Pittsburgh Club endures almost 130 years after founding

The history of the venerable Pittsburgh Club has, in many ways, mirrored that of the city where it makes its home.

The club, founded in 1879, thrived during the late 1800s and early 1900s, struggled during the Depression and a devastating flood in 1936, came back into prominence in the mid-20th century, waned during the 1970s and, finally, has survived through a willingness to change.

The group was started by younger members of the Duquesne Club, who, according to a history of the club written in 1979, "were tired of being 'pushed around' in the evening by its 'Napoleonic' steward whose allegiance went to the older members who religiously attended during the daytime."

The split, six years after the founding of the Duquesne Club, was a sore subject 30 years later, when it was remarked at an anniversary event: "Fathers were divided against sons, brothers were arrayed against brothers and to every corner of this fair city, when there was a drop of red rye to be poured, there was the conflict carried."

The Pittsburgh Club's membership has included prominent individuals such as industrialists George Westinghouse and Andrew Carnegie, Philander C. Knox, who went on to be U.S. attorney general and a U.S. senator; Adm. Robley D. Evans, who invented the signal lamp and was commander of the Navy's Atlantic Fleet; George Guthrie, mayor of Pittsburgh from 1906-09; and Charles M. Schwab, first president of U.S. Steel.

The club's first president was Hill Burgwin, a prominent attorney, banker and churchman and member of a family that had deep roots in Western Pennsylvania.

Besides his involvement with the Pittsburgh Club, Burgwin also was recognized for helping to establish the Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) in the city's Hazelwood neighborhood and the Pittsburgh Golf Club in Oakland.

His great, great-nephew, Maury Burgwin, chairman of the Institute for Management Studies for the Pittsburgh region,recalled the Burgwin family's involvement in the early days of the city.

"The Burgwin family name is synonymous with the early history of Pittsburgh. Hill Burgwin was an attorney and a banker, who was respected throughout Fourth Avenue, which at that time was recognized as the city's banking center and Wall Street," Burgwin said.

The social status of it members in the first part of the 20th centuryput the club on the level of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C., the Colony Club in Manhattan and the Somerset Club in Boston.

Many of the members also were respected for their philanthropic endeavors.

David T. Watson, a prominent businessman and attorney to notables such as Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, along with his wife, Margaret, dedicated considerable time and resources for the care, education and treatment of children with disabilities. After Watson's death in 1916, the couple's "Sunny Hill" summer estate in Sewickley became the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children. The home was one of the first places to test Jonas Salk's polio vaccine.

Eventually, the organization lost its reputation as a young man's club, but remained one of the most exclusive in the city. It was 1975 before the club's members decided -- by two votes -- to allow women to join.

Insurance broker Tim Moorhead joined the Pittsburgh Club in 1979, when it was in the William Penn Hotel.

"I served on the board for 20 years before it merged with the Harvard Yale Princeton Club," Moorhead said.

"I ate lunch at the club almost every day," Moorhead said. "It was a getaway from the rush at the office. It was also a congenial and warm place, very conducive to forming new friendships."

Sid Ruffin, a premium bond attorney, was president when Moorhead joined.

"My great-grand-uncles, Frank and John Moorhead Jr., who owned the Moorhead Bros. Steel Co., were among the original members," Moorhead said. "In fact, John Moorhead later was one of the founders of the Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley Heights."

Tribune-Review publisher, Richard M. Scaife, whose great, great-grandfather, William D. Scaife, the founder of the Scaife Co., also recalled how much he enjoyed having lunch with E.P. "Ned" Mellon at the Pittsburgh Club, when it was located in the William Penn Hotel.

The group's first clubhouse was situated in the abandoned quarters of the Duquesne Club on Penn Avenue. Then, in 1884, came the brownstone mansion formerly owned by J.H. Schoenberger, an iron manufacturer, in the area where Gateway Center is located.

