The Delphic Club | |
 | |
   | |
| Location | 9 Linden Street Cambridge, MA |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°22′20.6″N71°07′03.1″W / 42.372389°N 71.117528°W |
| Built | 1903 |
| Architect | James Purdon H'1895 |
| Architectural style | neo-Georgian style |
| Part of | Harvard Square Historic District (ID86003654) |
The Delphic Club is an all-male social group at Harvard University founded in 1846.
The club originated in 1845 as an all-male chapter of the Delta Phi fraternity, known as the Alpha of Massachusetts. [1] Twenty members were elected during the chapter's two years of existence. Then, Harvard's faculty forced the fraternity chapter to disband in 1848. [2]
In 1885, the Grand Council of the Delta Phi decided to re-establish a chapter at Harvard known as the Zeta chapter. [3] However, the chapter maintained loose ties with the fraternity. Zeta's members voted to become a Final Club in 1900; it severed ties with the national fraternity in 1901. [3] A famous, apocryphal story claims that J. P. Morgan Jr. joined Delta Phi when he didn't get into his club of choice and, then, financed the creation of his own club, now known as the Delphic, from the fraternity. [1] [4] However, Morgan did not join The Delphic Club until 1913 and as the group's president the spring semester 1914. [5]
The Delphic is officially recognized by Harvard University. [6] However, it was not recognized or officially affiliated with the university between 1984 and 2018. [6] Ties with Harvard were severed in 1984 as a consequence of the Title IX provision of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972, which would have required the club to admit female members. [7] [6]
In May 2016, Harvard announced a new sanctions policy that targeted members of single-gender social organizations, effective as of August 2017. [8] [9] The policy prohibited members of single-gender societies and Greek letter organizations from receiving certain scholarships or from serving as an athletic team captain or in campus leadership positions. [9] In August 2017, the Delphic and The Bee Club agreed to share premises as a precursor to an eventual merger, with The Bee Club moving into the Delphic clubhouse at 9 Linden Street. [9] [10] The Bee Club is Harvard's oldest all-female final club, founded in 1991. [11] [9]
In September 2018, Harvard recognized the merged Delphic-Bee Club as a gender-inclusive social organization. [6] As a result, members of the Delphic and Bee were not subject to the college's sanctions policy. [6] Although the two groups shared a clubhouse, they did not merge their punch, or their recruitment processes. [8] The two clubs agreed to separate in August 2020 after Harvard dropped its sanctions policy in response to a lawsuit filed in federal court. [8]
The club's emblem is three torches on a blue field. Its slogan is "Three times three, long life to thee." The club's traditions include formal, black-tie dinners with alumni and undergraduates and a ban on non-members in the club. The club recruits members through a series of invited dinners and formal dances in a process known as "Punching".
In 1885, the fraternity's nickname, The Gashouse, was chosen by the founders Ward Thoron, Herbert Lyman, and Boylston Beal. One version says that The Gashouse name was chosen because the group was small but would light its gas lights after hours to announce that its members were "home". [1] [4] Another versions say that the Delta Phi house at 72 Mount Auburn Street was one of the first homes in Cambridge to have electricity and its main switch allowed members light all of the chapter house's windows at once; it was ironically called The Gas House because of its "the absence of gas." [12] [13]
With the opening of the new clubhouse in 1903, after the break from Delta Phi, the members began calling the club The Gas and members were "the gas house gang". [5] This was adopted as the official name in 1908. Soon thereafter, the name was changed to The Delphic Club, a portmanteau of "Delta Phi Club".
The club was originally located at 52 and 59 Brattle Street in Cambridge before moving to 72 Mount Auburn Street where it was housed from 1887 to 1903. [13] The current home of the club is at 9 Linden Street, steps from Harvard Yard and a few blocks from Harvard Square. [1] It was designed by James Purdon H'1895 in the neo-Georgian style and was first occupied in 1902. Its design features red brick and cornices typical of the Harvard Yard. Its interior contains no living quarters but has regulation squash courts large common spaces and an oversized formal dining room on the second floor for large events. [14] [15] Its basement has a paneled living room for entertaining visitors. It also has a sauna and locker room with showers. [15]
The clubhouse was renovated in 1974-75 for general conditions. A more comprehensive renovation was undertaken in 2013-14, including updating the club's plumbing and electrical systems. The renovation revealed pooled water beneath the club's floor and backyard caused by the destruction of the club's drainage system during the construction of Farkas Hall (aka the Hasty Pudding Clubhouse). This has resulted in litigation between the Delphic Club and Harvard University. [16]
The Delphic Club House is a contributing property to the Harvard Square Historic District.
Stories of The Gas House are recounted by several authors, including Delphic alum Charles Macomb Flandrau in his books Harvard Episodes (1897) and Diary of A Freshman (1901). [18] In Harvard Episodes, Flandrau depicts the multi-generational aspects of the club in describing an old graduate, "If they didn't actually know him, they knew of him. Even this crust is sweet to the returned graduate whose age is just far enough removed from either end of life's measure to make it intrinsically unimportant." [21] : 258
George de la Ruiz Santayana was made an honorary member in 1890 and spent a great deal of time at the Delphic; this is portrayed in Joel Porte's book, Santayana at the Gas (1964). Santayana included the club in several of his poems including "The Judgement of Paris, or, How the First-ten Man Chooses a Club," which concludes with:
Whatever follows: nor, until he die
Will Paris grieve he chose the Delta Phi [22]
At the opening of the new clubhouse on November 20, 1903, Santayana wrote a dedicatory poem to Gas House, which also served as a farewell to the club. [23]
In his novel The Ancient Nine (2006), Ian K. Smith's protagonist is punched by The Delphic Club. [17] Smith notes that the novel is largely autobiographical, telling of his time as a member of The Delphic Club. [17]
Delta Kappa Epsilon (ΔΚΕ), commonly known as DKE or Deke, is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen sophomores who were discontented with the existing fraternity order on campus. The men established a fellowship where the candidate most favored was "he who combined in the most equal proportions the Gentleman, the Scholar, and the Jolly Good Fellow."
