The Rittenhouse Club is a private institution in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. It was founded in 1875 to allow "businessmen, intellectuals and artists to socialize in a congenial, friendly atmosphere."

History

The Gentlemen's club was founded in 1874 as the Social Arts Club of Philadelphia by Dr.

William Pepper William Pepper Jr. (August 21, 1843July 28, 1898), was an American physician, leader in medical education in the nineteenth century, and a longtime Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1891, he founded the Free Library of Philadelphia ...

and Silas Weir Mitchell. The club was renamed in late 1875 when it moved to a new building on

Rittenhouse Square Rittenhouse Square is a neighborhood, including a public park, in Center City Philadelphia. The park is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century. The neighborho ...

that had been the home of James Harper. James E. Carpenter, Esquire was later the governor of the Rittenhouse Club. He was instrumental at securing the former home of Congressman James Harper] in 1875.''Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2009'' (DVD format), Subject is RIN 4293; work contains updates to the 1912 book on "Samuel Carpenter and his Descendants." By 1880, the northern side of Rittenhouse Square was the defacto "most fashionable address in Philadelphia." In 1900, the club expanded by adding an adjoining townhouse. This created not only a larger structure but also more prestige fronting the square."The Rittenhouse Club: Henry James’ Favorite Perch" By Steven Ujifusa - January 26, 2015
/ref> The Rittenhouse Club had many of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania along with gentlemen architects such as from the T-Square Club. Members of the Northern Pennsylvania business elite intermingled with architects, professors and clergymen. These included during the fashionable Gilded Age, steamship magnate

Clement Griscom Clement Acton Griscom (March 15, 1841 – November 10, 1912) was an American shipping magnate and financier. Griscom was "without question, the key figure in American transatlantic shipping" by 1900. Biography Griscom was born in 1841 to a long ...

, architect Frank Furness, along with his Shakespeare scholar sibling Horace Furness. The University of Pennsylvania provost Dr. William Pepper, his nephew Senator George Wharton Pepper, and financier E.T. Stotesbury held prominent positions in the Club. After the end of World War II, due to tax loopholes being removed, general business changes and economics caused many members to move to the suburbs. The Rittenhouse Club suffered a slow decline of members and the "building slid from elegance into genteel decay." In the early 1990s the Rittenhouse Club building was finally closed and sold. Today, "Only the discreet letters “RC” on the brass doorplates identify 1811 Walnut Street as the former home of one of Philadelphia's most prestigious clubs. The Beaux-Arts facade remains, but the building behind it is gone."

Early Members

* James Edward Carpenter (1841-1901). *

Louis H. Carpenter Louis Henry Carpenter (February 11, 1839 – January 21, 1916) was a United States Army brigadier general and a recipient of the Medal of Honor for his actions in the American Indian Wars. He dropped out of his junior year at Dickinson College t ...

(1839-1916). * Edward Walter Clark, Jr. (1857-1946). * Frank Furness (1839-1912). * George Fort Gibbs (1870-1942). *

George Byron Gordon George Byron Gordon (1870–1927) was a Canadian-American archaeologist, who graduated from Harvard University in 1894. While studying at Harvard, he participated in excavations at Copan in Honduras under the direction of John G. Owens in 1891. ...

(1870-1927). * Robert Sturgis Ingersoll. * George W. Pepper (1867-1961). *

Owen Wister Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer and historian, considered the "father" of western fiction. He is best remembered for writing '' The Virginian'' and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Biography Early life ...

(1860-1938).

Selected publications

* Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999),, p.264. * Nancy Heinzen, Perfect Square: A History of Rittenhouse Square (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2009), p.95. * Liz Spikol, “Comcast CEO Brian Roberts Buys at 10 Rittenhouse,” CurbedPhilly, October 19, 2012. http://philly.curbed.com/archives/2012/10/19/comcast-ceo-brian-roberts-buys-part-of-10-rittenhouse.php

References

External links

* {{coord, 39.948738, -75.167070, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-PA, display=title Organizations established in 1875 Buildings and structures in Philadelphia Clubs and societies in Philadelphia 1875 establishments in Pennsylvania