Arlington Club

Last updated
Arlington Club
Arlington club portland oregon.jpg
The Arlington Club in 2010.
Downtown Portland.png
Red pog.svg
Location811 SW Salmon Street
Portland, Oregon
Coordinates 45°31′04″N122°40′55″W / 45.517889°N 122.681833°W / 45.517889; -122.681833
Built1909
Architect Whidden & Lewis
Architectural style Georgian Revival
MPS Historic Resources in Downtown Portland, Oregon, MPS
NRHP reference No. 10000599
Added to NRHPAugust 30, 2010

The Arlington Club is a private social club organized in 1867 by 35 business and banking leaders of Portland in the US state of Oregon. First called the Social Club and later renamed the Arlington Club, it offered its all-male, largely white membership consisting of banking and business leadership.

Contents

During its first century, a total of more than 3,300 men were club members at one time or another. Many, in addition to pursuing their livelihoods, were officers in civic, cultural, philanthropic, or social organizations, and some held government posts at the local, state, or federal levels.

For about 100 years, the club excluded Jews and minorities regardless of other criteria, and for 123 years it excluded women. In response to public pressure, it broadened the membership criteria for men by the late 1960s and for women in 1990. As of 2016, the Arlington Club continues to gather at its building in downtown Portland.

History

In 1867, Simeon Reed and 34 other Portland men organized what they called the Social Club to "fraternize for mutual enjoyment and relaxation, and to provide a meeting place for discussing their own and Portland's destiny". [1] The club, "the social headquarters of Portland's male elite" [1] was dominated through the late 20th century by largely white, mostly Anglo-Saxon men from the city's business and banking leadership. [2] Among the founders were John C. Ainsworth (Ainsworth National Bank), Henry Failing (merchandising, shipping, iron and steel, First National Bank), William S. Ladd (merchandising, transportation, flour milling, Ladd & Tilton Bank), Donald Macleay (merchandising, shipping, United States National Bank), George Weidler (steamships, real estate, lumber), and many others who made a lasting impact on the city. [3] [n 1]

Paul G. Merriam describes the city's early social elite, including the members of the Social Club, as "primarily businessmen and their close associates, such as lawyers and editors". [4] The social elite were heads of families who "held property valued at $50,000 or more, and who were officers in one or more civic, cultural, philanthropic, or social organizations." [4] Merriam counts 38 such men in Portland in 1870, [4] 31 of whom at one time or another held local government office and several of whom held state and federal offices. [5] Most were nominal Republicans; some were Democrats, but they crossed party lines depending on issues and personalities. [6]

Although one of the club's goals was to pattern itself after gentlemen's clubs of Europe and older American cities, it also had "civic interests at heart and civic leaders as members...". [7] However, according to Portland historian E. Kimbark MacColl, club members at times equated self-interest with civic interest:

In the 1890s at least, what was good for "them" was usually considered good for "the city". Rarely did the members distinguish between the public interest and their own private interests if actions and words have been reported accurately. It would appear that many of the major decisions affecting Portland's business and political life were actually reached during "informal" discussions held within the club's portals. [8]

Big banks, utilities, railroads, and U.S. Senators from Oregon were well represented within the membership. Generally in the 1890s four or five club members were part of the Oregon Legislature. Three other clubs—the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club (1891), the Waverly Golf Club (1896), and the University Club (1896)—formed during the 1890s, and memberships often overlapped with the Arlington Club. The Concordia Club, formed in 1878, was the Jewish version of the Arlington Club, which was at the time not open to Jews. [9]

Among the club's self-generated list of notable members between 1867 and 1967 were George H. Williams, appointed Chief Justice of the Territorial Courts of Oregon in 1853, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1864, named United States Attorney General in 1871, and elected mayor of Portland in 1892. Another was Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, general counsel for an electric utility in the early 20th century, patron of the arts, and author of a biography of John McLoughlin. Journalist Harvey W. Scott, a mid-19th-century editor of The Oregonian and author of a six-volume history of Oregon, is on the list as is Lewis A. McArthur, a 20th-century electric utility executive and author of Oregon Geographic Names . University presidents, a bishop, and an Air Force general are among others on the list. Well-known guests of the club have included U.S. presidents William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Ulysses S. Grant, author Aldous Huxley, heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, General George C. Marshall, bridge designer Ralph Modjeski, and many others. [10]

Meeting places, buildings

A lithograph of the Arlington Club (West Park and Alder) from the first page of the April 4, 1891 edition of The Illustrated Western Shore 1881 Arlington Club.jpeg
A lithograph of the Arlington Club (West Park and Alder) from the first page of the April 4, 1891 edition of The Illustrated Western Shore

