Vancouver Club

Last updated
Vancouver Club
Formation27 May 1891;133 years ago (1891-05-27)
TypePrivate club
Headquarters915 W Hastings Street
Location
Website vancouverclub.ca

The Vancouver Club is a private social club in Vancouver, British Columbia. The club was founded in 1891 as a gentlemen's club but in 1993 became mixed-sex. Since its inception it has been the city's preeminent private club. [1] For most of its history, the club's membership was restricted to the city's old money, in contrast with the Terminal City Club, which was more open in its membership policies. As with many traditional gentlemen's clubs, the Vancouver Club struggled to attract younger members after the 1960s. Besides becoming mixed-sex, in recent decades the club has abandoned most of its Victorian customs and has become a more informal, business oriented institution.

Contents

The club has occupied its present quarters since 1914. The clubhouse, designed by Sharp & Thompson, sits on a prominent lot on Hastings Street in the heart of the city's financial district, and is now a designated heritage building.

History

Early years and first clubhouse, 1890–1913

The origin of the Vancouver Club lay in 1890, when, four years after the city's founding, a group of Vancouverites decided the city needed a proper gentlemen's club. This was in part motivated by the fact that Victoria had a club – the Union Club of British Columbia – while Vancouver lacked such an institution. As such, Vancouver was devoid of decent quarters to entertain officers from the Royal Navy. [2] In May of that year, Campbell Sweeny approached W. J. Meakin, the owner of the Lefevre Block at the corner of Seymour and Hastings, and requested if the group might use his facilities. Meakin agree and the club began meeting there, but on 12 July, Meakin evicted them. [3]

Shortly thereafter, the group formed a committee to investigate the purchase of land on which to build a clubhouse. The committee consisted of F. Carter Cotton, J. C. Keith, R. G. Tatlow, and Dr J. Whetham. The group decided on a piece of land on Hastings Street at the end of Hornby Street, that was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The committee wrote CPR president William Cornelius Van Horne with their proposal to purchase a lot, and suggested a price of $50 per front foot. On 24 December 1890, Van Horne wrote to Vancouver's land commissioner, J. M. Browning (who would become the club's first president), and relayed a proposal to sell the land for $100 per front foot. [4]

The first clubhouse, used from 1894 to 1913. The 1903 ballroom is seen at left. Vancouver Club.jpg
The first clubhouse, used from 1894 to 1913. The 1903 ballroom is seen at left.

On 7 April 1891, supporters of the proposed club met at the Hotel Vancouver. They agreed to form a corporation, the Vancouver Club Company Limited, which would be capitalised at $50,000 in 50 shares. On 27 May the group drew up a certificate of incorporation, thus bringing the club into existence as a legal entity, and filed the certificate on 17 June. On 19 June the group met again and passed a resolution to appoint Charles Osborne Wickenden (1851–1934) to design a clubhouse. [5] The corporation met in September to elect a board. The first directors of the club were J. C. Keith, David Oppenheimer, H. Bell-Irving, E. Mahon, and E. E. Rand. [6] Construction on the clubhouse began in early 1892. By the fall of that year the building was nearly complete, however, the club had gone into debt and was unable to furnish the clubhouse. Consequently, a new holding company called the Granville Club Company Limited was formed to manage the club's assets and raise capital to complete the project. The company was incorporated on 8 March 1894. The sale of the land to the Granville Club was finalised on 5 April 1894, when the club acquired 100 feet for $12,500.

The club opened sometime in the spring of 1894. In the basement of the clubhouse there was a billiards room with two Burroughes & Watts tables and bowling alley; on the main floor there was a reception room, wine room, and reading room; the second floor had two card rooms, the main dining room, and the private dining room; and on the third floor were the bedroom for staff and members. The dining room on the second floor exited to a balcony that provided view of Burrard Inlet. The first ballot of new members took place on 10 March 1894, when 74 candidates were elected to the club. Over the next year, an additional 59 members were elected. [7] On 10 August of that year, the club hosted its first ball. From that time on, the club hosted two balls annually: one the first week of July and the other on New Year's Eve. The balls became staples of the Vancouver social calendar and also served as venues for the city's élite families to debut their daughters. In 1903 the club underwent expansion when it constructed a ballroom and a pavilion. To accommodate the expansion, the club purchased an addition 50 feet of land from the CPR at a price of $100 per front foot. This brought the club's land holdings to 177 feet. [8]