Alpha Delta Phi is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. Alpha Delta Phi was originally founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. Its more than 50,000 alumni include former presidents and senators of the United States, and justices of the Supreme Court.
Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1848. It is headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad. The fraternity has over 200 active chapters and colonies in over 44 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces and has initiated more than 310,000 men between 1848 and 2024. There are over 180,000 living alumni. Phi Delta Theta chartered house corporations own more than 135 houses valued at over $200 million as of summer 2024. There are nearly 100 recognized alumni clubs across the U.S. and Canada.
Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ), commonly known as Fiji, is a social fraternity with 139 active chapters and 13 colonies across the United States and Canada. It was founded at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, in 1848. Along with Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Gamma Delta forms a half of the Jefferson Duo. Since its founding, the fraternity has initiated more than 211,000 brothers. The nickname FIJI is used commonly by the fraternity due to Phi Gamma Delta bylaws limiting the use of the Greek letters.
Delta Gamma (ΔΓ), commonly known as DG, is a women's fraternity in the United States and Canada with over 250,000 initiated members. It has 150 collegiate chapters and more than 200 alumnae groups. The organization's executive office is in Columbus, Ohio. Delta Gamma is one of 26 national sororities under the umbrella organization of the National Panhellenic Conference.
Delta Upsilon (ΔΥ), commonly known as DU, is a collegiate men's fraternity founded on November 4, 1834, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is the sixth-oldest, all-male, college Greek-letter organization founded in North America. It is popularly and informally known as "DU" or "Delta U" and its members are called "DUs". Although historically found on the campuses of small New England private universities, Delta Upsilon currently has 76 chapters/colonies across the United States and Canada. A number of its buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Delta Phi (ΔΦ) is a fraternal society established in Schenectady, New York on November 17, 1827. Its first chapter was founded at Union College, and was the third and final member of the Union Triad. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's American College Fraternities characterized the fraternity's membership as being largely drawn from the old knickerbocker families of New York and New Jersey. Today, the fraternity consists of ten active chapters along the East Coast of the United States, and also uses the names "St. Elmo," "St. Elmo Hall," or merely "Elmo" for its relation to Erasmus of Formia, the patron saint of sailors, and the Knights of Malta.
Harvard College has several types of social clubs. These are split between gender-inclusive clubs recognized by the college, and unrecognized single-gender clubs which were subject to College sanctions in the past. The Hasty Pudding Club holds claim as the oldest collegiate social club in America, tracing its roots back to 1770. The next oldest institutions, dating to 1791, are the traditionally all-male final clubs. Fraternities were prominent in the late 19th century as well, until their initial expulsions and then eventual resurrection off Harvard's campus in the 1990s. From 1991 onwards, all-female final clubs as well as sororities began to appear. Between 1984 and 2018, no social organizations were recognized by the school due to the clubs' refusal to become gender-inclusive.
Phi Mu Delta (ΦΜΔ) is a national fraternity founded on March 1, 1918, at the Universities of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The fraternity is focused on the ideals of democracy, service, and brotherhood.
Phi Sigma Alpha (ΦΣΑ), commonly known as La Sigma, is a Puerto Rican fraternity originally established as the Sigma Delta Alpha Fraternity on October 22, 1928, at the University of Puerto Rico by twelve students and a professor. Phi Sigma Alpha can trace its roots back to 1898 to the Union Hispano Americana, as well as to the first ever Greek letter Hispanic-oriented fraternity, Sigma Iota, established in 1912. By 1998 there were over 4,376 members.
Delta Phi Epsilon (ΔΦΕ) or Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Council the largest national American professional foreign service fraternity and sorority. Founded on January 25, 1920, it was the first fraternity dedicated to careers in foreign diplomacy in trade. Its Alpha chapter went on in the first half of the twentieth century to colonize new chapters at many other universities throughout the country, although most chapters went defunct in the latter half of the century. In 1973 Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Sorority was founded, with its Alpha chapter at Georgetown University. As of 2021, there remained ten active collegiate chapters, half of which were created between 2016 and 2018.
St. Elmo Society, or Elmo's, is a secret society for seniors at Yale University. It was founded in 1889 as part of the national fraternity, Delta Phi (ΔΦ). St. Elmo's is a member of the “ancient eight consortium” which includes the seven other original societies at Yale: Skull and Bones, Scroll and Key, Berzelius, Wolf's Head, Book and Snake, Elihu, and Mace and Chain.
The Spee Club is a final club at Harvard University. After voting to adopt a gender-neutral membership policy in September 2015, the Spee Club became the first Harvard final club to admit members regardless of gender. The clubhouse is located at 76 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Charles Macomb Flandrau (1871–1938), was an American author and essayist.
Gamma Phi Society was a college literary society founded prior to 1833 at the Hamilton Literary & Theological Institution in Hamilton, New York. Gamma Phi Society was the predecessor of the national Delphic Fraternity and the Beta Theta chapter of the Beta Theta Pi at Colgate University.
The Dickey Club, often referred to as "The Dickey Tradition" or simply “The Dickey”, was a private social club at Harvard University, originally founded in 1851 as a chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The Club included members such as former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and financier J.P. Morgan Jr. The Dickey was absorbed by the Hasty Pudding Club in 1924.