For its first 14 years, the club members met in dining places, hotels, government chambers, or "any place available". [7] When the club reorganized and renamed itself the Arlington Club in 1881, it had grown to a membership of about 100. [11] At that time, it moved into its first clubhouse, the former J.C. Ainsworth residence at Southwest Third Avenue at Pine Street, [12] which became available when the Ainsworths moved to California. [13] It built its second clubhouse, at West Park Avenue and Alder Street, which it occupied from 1892 to 1910 until moving to the building the club still occupies, on Southwest Salmon Street facing the South Park Blocks. Architects for the latter structure, a four-story, low-rise building of brick and terra cotta in a neo-classical style, [14] were William M. Whidden and Ion Lewis. [15] The Park Blocks just south of the clubhouse are flanked by churches, the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society Museum, and Portland State University, as well as other buildings forming part of the city's core. [16] The building was nominated to become a National Register of Historic Places building in April 2010, [17] and was listed on the registry in August of that year. [18]

Membership changes

From the beginning, only business and community leaders were invited to join the club, [19] a total of 3,300 of them during the club's first century, [20] but other exclusions applied as well. Jews and ethnic minorities were kept out of the Arlington Club until the late 1960s after Portland's Jewish leaders including Gus Solomon, a federal judge, criticized the exclusion rules. [19] Change occurred slowly; The Oregonian newspaper reported that in 1989 Jews and ethnic minorities made up less than 3 percent of the Arlington Club membership and that the membership included no African Americans. [19]

In October 1989, citing a federal law banning discrimination on the basis of gender, the Portland City Council, led by Commissioner Earl Blumenauer, passed a unanimous resolution urging the Arlington Club and the University Club, another men-only club, to admit women. [21] [n 2] At the time, the Arlington Club had about 500 members and did not normally allow women inside its building. [21] [n 3] During the City Council meeting, five women, representing the Multnomah Bar Association, the Commercial Club of Portland, the Association of Black Lawyers, Oregon Women Lawyers, and the American Civil Liberties Union, testified that the clubs' discrimination barred them from business opportunities afforded to men. Representing the Oregon Eagle Forum, a woman, the only person testifying against the resolution, cited a constitutional right to assemble without government intrusion. [21]

In March 1990, the Arlington Club members voted 320 to 145 to allow women to join the club; 5 members abstained, and others of the 525 members did not vote. Since the ratio of "yes" to "no" votes was 68.8 percent, slightly more than the two-thirds supermajority required to change the club's rules, women, after 123 years of exclusion, were thereafter admitted. [24] The club building was subsequently remodeled to add women's restrooms and a lounge, and women were officially allowed on February 11, 1991. [22] [25] As of 2011, the Arlington Club still meets at its building on Southwest Salmon Street in downtown Portland. [26]

On November 30, 2015, the president at the time John Bradley, the CEO of R&H Construction [27] at the time resigned from presidency as well as surrendering his Arlington Club membership soon after the publication of his arrest for domestic violence. [28] [29] Bradley was convicted on his domestic violence charges on December 2, 2015. [30]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Arlington Club's self-published history lists the founders' names, as recorded on the original written agreement establishing the club, as follows: Jno Green; T.A. Davis; M.A. King; W.K. (last name not identifiable); S.G. Reed; L.M. Starr; S.N. Arrigoni; Donald Macleay; Geo W. Weidler; C.H. Lewis; Henry Failing; John McCraken; Alex P. Ankeny; E.J. DeHart; Edwin Russell; R.R. Thompson; Al Zieber; A.B. Richardson; J.A. Chapman; S.B. Parrish; W.W. Page; Charles E. Calef; E. Milwain; Richard B. Knapp; H.C. Leonard; Ladd & Tilton; J.M. Crawford; J.C. Ainsworth; L.C. Fuller; H.D. Green; James W. Barker; T.J. Carter; A.M. Loryea; Samuel M. Smith, and J. Myrick. [3]
  2. ↑ In October 1989, the University Club, which also met in downtown Portland, had about 40 women among its 900 members. However, the women had no voting rights, paid lower dues, and were not allowed to enter the men's grill during lunch. [21] Later in 1989, the club voted to allow women as full members. [22]
  3. ↑ During the club's first century, there were at least three formal exceptions to the general rule. Women were admitted to a reception in 1892 for the club's new building on West Park Avenue and Alder Street; they were admitted to a dinner and reception in 1910 for the club's second new building, and they were received in 1967 to celebrate the club centennial. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oregon Historical Society</span> History organization

