Cosmos Club

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Cosmos Club
Cosmos Club in February 2010
Location 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.
Coordinates 38°54′41″N 77°2′54″W / 38.91139°N 77.04833°W / 38.91139; -77.04833Coordinates: 38°54′41″N 77°2′54″W / 38.91139°N 77.04833°W / 38.91139; -77.04833
Built 1898
Architect Carrère and Hastings
Architectural style Beaux Arts
Governing body Private
Part of Massachusetts Avenue Historic District (#74002166)
NRHP Reference #

73002079

[1]
Added to NRHP April 03, 1973

The Cosmos Club is a private social club in Washington, D.C., founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878. In addition to Powell, original members included Clarence Edward Dutton, Henry Smith Pritchett, William Harkness, and John Shaw Billings. Among its stated goals is "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art". Cosmos Club members have included three U.S. Presidents, two U.S. Vice Presidents, a dozen Supreme Court justices, 32 Nobel Prize winners, 56 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 45 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Since 1952, the Club's headquarters have been in the Mary Scott (Mrs. Richard T.) Townsend house,[2] at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue N.W. in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. The free-standing house, set in almost an acre of garden, was designed in the Beaux Arts French style by architects Carrère and Hastings in 1898 and essentially completed in 1901.[3] Mr. Townsend died shortly thereafter, in 1902. Following the death of Mrs. Townsend in 1931, their daughter Matilde, who was by then Mrs. B. Sumner Welles, moved into the house, living there until World War II. It was purchased from Mrs. Welles' estate by the Cosmos Club in 1950 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is a contributing property to the Dupont Circle Historic District and Massachusetts Avenue Historic District.

History

Cosmos Club, ca. 1921, before its move to the Townsend house.

The Club originally met in the Corcoran Building on the corner of 15th and F Streets, N.W., but moved to Lafayette Square in 1882. Eventually, the Club occupied the Tayloe and Dolley Madison Houses on the eastern side of the Square, and razed two rowhouses between them for additional space. Prompted to relocate by the federal government, the Club moved to the Townsend House in 1952.[citation needed]

Since 1887, the regular meeting place of the Philosophical Society of Washington has been the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, now called the John Wesley Powell auditorium. The National Geographic Society was founded in the Cosmos Club in 1888, and The Wilderness Society was founded there in 1935.[citation needed]

For its first 110 years, the Cosmos Club did not permit women members, and forbade female guests to enter by the front door or to enter rooms reserved for members. In 1987, the Washington, D.C., Human Rights Office ruled that there was probable cause to believe that the club's men-only policy violated the city's anti-discrimination law. The Office was ready to order public hearings on the case, which could have resulted in the loss of all city licenses and permits if the all-male policy had continued, but the Cosmos Club then voted on June 19, 1988, to accept women as members.[4]

In 1990, the Cosmos Club began publication of Cosmos: A Journal of Emerging Issues as an annual publication of original essays by its members.[5][6]

Facade of the Townsend house (later home of the Cosmos Club), 1915. Photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston.

Awards

The Cosmos Club offers two major awards:

Membership

Election to membership in the Cosmos Club honors persons deemed to have "done meritorious original work in science, literature, or the arts, or... recognized as distinguished in a learned profession or in public service".[9]

Its members have included:

See also

  • List of American gentlemen's clubs
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in the District of Columbia

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. 
  2. ↑ "The Townsend Mansion". Cosmos Club. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 
  3. ↑ Ossman, Laurie; Ewing, Heather (2011). Carrère and Hastings, The Masterworks. Rizzoli USA. ISBN 9780847835645.
  4. ↑ APPublished: June 19, 1988 (1988-06-19). "All-Male Club in Washington Ends Policy Against Women - New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 
  5. ↑ Schudel, Matt (December 12, 2004). "Lester Tanzer; Editor at U.S. News & World Report". Washington Post. Retrieved April 3, 2009. 
  6. ↑ "COSMOS Journal". Retrieved April 3, 2009. 
  7. ↑ "Cosmos Club Awards and Recipients". Cosmosclubfoundation.org. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 
  8. ↑ "Cosmos Club McGovern Awards". Cosmosclubfoundation.org. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 
  9. ↑ "Membership". Cosmos Club. Retrieved 2013-12-04. 

Further reading

  • Spaulding, Thomas M. (1949). The Cosmos Club on Lafayette Square. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club. 
  • Crossette, George (1966). Founders of The Cosmos Club of Washington, 1878. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club. 
  • Washburn, Wilcomb E. (1978). The Cosmos Club of Washington : a centennial history, 1878–1978. Washington, D.C.: The Cosmos Club. 

External links

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