Vancouver Club

Besides becoming mixed-sex, in recent decades the club has abandoned most of its Victorian customs and has become a more informal, business oriented institution.

[2] In May of that year, Campbell Sweeny approached W. J. Meakin, the owner of the Lefevre Block at the corner of Seymour and Hastings, and requested if the group might use his facilities.

The committee wrote CPR president William Cornelius Van Horne with their proposal to purchase a lot, and suggested a price of $50 per front foot.

On 19 June the group met again and passed a resolution to appoint Charles Osborne Wickenden (1851–1934) to design a clubhouse.

The balls became staples of the Vancouver social calendar and also served as venues for the city's élite families to debut their daughters.

To accommodate the expansion, the club purchased an addition 50 feet of land from the CPR at a price of $100 per front foot.

President Charles Hibbert Tupper, the son of one of Canada's Fathers of Confederation, appointed a special committee to investigate the expansion of the clubhouse.

On 7 March, members voted 100–35 in favour of selling the current property and moving to Georgia Street.

Elected to it were F. J. Proctor, E. P. Davis, W. F. Salisbury, R. Marpole, W. A. Macdonald, Frederick Buscombe, and George H. Hall.

In April 1912, plans for the clubhouse prepared by architects Sharp & Thompson were approved, and the current property was sold for $200,000.

When the clock struck midnight, the group gathered in the hall behind club president E. P. Davis and paraded to the new quarters.

[12] After the completion of the new clubhouse, the old premises were rented from 1914–1918 to the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, from 1918–1925 to the Great War Veterans Association, and from 1925–1930 to the Quadra Club.

Only four months later, Major-General R. G. E. Leckie arranged a dinner at the club for the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, during the latter's tour of Canada.

[13] In October 1919 a dinner was held for General Sir Arthur Currie, and in November for Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Jellicoe.

As the city's demographics changed and non Anglo-Saxons gained prominence in business, the club loosened gradually its unofficial policy only to admit Anglo Protestants.

In 1977 the club allowed its first Jewish member, Chief Justice Nathaniel Nemetz, who was sponsored by John Lauchlan Farris and Walter Stewart Owen.

Peter Newman explained that "it is at the Lawn Tennis & Badminton Club that the second-generation Vancouver Establishment prefers to spend its time.

[19] After absorbing the club, the Financial Post reported plans by the Georgians to replace cigar nights with dance lessons.

The first clubhouse, used from 1894 to 1913. The 1903 ballroom is seen at left.
The second clubhouse, designed by Sharp & Thompson . The doors opened on 1 January 1914.