About the Club — History
A Proper Welcome
In 1931, on the site of the former home of William and Henry James, Abbot Lawrence Lowell, President of Harvard University and Clifford Herschel Moore, Dean of the Faculty, decided to provide a shelter where male members of the faculty could meet for conversation, university business and find food, drink and comfortable beds. Both Lowell and Moore were stern Unitarians with blameless Boston pedigrees, rigid notions of frugality, and a sense that they held in their privileged hands a sacred trust. The result of these efforts was the Harvard University Faculty Club, an institution very different from the one you see today.
The Club was also considered to be a sort of training ground for young faculty, a safe and congenial surround where they would be exposed to the civilizing traditions and values of Harvard University so cherished by the "socially older" professoriate. A Puritanical horror of ostentation and conspicuous consumption insured a Spartan setting. The interior with bare windows and walls, uncarpeted floors and sagging furniture looked much like bus station waiting rooms. It was not until someone discovered that the board was spending $100.00 per month re-gluing broken-down furniture that the wisdom of putting up with rickety donated tables and chairs was questioned.
Until 1968 when the Board voted to recognize the probable permanence of the female sex and admit them to full membership, women were confined to the Ladies Dining Room, now the North Dining Room... The Club's social calendar was packed with events from the Junior Supper Dances for faculty teenagers, Punch-Teas after home football games (considered proper and sufficient refreshment), to picnics and boating parties. Behind this veil of propriety, however, fissures of disagreement sometimes erupted. One such was The Coat and Tie Affair. This matter, concerning the dress code, ended only after months of heated exchanges and a vote of the entire membership. The outcome was an overwhelming majority favoring "keeping up appearances."" Details of this event can be found in the Archives.
In the dining rooms the Long Table, "reserved" for the most distinguished of faculty members, engaged in the art of conversation with as much wit and vigor as could be mustered. All members happily consumed horsemeat, obtained from the racetrack at Suffolk Downs. It was so popular, chicken-fried and served up with onion gravy that it stayed on the menu until 1985 when the new French chef refused to cook frozen food. A Sunday Buffet, an effort to innovate, failed as the charge of $00.99 was found to be excessive. Bedrooms and Breakfast were charged at $6.00 per night for those who could afford it and less for those who could not.
The business of running of the Club was conducted along the strict lines of conduct that had been instilled in members at their mothers' knees. Discussions regarding "money" were traditionally confined to sites such as banks or investment firms. Whether a member would settle his debts was not a matter of serious concern, for a gentleman's honor was never impugned. The eventual financial ruin overtook the Club slowly, as families moved to the suburbs and membership declined, and it was not until 1985 the New York Times quoted the Vice-President for Administration as saying that the managerial challenge of the Harvard Faculty Club "bordered on an absolute impossibility." In 1989 President Derek Bok approached the new Vice-President for Administration, Sally Zeckhauser, with a request that she turn her attention to the Faculty Club. Undaunted by the unfavorable reports and conditions, she concluded that under proper direction and management there was no reason the Club could not only operate successfully but also perform at a substantially higher level. The university agreed to finance her project, and the rest is history.
Photos courtesy of the Harvard Archives, HUV-152.
Clockwise from left:
Architect's drawing of the new Club, 1931; Main Dining Room, 1939; Main Dining Room, 1931; Lunch Menu, 1944; Ladies' Lounge, 1942; Ladies' Lounge, 1931 (now North Dining Room).
Once supplied by the Suffolk Downs Race Track, the delectable horse meat steak, chicken fried and smothered in onions and gravy, stayed on the menu from 1944 until 1985, when the new French Chef refused to prepare frozen food.