Pendennis Club
Two organizational meetings, on July 9 and August 10, 1881, took place in the club's first home consisting of rented space over A. J. Ross's Grocery Store, located in a building at the southwest corner of 4th and Walnut Streets–which is the site of the present Seelbach Hotel (built 1905).
He was a graduate of West Point, a Union veteran of the Civil War, and later served as Clerk of the United States Supreme Court.
Arthur Pendennis's crest, which was described but not depicted in this novel, and the motto nec tenui penna (meaning "with unfailing wings") were adopted for the club as well.
That evening, President Arthur was a guest at the Pendennis Club where he and some of his cabinet members, including Robert Todd Lincoln, enjoyed a lavish dinner.
Perhaps one reason why he was so fond of the club is the following assessment of its members by later Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Arthur Krock:If the term "gentleman" is held to its proper definition to mean a civilized, educated, well-mannered man, then no club in the United States numbered more such persons proportionate to its size than the Pendennis.Another notable early visitor was famed landscape architect (and designer of New York City's Central Park) Frederick Law Olmsted.
Starting as the "elevator boy," it was not long before he became, perhaps, the first Maitre d' in the club's history, and his outstanding character made him a true legend.
A reputed nephew of Henry Bain, Roland Hayes (1887–1977), made his 1910 debut at the club as a classical lyric tenor.
This is flatly rejected as a "myth" by cocktail historians and writers Robert Simonson,[5] David Wondrich, and Simon Difford[6] on three grounds.
The first known version of this story in print is due to Albert Stevens Crockett of the Waldorf-Astoria, writing in 1931:[14][15][16] Given that this is over 50 years after the term "old-fashioned cocktails" appeared in print, and over 30 years after recipes for an "old-fashioned whiskey cocktail" appeared in recipe books from Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York City, this is not a credible claim.
[17] A third possible candidate is identified in the 1969 edition of George Leonard Harter's Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices as Thomas Louis Whitcomb, who it says invented the cocktail at the club in 1889.
In addition, fine Bourbon whisky is required and, also are one or more fruits: the recipe used at the club since at least the 1930s calls for the use of an orange slice, cherry, and a lemon twist with the former two muddled in the simple syrup.
This notable Georgian Revival building with nearly 80,000 square feet under roof was designed by the Louisville firm of Nevin, Wischmeyer & Morgan.
An interesting photograph of the club's magnificent walnut-paneled library was featured in the March 27, 1948, edition of New Yorker Magazine showing the room with its commodious library tables, its generously proportioned red leather chairs and sofas, and shelves of classic books rising up to the plaster-work ceiling: the room looks very much the same today and has changed little in the more than seven decades since this publication.
Several prominent club members had resigned their membership in the years leading up to this date because Jewish men who they nominated were not accepted.
Louis Coleman Jr., a local civil rights activist and Pastor at Shelbyville Congregational Methodist Church[21] protested the lack of minority membership by sitting at a table in front of the club and eating lunch.
[23] Subsequent legal developments led to a case in which the Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled that while the Pendennis club is free from the anti-discrimination law in regards to who they have to admit as members, it was not exempt from provisions of the law that denied the right of members of discriminating clubs the right to deduct their membership fees from their taxes.
On February 19, 1960, then Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) participated in this event, in which he scored a third-round technical knockout over Ronnie Craddock, whom he had also just beaten in the recent Golden Gloves heavyweight final.
Various celebrities and royalty have been guests at the club for these events, including at its very popular Post Derby Party on the night of the race.