Between 1892 and 1929, the club flourished, becoming a dominant force in the social life of the city. It was situated between the Old Allegheny (near North Side) residential area where many of its members lived and the business district, which was further Downtown than today. One member, William J. Patton, was bet that he could not play a ball from the club, through the streets, over the old Manchester Bridge, and to a spot most likely on Ridge Avenue on the North Side in less than 200 strokes.

He made it 185.

The Schoenberger mansion, at 259 Penn Ave., with its large rooms, picture gallery, crystal chandeliers, circular stairways and open fireplaces, was the ideal setting for cotillions and coming-out-parties for the members' daughters.

Society editor Anne Weiss, in a 1932 article for the Pittsburgh Press, described the social status of the Pittsburgh Club: "For a debutante to be invited to its New Year's ball is a coveted honor and practically assured her of social triumph for her first season, at least."

Kathleen Murtland Nimick, daughter of Thomas Marshall Howe and Genieve Dorion Murtland Nimick, had her debutante ball at the club in 1937.

"I was a teenager at the time," said her brother, Thomas Marshall Howe Nimick, Jr., a business consultant. "My father, who was a stock broker and one of the principals in the establishment of the Community Chest (the forerunner of United Way), was a member of the club.

"It was a Victorian-era ball, and I was told to put on my tails," Nimick said. "My parents engaged the Meyer Davis orchestra from New York City to entertain. When my father and I left the club at 7 the next morning, it was the only time I was ever allowed to stay up all night. It was a special occasion."

The elegance of the mansion was further enhanced by gifts from members and their wives. Mary Scaife, after the death of husband William, donated several decorative trophies that were placed in the walnut-paneled bar, along with a huge Viking ship model donated by Henry R. Rea.

In 1895, several members presented the club with Frederic Remington's famous painting "His Last Stand." The history written about the club laments that no record could be found of what happened to the painting. "The club's financial problems could have been alleviated for many years had it been sold at a later date."

When the Depression set in, the club's membership, which had peaked at more than 350, dropped 23 percent in one year.

Then, in 1936, the St. Patrick's Day flood that engulfed much of Downtown didn't spare the Pittsburgh Club. Water rose over the window sills on the first floor, but the club never closed its doors.

In the club's history, Ned Mellon recounted how, after he and others had manned pumps at the Joseph Horne Co. for more than 24 hours, another member, Al Burchfield, suggested that Mellon and Bernie Horne "man a raft and row to the Pittsburgh Club to pick up a case of Old Overholt whiskey so that each worker could have a toddy to help keep them going." The men rowed up the clubhouse steps and loaded two cases on board. A wave from a passing craft caused the boat to capsize, liquor and all, so the men went back to the club for two more. "This time we made it back, and were welcomed as conquering heroes," Mellon said.

Dwindling finances, expenses incurred to fix the flood damage and members who were moving to the suburbs forced the club to move to the stately rooms of the William Penn Hotel in 1942. In 1940, the club listed 369 members, but only 87 resident members.

The move helped rejuvenate the club, which enjoyed several years of profitability. It also, in 1955, agreed to reciprocal privileges with the Devonshire Club in London.

But like numerous other social clubs, the membership of the Pittsburgh Club began to decline. By 1970, the membership was down to 89.

In 1997, the Pittsburgh Club merged in a clubhouse on William Penn Place with recently joined Harvard Yale Princeton Club and Allegheny Club.

Over the years, where most of the conversation at the Duquesne Club concerned stock market acquisitions and business, a menu prepared in honor of the Pittsburgh Club's 30th anniversary in 1909 showcased the lighter literary leanings of its membership.

In listing the blue point oysters on the anniversary menu, a small notation was added. It was a quote from Jonathan Swift's "Polite Conversations": "He was a bold man that first eat an oyster."

This was followed by a quote from Shakespeare's "Henry IV" in describing the larded filet of beef: "O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee."

The lighthearted prose even was applied to a 1929 organizational publication, which listed founding members J. Stuart Brown and Frederick G. Kay. It read, "Our Old and Faithful Friends We're Glad to See You" from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" Act V.

The 1929 board of governors also was listed along with a quote from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar": "So Are They All -- All Honorable Men."