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PONTCHARTRAIN™
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09 03 02 |
New Orleans Know-It-All
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The 800 block of Canal Street looks very different today than it did during the late 1800s, when it was home to elite social clubs including the Harmony Club.
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Photo by Eileen Loh Harrist
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Hey Blake,
I am very interested in the Harmony Club. I was very informed by the article of Aug. 7, 2001. I was wondering if you knew anything else about this organization such as its date of inception, how it compared to the Boston and Pickwick Clubs, and what could be found inside it.
Jimmy Dean
Dear Jimmy,
For those who missed the article, the Harmony Club was a social club organized in late 1860 by a group of Jewish men all under age 30. About 10 years later, the club absorbed a rival group of older men, the Deutsche Company. The club established an excellent reputation, and although membership was exclusive, its numbers grew rapidly. One of the wealthiest clubs in the city, it moved in 1891 to what is now the 800 block of Canal Street to what you might call "Club Row."
Social clubs in America developed from the English system, and there were several clubs in New Orleans before the Civil War. We had the Elkin Club, established in the 1830s, followed by the Pelican Club.
When I say "we," I don't mean Old Blake. These early clubs were very exclusive institutions. The Pelican Club, for example, as noted in the 1885 Historical Sketchbook and Guide of New Orleans, admitted no one "within its sacred precincts unless his position in one of the three departments of finance, commerce, or politics was well established."
The Boston, organized in 1841, is older than the Pickwick Club. Its first home was on Royal Street. It was not, as many believe, named after the City of Boston, but after a popular game of cards. The group rented rooms in which to play Boston, and from this beginning grew a social club composed of leading mercantile and professional men of the city, the men who would eventually become Rex.
As the membership increased, the Boston Club moved to bigger quarters, and in 1884 leased the Mercer property at then-148 Canal St., a building occupied earlier by the Pickwick Club. The three-story mansion was beautifully decorated and included a marble hallway, Old English staircase, large lunchroom, card room, dining room, billiard room, servants' rooms and kitchen. When the members moved into their new digs, the President said, "We are going to be very comfortable ... though we don't emulate the grandeur of our neighbor at the corner." He was referring to the magnificent clubhouse that the Pickwick Club had just built on the corner of Canal and Carondelet streets.
In 1857, 19 men met in the Gem Saloon on Royal Street and organized the Mistick Krewe of Comus. From this group also came The Pickwick Club in the same year. It was identified with Comus until the two organizations separated in 1888.
But during that 30-year period, the club prospered, and like the Boston Club, moved frequently, occupying its new home in 1884. The building's opulence almost defies description. It was of brick in the Queen Anne style, with four stories and an attic and 40 rooms. Every window was stained glass, and there was a great deal of marble, mahogany, and leather. Included in the clubhouse were a grand staircase, ladies' restaurant, grand drawing room, library, writing room, telephone closet, chess room, billiard room, card rooms, bathrooms, dining room, assembly room, and kitchen for its 400 members.
The Harmony Club was the new kid on the block when it moved into its new clubhouse, a social palace at 144 Canal St. It, too, was elaborately decorated with crystal chandeliers, elegant furnishings, fabulous carpets, beautiful paintings, statues and French porcelain. The building had three stories and included parlors, a reception room, grand staircase, card rooms, a reading room, library, billiard room, euchre room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. The club's luxurious new quarters reflected the prosperity of the organization, which had 200 members.
The Harmony Club moved to another fine home on St. Charles and Jackson avenues in 1897 but sold it in 1917. They continued to meet for seven years in a rented hotel suite until they leased the second floor of a building on the corner of St. Charles and Common.
By 1930, however, the club dissolved due to dwindling membership.
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