- Image
The Club’s first home was a brownstone building at 2 Irving Place, just off Fourteenth Street and next to the celebrated Academy of Music. Quickly the Club gathered a roll of notable members including Mark Twain; editor and statesman Whitelaw Reid; John Hay, author and secretary to Abraham Lincoln; the actors Edwin Booth and Joseph Jefferson; editor Henry Watterson, and many others.
A committee was appointed to find a house, and at a club meeting held at the Belvidere Hotel, on the 13th of April, the directory was authorized to secure the building No. 2 Irving Place, next door to the old Academy of Music, which was thereupon secured at a rental of $2,800 per annum.
On the 29th day of April, 1870, the Lotos Club was incorporated under the general act applicable to such organizations.
It must not be supposed that all this was accomplished without a great deal of discussion. In fact, the eloquence expended at the meetings was somewhat disproportioned to the matters in hand. A " big talk " was necessary to the settlement of the smallest preliminary. The eloquence of Albert Weber, the treasurer, a lively, humorous and shrewd business man, must linger in the minds of all who heard him. For a time after the house was secured the members were obliged to sit around on empty candle boxes, soap boxes and such stray stools and camp chairs as the steward provided. On the 9th of June, the club, desirous of thoroughly furnishing the house, passed a resolution to issue bonds to the amount of $1,000, to bear interest at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum. As may be supposed, this munificent sum did not enable the house committee completely to furnish the three floors. So it was decided to rent out the upper stories in unfurnished rooms to members.
A Brief History of the Lotos Club