19th century The Gentlemen's club was founded in 1874 as the
Social Arts Club of Philadelphia by Dr.
William Pepper and
Silas Weir Mitchell. The club was renamed in late 1875 when it moved to a new building on
Rittenhouse Square that had been the home of
James Harper. By 1880, the northern side of Rittenhouse Square was the
de facto "most fashionable address in Philadelphia." In 1900, the club expanded by adding an adjoining townhouse. This created not only a larger structure but also more prestige fronting the square. The Rittenhouse Club had many of the faculty of the
University of Pennsylvania along with gentlemen architects such as from the T-Square Club. Members of the Northern Pennsylvania business elite intermingled with architects, professors and clergymen. These included during the fashionable Gilded Age, steamship magnate
Clement Griscom, architect
Frank Furness, along with his Shakespeare scholar sibling
Horace Furness. The University of Pennsylvania provost Dr. William Pepper, his nephew Senator
George Wharton Pepper, and financier
E.T. Stotesbury held prominent positions in the Club.
20th century After the end of
World War II, due to tax loopholes being removed, general business changes and economics caused many members to move to the suburbs. The Rittenhouse Club suffered a slow decline of members and the "building slid from elegance into genteel decay." In the early 1990s, the Rittenhouse Club building was finally closed and sold. Today, "Only the discreet letters “RC” on the brass doorplates identify 1811
Walnut Street as the former home of one of Philadelphia's most prestigious clubs. The Beaux-Arts façade remains, but the building behind it is gone." ==Early Members==