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In 1905, an old building from the Bloomingdale Asylum, South Hall, was refitted to serve as a faculty clubhouse or the first Men's Faculty Club. The Club was open to all officers of administration and instruction in the University and held its first meeting in January 1906. The Club had dining rooms, a reading room, a smoking room and, upstairs, bedrooms which were occupied on occasion by members or guests of the University. The original Faculty Club stood at the northeast corner of Broadway and 116th Street until it was razed in 1922 to make room for the original home of the School of Business, Dodge Hall. A new clubhouse was erected in 1923 known as Faculty House, situated at Morningside Drive and 117th Street. Faculty House had private offices, billiards rooms, dining rooms, a cocktail lounge, and a separate reception room for women guests. There was a library on the second floor with chess and card tables and a collection of books and magazines for the leisure hours of its members. Members could also use the club to host events such as weddings, dances, and parties.
The Women's Faculty Club first met in 1913. All women on the teaching staffs of Barnard College, Teachers College, Horace Mann and Speyer Schools, and those holding certain administrative positions were eligible for membership. The object of the club was "to promote good fellowship, a community of interests, and a closer co-operation among the women of the University and its allied institutions." The new Club originally met in an apartment on Morningside Drive, generously placed at its disposal by Mrs. Helen Hartley Jenkins, of the Board of Trustees of Teachers College. Its first elected President was Professor Adelaide Nutting of Teachers College and its First Vice-President was Dean Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College. In 1925, the Women's Faculty Club was given a permanent home on campus in rooms on the first and second floors of the new Johnson Hall, the women's residence hall now known as Wien Hall. An enclosed passage connected it with the Men's Faculty House.
Due to economic difficulties, the two previously independent and member-funded clubs, the Men's and Women's Faculty Clubs, merged in 1972. The joint club was renamed the Faculty House Association. By 1973, the University assumed complete responsibility for the operation of Faculty House.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Faculty Club records; box and folder number; University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
This collection was processed by Joanna Rios in August 2021.
Additional materials can be found in the
This collection consists of the records of both the Men's and the Women's Faculty Clubs at Columbia University. The records include minutes, correspondence and other administrative files kept by former Club officers.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
This series contain the records of the Men's Faculty Club, from the earliest proposal, and then the removal from the Club's original location in South Hall, to the purpose-built Faculty House. The records include correspondence, administrative records and board meeting minutes mostly from the 1940s to the 1960s.
(From the proposal to establish an "officers club" in South Hall, to early days of the Club.)
(The removal of the Club from South Hall to make room for the construction of the School of Business, the construction of Faculty House, and the construction of the Women's Faculty Club space in Johnson Hall, the women's residence hall. Includes correspondence from University President Nicholas Murray Butler, Clerk of the Trustees John B. Pine, and the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White.)
(Russel Potter and Frederick C. Mills)
(Correspondence with Low Library administrators re: the Club's finances. Includes board minutes and financial statements.)
(Prof. Dawson was a member of the Chemistry Department. He held various roles in the Faculty Club from Chair of the Programming Committee to President and member of the Board of Directors.)
(These records include Club correpondence but also annual reports, event announcements, board materials, etc.)
(Russel Potter's records, includes event announcements and issues of the Faculty Club Gazette.)
This series contains the records of the Women's Faculty Club. It includes minutes from the board, committee and general membership meetings, from the early days of the club to its dissolution in 1972. There are administrative records with the constitution, by-laws, amendments, and other documents recording the various officers' roles and responsibilties.
(Report of incorporation committee recommending incorporation, January 22, 1952. Resolution for incorporation adopted at meeting April 29, 1952. Amended March 1967. Correct amendments inserted in old certificate.)
(Former Club Secretary)
(Includes Treasurer's report and the annual reports of the nine committees)
(Handwritten volume 1: Minutes of the Executive Committee, pp. 1-150; minutes of the General Meetings, pp. 150-300.)
(Handwritten volume 2: Minutes of the Executive Committee, pp. 1-75; minutes of the General Meetings, pp. 75-150.)
(Includes constitution, by-laws and amendments)
(Includes annual reports)
(Includes drawings of the dining room (1939) and correspondence with administration re: the space allocated to the Women's Club. From Margaret E. Conrad, Club President.)