The College Club - Boston, MA, USA
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Chasing Blue Sky
N 42° 21.174 W 071° 04.401
19T E 329238 N 4691041
This High Victorian Townhouse, built in the 1860's, is the home of The College Club, founded in 1890, which is the first women's college club in the United States. It is located in the historic Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts.
Waymark Code: WMH4FP
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 05/21/2013
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member silverquill
Views: 3

"The College Club of Boston is the oldest women's college club in the United States.

We are also a unique and historic eleven-room bed and breakfast in the heart of Boston's Back Bay.

We provide some of the best rates in central Boston to both members and non-members, men and women alike.

The Club's Victorian brownstone is also host to a wide variety of events, and is available for both member and non-member use." (visit link)

"The College Club was built as a High Victorian townhouse for a prosperous family around 1860. The floor plan is classic 19 th century. The bottom floor, which houses our office, dining room and kitchen, would have been the kitchen, laundry, boiler room and trunk storage area.

Our 1 st floor ballroom area was a drawing room, dining room, butler’s pantry and library. Entry to the home was up a large flight of stairs to the area of the 1 st floor staircase. The glass ceiling in the middle room on this floor served as a necessary source of light from the skylight on the fourth floor, as attached homes had windows only on the front and back, as well as those which would open into the open column of space on all floors above the first one to catch light from the skylight. A skylight was also placed on the 4 th floor over the staircase for natural light.

The 2 nd floor could have been a music room and family drawing room or bedrooms, as evidenced by the two large chambers connected to each other with closet space in a narrow hall and the two small rooms off each, which would have served as dressing areas. This was a standard plan and the husband and wife had separate rooms, which allowed the wife’s room to contain a place for visitors, sewing and other projects.

The 3 rd floor was also used for bedrooms and the 4 th floor was usually reserved for children or servants. Our 4 th floor is quite plain compared to the other two and was probably used for servants.

Our block of Commonwealth Avenue was developed between 1860 and 1872. The 1860’s were a time when the French influence reigned in Boston, and in the 1870’s many architects turned to English High Victorian style. The exterior of our building, as with many of the houses on our block, has a classic French look with a slate mansard roof.

The interior style of our building is High Victorian. Although the ceilings and moldings in the middle room and the round columns in the bay of the back room of the ballroom floor may have been altered around the turn of the century, the front rooms appear to be original and would have been stained a rich, dark color, similar to the library on the first floor. The frieze around the back on this floor is consistent with those of the period when the home was built. After 1890, it was fashionable to paint the dark wood trim popular in homes built in the 1860’s.

Furniture in the bedrooms reflect 19th century reproductions of earlier periods, as well as several lovely Empire pieces. Several bedroom rugs are 19 th century Orientals. Although the Club has been decorated more in the English tradition of the 18 th Century, during Victorian times many bright colors and animal skins, as well as black and white schemes may have prevailed. The vibrant corals, yellow and greens we see today reflect Victorian color schemes. Wealthy people often decorated around objects brought back from trips, and bamboo and animal skins abounded.

The Club was the home of the Robbins family when purchased by the College Club in 1924. Royal E. Robbins was a major stockholder of the Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, MA." (visit link)

"One chilly day in December 1890, nineteen women met in Boston’s Back Bay. Their mission was to form a club where they could “enjoy sociability and companionship” with college women “among their kind.”

From its earliest days, the College Club paraded a host of celebrities from literature and the arts. Mark Twain was a guest; so were actress Julia Marlowe, feminist Lucy Stone, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (who recited “The Chambered Nautilus”), and novelist Marian Crawford, who drew such a crowd in the 1890s that for years the club entertainments were dubbed the “Crawford Crush.” As described by Miss Alice Browne in 1915, “No member confessed to inviting more guests than the number allowed her, but the house was full on every floor. At least twenty guests found their way to the kitchen. Perhaps they were trying to escape. President Walker [of MIT], seeing Professor Niles on the stairs above him on the way to the coat room, is said to have offered him five dollars to throw his hat out of the window and save him the struggle.”

The College Club in 1905 had an Old English drawing room and seven “sleeping rooms” - the delicate term for "bedrooms." These rooms were furnished and decorated in the colors of various women’s colleges: crimson rambler wallpaper for Radcliffe, blue silk curtains for Wellesley, a cherry and white scheme for Boston University, white with brass beds for Smith, dawn pink and gray for Vassar.

In a speech about the first 25 years of the Club given by Miss Alice Browne in 1915, she states “…let me impress upon you the declared purpose of the Club, as expressed by its founder and agreed to by the charter members on the date of the first meeting, December 15, 1890: There were to be no constitution and no aim worthy of the name, no officers, no duties- just a place to loaf and invite our souls and the souls of others we wanted to know.”

A century later, The College Club of Boston, the oldest such club in America, remains a diverse and dynamic women’s membership organization that more than fulfills the mission of its founders. With afternoon tea, fashion shows, concerts and more, our members enjoy the sociability for which the Club was founded. We learn at lectures, engage in discussion at book clubs, stage art exhibits and entertain friends in our Victorian brownstone. We network to further our career goals. We connect with neighbors and make new friends.

Finally, the members of The College Club of Boston are dedicated to educational philanthropy, with a campaign that each year raises scholarship funds for Boston public school seniors." (visit link)
Public/Private: Private

Tours Available?: The website doesn't specifically list tours, however, it is an operating Bed & Breakfast and an Event Venue, so I would suspect that they would show it.

Year Built: 1860's

Web Address: [Web Link]

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Chasing Blue Sky visited The College Club - Boston, MA, USA 05/08/2013 Chasing Blue Sky visited it