A.D. Club
Final club at Harvard University, US
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The A.D. Club is a collegiate final club at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was established in 1836 as a chapter of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. It withdrew from the fraternity in 1865, changing its name to the A.D. Club.
| A.D. Club | |
|---|---|
| |
| Founded | 1865 Harvard University |
| Type | Final club |
| Affiliation | Independent |
| Former affiliation | Alpha Delta Phi |
| Status | Active |
| Scope | Local |
| Motto | Aut Birat Aut Abeat "Either Drink or Leave" |
| Chapters | 1 |
| Headquarters | 1 Plympton Street Cambridge, Massachusetts United States |
| Website | www |
History
Alpha Delta Phi
The A.D. Club originated at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1836 as Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.[1] It was founded by editors of the college's monthly literary magazine.[2] It was considered an honorary chapter, with its members having honorary membership to other chapters, because Harvard did not allow secret societies on campus at that time.[3] Its founding members were John Bacon, William Augustus Davis, John Fenwick Eustis, Horatio Emmons Hale, Charles Hayward, Samuel Tenney Hildreth, Charles Stearns Wheeler, and Henry Williams.[4]: 26
In 1846, the faculty allowed the fraternity to have a regular chapter on campus.[3] However, the chapter was abolished in 1857 and had to operate sub rosa.[3] The chapter had no new members in the class of 1859.[1] At that time, the chapter decided to change its name to Haidee, pretending to be a club named after a college boat.[1]
A.D. Club
Finally conceding to the university's anti-secret society stance, the chapter surrendered its charter in 1865 and became a non-secret society called the A.D. Club.[1][2][a] A.D. Club is a final club, meaning that its members cannot join any other similar club.[5][6] It is an all-male society.[7][8] The club's officers include president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, custode, and librarian.[9] After the Porcellian Club, it has been considered the most socially prominent of the final clubs at Harvard.[6]
On February 13, 1917, The A.D. Club of Harvard College was incorporated as a trust.[7] On May 2, 2021, it reorganized as a nonprofit corporation, A.D. Club, Inc.[7][10] In addition, the One Plympton Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit organization, oversees the care of the A.D. Club's historic house.[11] These various organizations are headquartered at 1 Plympton Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Symbols
The A.D. Club's symbol is a bull on a sword. This symbol is carved in stone over the entrance to the society's clubhouse. It is also on the A.D. Club's china, manufactured by Wedgewood.[12] It is also used on early 19th-century club medals, along with the motto Aut Birat Aut Abeat that translates to "Either Drink or Leave".[13]
Clubhouse
Before 1872, the A.D. Club rented rooms in the upper story of a brick house on Palmer Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[1] In 1873, it moved to a building on Brattle Street.[1] In September 1878, the club leased a house on the corner of Mt. Auburn and Dunster Streets; later, alumni raised funds to purchase the property.[1][14]
In April 1899, the club purchased the property from the Helen Niles estate, at the corner of Plympton Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge.[15] There, construction began on a new clubhouse in May 1900.[16] In September 1900, the club moved to its present clubhouse at 1 Plympton Street.[17][7][18] The club occupied the top two stories of the brick and stone building and rented the first floor to a music store and a tailor's shop.[19][7]
A fire started on the first floor of the building on January 18, 1902, causing smoke damage to the club's quarters.[19] In April 1926, there was another fire, requiring $1,000 in repairs.[20] In 2020, the A.D. Club's house was valued at $7,208,500.[7]
Membership
The A.D. Club's members are male students who typically join during their sophomore year.[5][21] In 2015, the A.D. Club decided to remain all-male, despite pressure from the university to go co-educational.[8]
Members are recruited during Punch, a six-week-long process for all of Harvard's final clubs that takes place annually from October to early December.[5][6] A.D. Club membership had traditionally been by invitation only.[21] The club held its first open Punch in the fall of 2017, in response to the university's criticism of final clubs' exclusivity.[5][21] This allows any male student to attend A.D. Club's Punch events and possibly gain membership into the club.[21]
Notable members
Notable members of the A.D. Club include:
- Charles Francis Adams Jr. – president of the Union Pacific Railroad[22]: 48
- Charles Francis Adams III – United States Secretary of the Navy[22]: 63
- Charles Francis Adams IV – electronics industrialist[22]: 80
- Craig Adams – professional ice hockey player
- Larz Anderson – diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to Japan[4]: 59
- Robert Bacon – United States Secretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to France[23]
- James Blake – professional tennis player[24]
- Benjamin C. Bradlee – executive editor of The Washington Post[25]
- Phillips Brooks – Bishop of Massachusetts and author[4]: 38
- Michael Temple Canfield – American diplomatic aide[22]: 89
- Russell S. Codman Jr. – real estate executive and commissioner of the Boston Fire Department[22]: 61
- Charles William Eliot – president of Harvard University[4]: 26
- Manning Ferguson Force – justice of the Superior Court of Cincinnati and recipient of the Medal of Honor[4]: 9
- Charles Edward Grinnell – clergyman, lawyer, and writer[4]: 42
- Edward Everett Hale – author, historian, and Unitarian minister[4]: 28
- Horatio Emmons Hale – ethnologist and philologist[4]: 26
- William Randolph Hearst – United States House of Representatives, newspaper publisher, and founder of Hearst Communications[4]: 58
- Henry Lee Higginson – businessman and philanthropist, founder of Boston Symphony Orchestra[4]: 38
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. – Influential associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court[22]: 50
- Arthur A. Houghton Jr. – president of Steuben Glass Works, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic[22]: 79
- Amo Houghton Jr. – United States House of Representatives[22]: 50
- David McKendree Key – United States Ambassador to Burma and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs[22]: 76
- Samuel Longfellow – clergyman and hymn writer[4]: 28
- James Russell Lowell – U.S. Ambassador to Spain, U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, poet, and Harvard professor[4]: 27
- J. Harleston Parker – architect[4]: 61
- Stephen Henry Phillips – Attorney General of Massachusetts and the Kingdom of Hawaii and Minister of Foreign Affairs and on King Kamehameha V's Privy Council[4]: 29
- Frederick H. Rindge – business magnate and founder of Malibu, California[22]: 60
- Stephen Minot Weld – schoolmaster and member of the Massachusetts Governor's Council[4]: 6
- Charles Stearns Wheeler – farmer and Transcendentalist pioneer[4]: 26
- Mark Carney – Prime Minister of Canada[26]