- mation of the club was largely due to his energy and executive ability. Subsequent meetings were held in Chickering Hall. An organizing committee of fifteen was appointed. of which the chairman was the late for Charles G. Loring, and the secretary Mr. Martin spened 2901. were field? 8 SKETCH Brimmer. One cannot be far amiss in assigning to these gentlemen, with Messrs. Gray and Ward, and especially Mr. John M. Forbes, who took part in all the preliminary conferences, the honor of being the founders of the club.> With these gentlemen were joined upon the organizing committee Messrs. Edward Austin, J. Ingersol] Bowditch, Robert W. Hooper, Amos A. Lawrence, James L. Little, John L. Em- mons, Alpheus Hardy, Charles E. Norton, Richard H. Dana, Jr., G. Howland Shaw, and Charles W. Storey. The constitution which was adopted states the purpose of the club to be "the encouragement and dissemination of patriotic sentiment and opinion." The condition of membership was "unqualified loy- alty to the Constitution and the Union of the United States, and unwavering support of the Federal Gov- ernment in its efforts for the suppression of the Rebellion."