The University Club of Indianapolis

The University Club of Indianapolis served as a private men’s social club for the city’s college-educated business leaders. The club was founded in 1894 as an offshoot and alternative to the Columbia Club, a local Republican political club. Members of this breakaway group sought to create a social and intellectual organization whose membership was based on a shared educational background rather than purely on shared partisan political affiliations. 

The University Club traces its origins to the 1888 presidential election. To bolster the US presidential bid of Indianapolis lawyer, politician, and Civil War veteran Benjamin Harrison, a group of men established the Harrison Marching Society. The members staged grand processions, meeting dignitaries and escorting them to University Park, then a center for oratory, or to Harrison’s home on Delaware Street where he addressed crowds of people. After Harrison’s election as president, the most partisan members of the Marching Society secured a clubhouse on the northeast quadrant of Monument Circle and increased their numbers from 150 to 400. The club incorporated on February 13, 1889, renamed itself the Columbia Club, and adopted the mission to advance “the science of political economy and politico-legal historical criticism from the standpoint of the Republican Party.” Four years, later the Columbia Club endorsed Harrison in his bid for re-election as president. Though Harrison was defeated, the club remained intact.  

A faction of Columbia Club members splintered off to form a separate organization in 1894. The University Club of Indianapolis, as these men named their new group, was meant to distinguish itself from the Columbia Club through its nonpartisanship and its focus on social and intellectual activities rather than political work. Membership requirements included attendance for at least two years at a four-year college or school of technology. Meetings took place in the Assembly Room of the old Commercial Club Building (see Chamber of Commerce) located at 30 S. Meridian Street.   

The University Club of Indiana tried to purchase the original Columbia Club building on Monument Circle and its furnishings for $63,000. On October 16, 1897, the parties reached an agreement which included the Columbia Club purchasing the adjacent site from Christ Church Cathedral, the University Club of Indiana purchasing the existing Columbia Club building, and the Columbia Club razing the cathedral to allow for construction of its new clubhouse. 

The deal was contingent on two factors. First, the University Club of Indiana would have to incorporate and sell stock. On January 25, 1898, the University Club of Indiana amended the membership qualifications to the club to increase the number of members, and, hence, the number of eligible stock purchasers. The membership committee would now evaluate prospective members simply based on “their culture and attainments in letters, arts or sciences.” The University Club of Indiana incorporated in February 1898 and commenced to sell stock toward the site’s purchase. At the club’s first meeting after incorporation, former President Harrison became its first president.  

Second, Christ Church would have to move its congregants to the nearby Grace Church, making the latter the “pro-cathedral” (or temporary cathedral) for the Episcopal diocese. With immense newspaper coverage of the Christ Church rector’s opposition to moving his congregation, the Columbia Club rescinded its offer to buy Christ Church. Instead, the club’s members decided to raze their current building to construct a new clubhouse. Their members used the 36-room Mansur home site on Ohio Street as their temporary clubhouse until their new home was completed in November 1898. It remains unclear whether the homeless University Club of Indiana followed the Columbia Club to the Mansur site or whether it returned to its rented rooms at the Commercial Club building. What is clear is that the University Club purchased a “palatial” home with a stable at the southwest corner of Meridian and Michigan streets from Allen M. Fletcher for $37,000 on January 16, 1899.   

Over the years, the club undertook extensive remodeling of the home. Members converted the stable into living quarters for the waiters who served the club members. During the summer of 1904, the University Club temporarily moved back to the new Columbia Club to accommodate ongoing renovations of its clubhouse.  

By 1934, the club numbered 400 members, many of whom lived at the clubhouse. However, amid the Great Depression, the University Club of Indiana’s robust membership of 400 men dwindled, reaching a mere 80 members by 1934. This resulted in declining membership dues and consequently the loss of the clubhouse. Unable to pay their mortgage, the remaining club members gave up their clubhouse and returned to renting rooms, this time on the 9th floor of the Athletic Club. The remaining members also renamed the club as the University Club of Indianapolis. 

By 1940, the club’s finances had recovered enough for the members to purchase its current clubhouse, located at 970 North Delaware Street, from the estate of Elizabeth C. Marmon. The first meeting in the Marmon home took place on December 7, 1940. The United States Department of the Interior listed the house on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.