Alibi Club
Alibi Club | |
Location | 1806 Eye Street, NW Washington, D.C. |
---|---|
Built | 1869 |
Architectural style | Italianate |
NRHP reference No. | 94001221 |
Added to NRHP | October 21, 1994[1] |
The Alibi Club is a private, traditional gentlemen's club located at 1806 Eye Street, NW in downtown Washington, D.C.[1] Its members comprise the elite of Washington, including presidents, senators, Supreme Court justices, congressmen, ambassadors and military officials, as well as prominent private citizens.[2]
The Alibi Club is located in a row house a few blocks from the White House among larger commercial buildings. The Italianate house was built in 1869 and was occupied by the Alibi Club in 1886, two years after the club's founding as an offshoot of the Metropolitan Club. The house is notable as a well-preserved example of residential architecture in an otherwise commercial district, but its chief significance is its association with the Club. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 21, 1994.[1]
Alibi Club
The club was established as a social club for mutual improvement among members of Washington society. It included Washington residents as well as out-of-town members. Its name was derived from the club practice of providing an alibi when the whereabouts of a member was questioned by the member's family.[3] Membership is limited to fifty, with new members admitted on the death of a previous member, with the unanimous consent of the membership. Membership is not revealed to outsiders, and the first public notice of membership is frequently in a member's obituary.[2]
Building
The brick, three story house stands directly on the street with no yard. It was originally rectangular in plan, but an extension was built in 1889 that runs to the alley in the rear. The house is entered through a narrow side entrance hall, 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, which widens as it goes back to accommodate a stairway. A front parlor connects to a back parlor through a wide opening. A vestibule connects the original front to the rear extension, which contains a dining room. The dining room features a fireplace whose mantel is inscribed "Alibi", and has space for a table with at least thirty chairs. A kitchen is directly above on the second floor. Other rooms on the second floor include a front parlor decorated with caricatures of members, followed by the Japanese Scroll Room, decorated with scrolls in display cases. A passage links to the kitchen using elements from the S.S. Alibi. The third floor contains three rooms used for storage. The basement contains service areas and storage, possibly with remnants of the original kitchen in the front and a storage area to the rear.[3]
The club is furnished with donated mementos that cover nearly every available section of wall.
Members
Some of the Alibi Club's most prominent members have included: President George H.W. Bush,[4] his father, Senator Prescott Bush, Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart and Stanley F. Reed, Allen Dulles and John Foster Dulles, Speaker of the House Nicholas Longworth, and General George C. Marshall.[2][3]
- David M. Abshire
- David Acheson
- Dean Acheson
- Theodore Achilles
- Chandler Anderson
- Larz Anderson
- Truxtun Beale
- Gist Blair
- Robert Woods Bliss
- Frederick N. Brooke
- David K.E. Bruce
- George H.W. Bush
- Prescott Bush
- Daniel J. Callahan III
- George E. Corcoran
- Thomas Gardiner Corcoran
- Dwight Davis
- Allen Dulles
- John Foster Dulles
- James Dunn
- Walter Edge
- George A. Garrett
- Charles C. Glover III
- Gordon Gray
- Cary Grayson
- Joseph Grew
- Alfred Gruenther
- Frederick Hale
- George Hamilton, Jr.
- Nelson Hartson
- Christian A. Herter
- William Hibbs
- Archibald Hopkins
- Walter Bruce Howe
- David Brewer Karrick
- Samuel Kaufman
- John Kean
- Emory S. Land
- Nicholas Longworth
- Robert Lovett
- George C. Marshall
- Benjamin Mosby McKelway
- John Lord O'Brian
- Thomas Nelson Page
- Stanley F. Reed
- Henry Roosevelt
- Jules Henri de Sibour
- Potter Stewart
- Maxwell Taylor
- J.W. Wadsworth
- John F. Wilkins
- Clarence R. Wilson
- Blanton Winship
- Jerauld Wright
- William Wright
See also
- Alfalfa Club
- Cosmos Club
- List of American gentlemen's clubs
- National Register of Historic Places listings in the District of Columbia
References
- ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
- ^ a b c Kelly, John (May 10, 2009). "My Alibi? They Wouldn't Answer Answer Man". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ a b c Leiner, Glen (August 1, 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Alibi Club" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
- ^ "Bush Belongs to 3 Men's Clubs". The New York Times. February 1, 1989. Retrieved 2009-05-12.
{{cite news}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help)
External links
- My Alibi? They Wouldn't Answer Answer Man at the Washington Post
- For some powerful people D.C. building a real alibi, Washington Business Journal