The Oregon Historical Society(OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preserves, and makes available materials of historical character and interest, and collaborates with other groups and individuals with similar aims. The society operates the Oregon History Center that includes the Oregon Historical Society Museum in downtown Portland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dunthorpe, Oregon</span> Unincorporated community in the state of Oregon, United States

Dunthorpe is an unincorporated suburb of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is located just south of the Portland city limits and north of the Multnomah County line on the west side of the Willamette River. Lewis & Clark College, Tryon Creek State Park, and Lake Oswego are nearby. It has been designated as a Census Designated Place since 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Purcell</span>

"Diamond" Jim Purcell was an officer, chief detective, and then the Chief of Police in Portland, Oregon from January 1, 1953 to December 31, 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Portland, Oregon</span>

The history of the city of Portland, Oregon, began in 1843 when business partners William Overton and Asa Lovejoy filed to claim land on the west bank of the Willamette River in Oregon Country. In 1845 the name of Portland was chosen for this community by coin toss. February 8, 1851, the city was incorporated. Portland has continued to grow in size and population, with the 2010 Census showing 583,776 residents in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry W. Corbett</span> American businessman, politician, and philanthropist (1827–1903)

Henry Winslow Corbett was an American businessman, politician, civic benefactor, and philanthropist in the state of Oregon. A native of Massachusetts, he spent his early life in the East and New York before moving to the Oregon Territory. He was a prominent figure in the early development of Portland, Oregon, and was involved in numerous business ventures there, starting in general merchandise. His interests later included banking, finance, insurance, river shipping, stage lines, railways, telegraph, iron and steel and the erection of Portland downtown buildings among other enterprises. A Republican, he served as a United States senator from 1867 to 1873.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurelhurst, Portland, Oregon</span> Neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Laurelhurst is a neighborhood of vintage homes and undulating streets surrounding a park of the same name, straddling the NE and SE sections of Portland. Stone markers flank the entrances to the area. The center of the neighborhood, Coe Circle, contains a gilded equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, which is a World War I war memorial. The Laurelhurst Historic District was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multnomah College</span> Two-year college in Portland, Oregon, US (1887–1969)

Multnomah College, was a two-year, private college located in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1897 as the Educational Department of the YMCA in downtown Portland, the school was the oldest fully accredited two-year college in the U.S. Pacific Northwest at the time it was absorbed by the University of Portland (UP) in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doernbecher Children's Hospital</span> Hospital in Oregon, United States

Doernbecher Children's Hospital is an academic teaching children's hospital associated with Oregon Health & Science University located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1926, it is the first full-service children's hospital in the Pacific Northwest, and provides full-spectrum pediatric care. Doernbecher Children's hospital is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the United States' top pediatric hospitals in multiple medical specialties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portland Public Market</span>

The Portland Public Market was a public market in Portland, Oregon, United States, built in 1933 at a widely advertised cost of $1 million. Controversial and ambitious, it was intended to replace the Carroll Public Market, centered at southwest Fifth and Yamhill Streets; the Portland Public Market was never popular and was in financial trouble virtually from the day it opened.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William S. Ladd</span> American politician

William Sargent Ladd was an American politician and businessman in Oregon. He twice served as Portland, Oregon's mayor in the 1850s. A native of Vermont, he was a prominent figure in the early development of Portland, and co-founded the first bank in the state in 1859. Ladd also built the first brick building in Portland and was a noted philanthropist. Part of his former estate, the Ladd Carriage House, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Lamb Eliot</span>

Thomas Lamb Eliot was an Oregon pioneer, minister of one of the first churches on the west coast of the U.S., president of the Portland Children's Home, president of the Oregon Humane Society, a director of the Art Association, director of the Library Association, and founder of Reed College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Club of Portland</span> American nonprofit organization

The City Club of Portland is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization based in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1916, the organization had approximately 1500 members and a paid staff of 4 in 2013. The former Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, served as executive director 2013 to 2015. The current executive director is Julia Meier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Macleay</span>

Donald Macleay was a 19th century merchant and banker in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Scotland, he emigrated at the age of 16 with his parents to the Canadian province of Quebec before relocating as an adult to California and, later, Oregon. With his business partner William Corbitt, he established a highly profitable wholesale and shipping business in Portland that centered on groceries and liquor, then wheat, salmon, and timber exports. He invested in Oregon railroads, served for a time as president of the Portland Board of Trade, and is generally credited with founding the U.S. National Bank of Portland, of which he was president toward the end of his life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cicero Hunt Lewis</span> Merchant and investor