Construction of the new clubhouse, 1910–1913

By the time of the club's annual meeting in March 1910, the number of resident members had reached 349, while the club's constitution limited membership at 350. President Charles Hibbert Tupper, the son of one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, appointed a special committee to investigate the expansion of the clubhouse. The committee drew up a plan for a $12,000 expansion and presented this to the membership on 23 June. However, the proposal was voted down with no alternative put forward. [9] On 9 December 1910 another extraordinary meeting was called where the committee put forth a second proposal. This time, the committee proposed the construction of a new clubhouse, increased entrance fees, an assessment on all members, and the increase of membership from 350 to 500. The members met again on 11 January 1911 where the committee put forth two proposals for a new clubhouse. In the first, the club would remain in its current location but sell part of the land. In the second, it would purchase 125 feet of land on the southwest corner of Hornby and Georgia for $125,000 and built a new clubhouse there. On 7 March, members voted 100–35 in favour of selling the current property and moving to Georgia Street. However, at the annual meeting the next day, a petition signed by 44 members was submitted to reconsider the decision from the previous day. On 30 March a second vote was cast, and the membership voted 102–96 in favour of remaining at the current location. [10]

A new committee was struck in December 1911 to oversee the construction of the clubhouse. Elected to it were F. J. Proctor, E. P. Davis, W. F. Salisbury, R. Marpole, W. A. Macdonald, Frederick Buscombe, and George H. Hall. In April 1912, plans for the clubhouse prepared by architects Sharp & Thompson were approved, and the current property was sold for $200,000. By October the club contracted Norton Griffiths Steel Construction Company Limited to build the new clubhouse, and arranged a five-year $150,000 loan from the New York Life Insurance Company at six percent interest. Construction took place through 1913 and the building was complete by that fall. Equipment and furnishing were installed in November and December. [11]

The second clubhouse, 1914–present

The second clubhouse, designed by Sharp & Thompson. The doors opened on 1 January 1914. Vancouver Club, Vancouver.JPG
The second clubhouse, designed by Sharp & Thompson. The doors opened on 1 January 1914.

On New Year's Eve of 1913, a group of members gathered in the old clubhouse for a farewell banquet. When the clock struck midnight, the group gathered in the hall behind club president E. P. Davis and paraded to the new quarters. [12] After the completion of the new clubhouse, the old premises were rented from 1914–1918 to the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, from 1918–1925 to the Great War Veterans Association, and from 1925–1930 to the Quadra Club. On 6 January 1930, demolition of the old clubhouse began and was completed the following month. The lot remains vacant to this day.

In British Columbia, prohibition came into effect on 1 October 1917. On 28 September of that year, the club held the first of a series of "subscription dinners" to mark the occasion. The second such dinner was held on 22 May 1919 in honour of Major-General John William Stewart. Only four months later, Major-General R. G. E. Leckie arranged a dinner at the club for the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, during the latter's tour of Canada. On 22 September 1919, the Prince dined at the club in a member's only dinner. [13] In October 1919 a dinner was held for General Sir Arthur Currie, and in November for Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Jellicoe. Beginning in the 1920s, all governors general were given dinners at the club.

At the end of 1928, the Granville Club Company was dissolved and its assets transferred to the new Vancouver Club Society.

Until the 1970s, the club's members were almost exclusively of English origin and members of the Anglican Church of Canada. As the city's demographics changed and non Anglo-Saxons gained prominence in business, the club loosened gradually its unofficial policy only to admit Anglo Protestants. In 1970, the Hungarian-born Dennis Molnar was admitted. Shortly thereafter, three Chinese – Dr Chan Gunn, Robert H. Lee, and Tong Louie – became members. Louie's sponsor was Lt-Col Charles Merritt VC, whose status ensured there would be no objection. Although two of the club's founders, David and Isaac Oppenheimer, were Jewish, the club had in effect excluded Jews from the time it opened. In 1977 the club allowed its first Jewish member, Chief Justice Nathaniel Nemetz, who was sponsored by John Lauchlan Farris and Walter Stewart Owen. [14]

