Delphic Club
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The Delphic Club
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| Location | 9 Linden Street Cambridge, MA |
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| Coordinates | 42°22′20.6″N 71°07′03.1″W / 42.372389°N 71.117528°WCoordinates: 42°22′20.6″N 71°07′03.1″W / 42.372389°N 71.117528°W |
| Built | 1903 |
| Architect | James Purdon H'1895 |
| Architectural style | neo-Georgian style |
| Part of | Harvard Square Historic District (#86003654) |
The Delphic Club is an all-male Final Club at Harvard University. It was founded in 1885 when the Grand Council of the Delta Phi fraternity decided to re-establish a fraternity at Harvard known as the Zeta Chapter. (Fraternities had been banned at Harvard in the 1850s.) The membership voted to become a Final Club in 1900 and in 1902 severed ties with the national fraternity to which it had maintained only loose ties. A famous, possibly apocryphal, story has it that J.P. Morgan, Jr., class of 1889, joined The Gas when he didn’t get into his club of choice. According to The Harvard Crimson, he then financed the creation of his own club, the Delphic, from the frat.
The club was initially located at 52 and 59 Brattle St. before moving to 72 Mt. Auburn St. where it was housed from 1887 to 1903. In the 1890's it "was officially called the Delta Phi, or more familiarly “The Gashouse”, because all its windows would be lighted at once by the electricity that was then a novelty; so that is was called “The Gashouse” because of the absence of gas." The current home of the club is at 9 Linden St., steps from Harvard Yard and a few blocks from Harvard Square. It was designed by James Purdon H'1895 in the neo-Georgian style and occupied in 1902-03. The design features the red brick and cornices typical of Harvard Yard. The interior contains numerous large common spaces and an oversize formal dining room on the 2nd floor for large events, no living quarters, and a regulation squash court. In the basement is a panelled living room for entertaining visitors.
As with the other Final Clubs, the Delphic is not officially affiliated with Harvard University and is not recognized by the University. The Delphic is governed by a Trust with a Board of Directors composed of alumni. The Final Clubs all operate independently of the University since their founding following the expulsion of fraternities from the campus in the 1850s. However, whatever tenuous association there had been with Harvard was officially severed in 1984 as a consequence of the Title IX provision of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972, which arguably would have required a sex-neutral admissions policy and result. The emergence of all-female Final Clubs since the 1990s has followed the same model, with the new clubs also operating independently of the University. The break was largely symbolic as the clubs already operated independently, but they lost access to the Harvard phone exchange and the ability to buy steam heat from the University.
The clubhouse was renovated in 1974-75, which included the walls, interiors and roofs to deal with leaks and general conditions. A more comprehensive renovation was undertaken in 2013-14, it included updating the club's plumbing and electrical systems and also revealed pooled water beneath the club's floor and back yard occasioned by the destruction of the club's drainage system during the construction of Farkas Hall (aka the Hasty Pudding Clubhouse). This has resulted in litigation between the Delphic Club and Harvard University.
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