Word: somersets
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...recounted legend of the founding of the Union Club begins during the Civil War. In 1863, as Col. Robert Gould Shaw, Class of 1860, and the 54th all-Negro regiment was marching past the Somerset Club, the members pulled down their blinds and hissed in disapproval. Shocked and horrified, Norwood Penrose Hallowell, Class of 1861, second-in-command of that regiment, reportedly led a group of his friends out the front door and formed the Union Club just down the street. Not until 1952 would a Hallowell finally agree to join the Somerset...
...This tale is greatly exaggerated. In fact, the greatest number of defections from the Somerset occured, not in 1863, but in 1865, following the death of Lincoln. Throughout the Civil War, a faction of the club was upset by the unpatriotic sentiment of their fellow clubbies who attacked Lincoln for his policies and ridiculed his person. Though there is no hard evidence pertaining to this great walk-out, Alexander Williams, chronicler of the Boston clubs, hypothesizes that an impolitic member may have risen and given a toast to John Wilkes Booth. As one of the founders of the Union Club...
...rather than a converted residence. Its massive granite exterior displays two stories of porticoed balconies. The inside boasts an enormous second floor reading room and a massive formal dining room on the fourth floor with 50-foot vaulted ceilings. The fifth floor offers sleeping accomodations. Unlike clubs like the Somerset, the Algonquin Club, since its founding in 1886, is all about business. The Club was founded by General Charles H. Taylor, the same man who resurrected the Boston Globe...
...Prestige-wise, the Algonquin ranks second to the Somerset. Family bloodlines are not as consequential as the corporate credit lines. Capitalism proves itself in the Algonquin to be the great equalizer—in the early ’80s, the club’s membership was predominantly WASP, but today its thousand members reflect the growing racial diversity of the city’s corporate population...
...Somerset was too posh and the Union too dull, they decided, and the Tavern filled a certain demand in the Boston social landscape. The Tavern has always recruited members with an inclination toward the arts, especially the performing arts, in order to replenish the talent pool for the yearly amateur theatrical production. The Tavern produces an unparalleled spirit of loyalty amongst its members...