Despite its liberalised membership policies, in the wake of the 1960s the club struggled to attract new members. The elite from the younger baby boomer generation, which celebrated health and wellness, preferred athletic clubs over dining clubs. Peter Newman explained that "it is at the Lawn Tennis & Badminton Club that the second-generation Vancouver Establishment prefers to spend its time." [15] Businessman Peter M. Brown, who had five relatives in the club but declined a membership himself, relayed, "the Vancouver Club was once at the center of the action, but the new doers aren't joining it. The last thing I can imagine would be going to the Vancouver Club, taking a bottle of Scotch out of my little locker and sitting for the afternoon at a wooden table on a wooden chair." [16] In 1998, Newman said, "the Vancouver Club is a good example of how these once-sacrosanct institutions have faded into insignificance." [17]

In 1986, the Vancouver Club absorbed the University Club of Vancouver, another historic gentlemen's club. The University Club had been founded in 1911, folded in the 1930s, and then reopened in 1955. [18] In 2000 the club absorbed the Georgian Club, a ladies' club that had been founded in 1910. [19] After absorbing the club, the Financial Post reported plans by the Georgians to replace cigar nights with dance lessons. [20]

Presidents

Club histories

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gentlemen's club</span> Members-only private club

A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally set up by men from Britain's upper classes in the 18th and succeeding centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Arts Club</span> Members club in Chelsea, London

Chelsea Arts Club is a private members' club at 143 Old Church Street in Chelsea, London with a membership of over 3,800, including artists, sculptors, architects, writers, designers, actors, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers. The club was established on 21 March 1891, as a rival to the older Arts Club in Mayfair, on the instigation of the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who had been a member of the older club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanglin Club</span> Social club in Singapore

The Tanglin Club is a private members' club in Singapore. The club has 4,000 principal members and reciprocal partnerships with over 130 private clubs. Its memberships begins at $100,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beefsteak Club</span> Several 18th- and 19th-century male dining clubs in Britain and Australia

Beefsteak Club is the name or nickname of several 18th- and 19th-century male dining clubs in Britain and Australia that celebrated the beefsteak as a symbol of patriotic and often Whig concepts of liberty and prosperity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Club of New York</span> Private social club in Manhattan, New York

The University Club of New York is a private social club at 1 West 54th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Founded to celebrate the union of social duty and intellectual life, the club was chartered in 1865 for the "promotion of literature and art". The club is not affiliated with any other University Club or college alumni clubs. The club is considered one of the most prestigious in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Club</span> Gentlemens club in Sydney, Australia

The Australian Club is a private club founded in 1838 and located in Sydney at 165 Macquarie Street. Its membership is men-only and it is the oldest gentlemen's club in the southern hemisphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Yale Club of New York City</span> Private club in Manhattan, New York

The Yale Club of New York City, commonly called The Yale Club, is a private club in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is restricted almost entirely to alumni and faculty of Yale University. The Yale Club has a worldwide membership of over 11,000. The 22-story clubhouse at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue, opened in 1915, was the world's largest clubhouse upon its completion and is still the largest college clubhouse ever built.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Down Town Association</span> Social club in New York City

The Down Town Association in the City of New York, usually referred to as the Down Town Association or the DTA, for short, is a private club in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City.

The Alta Club is a private club in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, named for a local mining district. It was founded in 1883, 13 years before Utah's accession as a state. The Alta Club serves as a forum for business development and social interaction, and offers facilities for dining, social events, business meetings, and health and wellness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Club (New York City)</span> Social club in New York City

The Metropolitan Club is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in March 1891 by a group of wealthy New Yorkers led by the financier John Pierpont Morgan. The clubhouse at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street was designed by McKim, Mead & White and is a New York City designated landmark. The club is controlled by a 25-member board of governors. Initially, only men could become members, though women were given membership privileges in the mid-20th century. Like other Gilded Age social clubs, the Metropolitan Club functioned largely as a meeting place for the wealthy, hosting events such as luncheons, dinners, debutante balls, and business meetings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erie Yacht Club</span>

Established in 1895, the Erie Yacht Club, is a private club located on the shore of Presque Isle Bay in Erie, Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Erie Yacht Club is to maintain, develop, and enlarge the facilities for yachting and boating, to encourage and develop yachting and other aquatic sports, to promote social recreational activities. To improve yachting and boating facilities at the Erie Yacht Club basin and in the area of the Erie Harbor generally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Cavendish Club</span> London private members club

The New Cavendish Club was a London private members' club, run along the lines of a traditional gentlemen's club, although it had been founded as a Ladies-only club. It was located at 44-48 Great Cumberland Place in the Marylebone district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Athenaeum Club, London</span> Club and Grade I listed building in United Kingdom

