Many, in addition to pursuing their livelihoods, were officers in civic, cultural, philanthropic, or social organizations, and some held government posts at the local, state, or federal levels.

[1] The club, "the social headquarters of Portland's male elite"[1] was dominated through the late 20th century by largely white, mostly Anglo-Saxon men from the city's business and banking leadership.

It would appear that many of the major decisions affecting Portland's business and political life were actually reached during "informal" discussions held within the club's portals.

Another was Frederick Van Voorhies Holman, general counsel for an electric utility in the early 20th century, patron of the arts, and author of a biography of John McLoughlin.

Well-known guests of the club have included U.S. presidents William Howard Taft, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Ulysses S. Grant, author Aldous Huxley, heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey, General George C. Marshall, bridge designer Ralph Modjeski, and many others.

Architects for the latter structure, a four-story, low-rise building of brick and terra cotta in a neo-classical style,[14] were William M. Whidden and Ion Lewis.

Jews and ethnic minorities were kept out of the Arlington Club until the late 1960s after Portland's Jewish leaders including Gus Solomon, a federal judge, criticized the exclusion rules.

[21][n 3] During the City Council meeting, five women, representing the Multnomah Bar Association, the Commercial Club of Portland, the Association of Black Lawyers, Oregon Women Lawyers, and the American Civil Liberties Union, testified that the clubs' discrimination barred them from business opportunities afforded to men.

Representing the Oregon Eagle Forum, a woman, the only person testifying against the resolution, cited a constitutional right to assemble without government intrusion.

Since the ratio of "yes" to "no" votes was 68.8 percent, slightly more than the two-thirds supermajority required to change the club's rules, women, after 123 years of exclusion, were thereafter admitted.