Cicero Hunt Lewis (1826–1897) was a prominent merchant and investor in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon during the second half of the 19th century. Born in New Jersey, Lewis and a friend, Lucius Allen, traveled across the continent in 1851 to open a dry goods and grocery store in what was then a frontier town of about 800 people living along the west bank of the Willamette River. By 1880, their firm, Allen & Lewis, had become one of the leading wholesale grocery companies on the West Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Wasserman</span> American politician

Philip Wasserman was the mayor of Portland, Oregon, United States from 1871 to 1873. He was a pioneer banker and co-founder of the First National Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Washington Weidler</span> Transportation agent, merchant

George Washington Weidler was a 19th-century transportation agent, investor, and business owner in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Pennsylvania, he moved as a young man to St. Louis, Missouri, where he began a career in merchandising and shipping. His work gradually took him further west, to Utah Territory, Nevada Territory, California, and in 1866 to Oregon, where he remained for the rest of his life.

There are several well-known and commonly used nicknames referring to Portland, Oregon.

Ernest Boyd MacNaughton was president of the First National Bank of Oregon, then chairman, president of The Oregonian publishing company, and president of Reed College. He is the namesake of the ACLU E.B. MacNaughton Civil Liberties Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Coffin</span>

Stephen Coffin was an investor, promoter, builder, and militia officer in mid-19th century Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Maine, he moved to Oregon City in 1847, and in 1849 he bought a half-interest in the original Portland townsite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elliott R. Corbett</span>

Elliott Ruggles Corbett (1884–1963) was a Portland, Oregon, banker, business leader, owner and builder of a number of the city's buildings, as well as civic leader and benefactor. He was born 29 June 1884 in Portland Oregon and died 2 May 1963 at his home in Dunthorpe, Portland, Oregon, aged 78. He and his two brothers, Henry Ladd Corbett (1881–1957) and Hamilton Forbush Corbett were required at a young age to take on the burdens of the businesses, banking and real estate holdings that their grandfather Henry W. Corbett had developed, as their father Henry Jagger Corbett had both died, predeceasing their own father.

References

  1. 1 2 MacColl, Merchants, p. 134
  2. ↑ MacColl, Growth, p. 3
  3. 1 2 Montgomery, p. 2
  4. 1 2 3 Merriam, p. 42
  5. ↑ Merriam, pp. 43–44
  6. ↑ Merriam, pp. 50–51
  7. 1 2 Montgomery, p. 1
  8. ↑ MacColl, Shaping, p. 174
  9. ↑ MacColl, Shaping, pp. 175–176
  10. ↑ Montgomery, pp. 53–72
  11. ↑ Merriam, pp. 48–49
  12. ↑ Montgomery, p. 61
  13. ↑ MacColl, Merchants, p. 185
  14. ↑ "Arlington Club". Emporis Corporation. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved February 10, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Arlington Club, (Portland, Oregon)". UO Libraries. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved February 6, 2010.
  16. ↑ Montgomery, p. 49
  17. ↑ Leeson, Fred (May 1, 2010). "Portland's Arlington Club still a bit of a mystery". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on May 4, 2010. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
  18. ↑ Bingham, Larry (September 14, 2010). "Arlington Club lands spot on National Register of Historic Places". The Oregonian . Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
  19. 1 2 3 Rooks, Judy (December 3, 1989). "New Era Knocking on Club's Doors". The Oregonian. p. B01.
  20. ↑ Montgomery, p. 3
  21. 1 2 3 4 Ames, Sarah Carlin (October 5, 1989). "Council Asks 2 Clubs to Admit Women". The Oregonian. p. A01.
  22. 1 2 Laatz, Joan (March 29, 1990). "Arlington Club to Admit Women". The Oregonian. p. B01.
  23. ↑ Montgomery, p. 25
  24. ↑ "Arlington Club". oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2018-06-04.
  25. ↑ Filips, Janet (February 9, 1991). "Men of the Arlington Club Finally Open Door to Women". The Oregonian. p. C01.
  26. ↑ "Arlington Club". Arlington Club. Retrieved April 21, 2011.
  27. ↑ Hammill, Luke (2015-11-26). "CEO of Portland construction firm facing assault charge". oregonlive. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  28. ↑ Andrews, Garrett (2015-12-17). "R&H Construction CEO stepping down". Daily Journal of Commerce. Retrieved 2023-09-08. Following publication of his arrest, Bradley resigned his presidency of the Arlington Club and gave up his membership.
  29. ↑ "John Bradley Resigns Presidency of Arlington Club, Gives Up Membership". Willamette Week. 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
  30. ↑ "R&H Construction CEO Steps Down Following Guilty Plea". Willamette Week. 2015-12-23. Retrieved 2023-09-08.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.