College Club Seattle

an inexpensive and democratic club to serve young men just graduating from college facing the problem of entering business or professions. After several meetings, they had signed up 50 members and chose a president: Charles P. Spooner, a Princeton graduate with a law degree from Wisconsin, on the Board of Regents of the University of Washington. Spooner rented a suite of rooms on the second floor of the old federal court building on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Marion Street, across from the Rainier Club. From the beginning, the sense of camaraderie and fellowship was high; attendance at daily lunches and special dinners was almost 100 percent. The club put on cabaret evenings, the annual Christmas Wassail Dinner, and Thanksgiving Hi-Jinks and formed an Outing Club, which had a lodge at Roaring Creek. World War I saw more than half the club members go off to war; the club suspended their dues for the duration. Soon the club outgrew their rooms, and the Metropolitan Building Company built them a building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street, which they shared with the Women's University Club from July 5, 1912, until December 17, 1921. Once again the College Club had outgrown their space; a new building was erected on Sixth Avenue and Spring Street and dedicated on December 21, 1921. The club was renovated in 1951 and 1952, but by then it was evident that the I-5 freeway was going to be built through the middle of downtown. The club purchased the lot at 505 Madison Street for $100,000 in 1954, and the old clubhouse was torn down in 1962. The club enjoyed its headquarters at 505 Madison Street, until it became apparent the building was in need of repair, and it was more economical to sell the property and look for a new home. In 2014 the club purchased the boathouses at 11 E Allison St.