The Athenaeum is a private members' club in London, founded in 1824. It is primarily a club for men and women with intellectual interests, and particularly for those who have attained some distinction in science, engineering, literature or the arts. Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday were the first chairman and secretary and 51 Nobel Laureates have been members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Club</span> Private club in Toronto

The Toronto Club is a private members' club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded on March 20, 1837, it is the oldest private club in Canada, and third oldest in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia Club</span> City club in the United States

Philadelphia Club was founded in 1834 and is located at 13th and Walnut Streets in Center City Philadelphia. It is the oldest city club in the United States and one of the oldest gentlemen's clubs. Notable members have included George Meade, Owen Wister, and many members of the Du Pont and Biddle families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Boston Club</span> Gentlemens club in New Orleans, LA, USA

The Boston Club is an exclusive private gentlemen's club in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, founded in 1841 as a place for its white members to congregate and partake in the fashionable card game of Boston. It is the third oldest City Club in the United States, after the Philadelphia Club (1834) and Union Club of the City of New York (1836).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calgary Petroleum Club</span> Gentlemens club in Calgary, Canada

The Calgary Petroleum Club is a private social club in Calgary, Alberta. The club was founded in 1948 as a gentlemen's club catered to executives in the petroleum industry, but since 1989 has been mixed-sex. Membership in the Calgary Petroleum Club has been described as the "pinnacle of social and corporate achievement in a one-industry town."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ontario Club</span>

The Ontario Club was a private club in Toronto, Ontario that existed from 1909 to 2010. The club was founded as a gentlemen's club, but in 1978 became mixed-sex. The Ontario was organised as a home for members of the Liberal Party of Canada, and as such, was the counterpart to the Albany Club, which was for members of the Conservative Party of Canada. From 1912 to 1969, the Ontario Club had a clubhouse on Wellington Street. After it sold the property to the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, from 1972 to 2007, it occupied the top floor of Commerce Court South. In 2011, the Ontario Club merged into the National Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Royal Club</span>

The Mount Royal Club is a private social club in Montreal, Quebec. The club was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1899 by a breakaway group from the Saint James's Club, but in 1990 became mixed-sex. In its prime, the Mount Royal was Canada's most prestigious club and was an integral part of Montreal's Golden Square Mile society. During the age when Montreal was the center of commerce in Canada, the club's membership counted many of the country's most powerful executives, bankers, financiers, and industrialists. The Mount Royal's clubhouse on Sherbrooke Street was completed in 1906 and was designed by McKim, Mead & White of New York.

The Quadra Club was a gentlemen's club in Vancouver, British Columbia that existed from 1922 to 1940. Named after Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, the club was an important social institution in Vancouver during the 1920s and 1930s and counted many of the city's élite among its members. For its first several years, the club occupied the former clubhouse of the Vancouver Club. In 1930 it opened a new clubhouse on Hastings Street where it remained for the duration of its existence. During the Great Depression, the club struggled financially and eventually ceased operations in 1940.

References

  1. Robert McDonald, Making Vancouver: Class, Status, and Social Boundaries, 1863-1913, (UBC Press, 1996), 162.
  2. Paul L. Bissley, The History of the Vancouver Club, (Vancouver Club, 1971), 5.
  3. Bissley, 6.
  4. Bissley, 8.
  5. "Wickenden, Charles Osborne | Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada". www.dictionaryofarchitectsincanada.org. Retrieved 2023-09-11.
  6. Bissley, 10.
  7. Bissley, 26.
  8. Bissley, 29.
  9. Bissley, 66.
  10. Bissley, 69-71.
  11. Bissley, 78.
  12. Bissley, 79.
  13. Bissley, 93-96.
  14. Peter Newman, The Acquisitors: The Canadian Establishment Volume 2, (McClelland and Stewart, 1977), 18-19.
  15. Peter Newman, The Canadian Establishment, (McClelland and Stewart, 1975), 374.
  16. Newman, The Acquisitors, 17.
  17. Peter C. Newman, Titans: How the New Canadian Establishment Seized Power, (Viking, 1998), 93.
  18. "Men's clubs negotiating merger," The Province (16 November 1986), 41.
  19. John Schreiner, "Women even use the front door," Financial Post (28 February 2001), C2.
  20. John Schreiner, "Women even use the front door," Financial Post, (28 February 2001), C2.