—Edward Everett, first President of the Union Club of Boston
Since its founding, the Union Club of Boston has been closely intertwined with the city’s civic spirit and the history of the United States itself.
In the winter of 1862–1863, as the Civil War threatened to divide the nation, a group of resolute Bostonians came together to form a club dedicated to preserving the Union. At a time when some in the city—known as “Copperheads”—would have let the Southern states depart in peace, these founders stood firm for national unity. On April 8, 1863, they formally established the Union Club of Boston. At its inaugural meeting, Edward Everett, the Club’s first president and one of the nation’s most distinguished statesmen, delivered an oration whose themes would later echo in his Gettysburg address, delivered just months before Lincoln’s immortal words.
From the outset, the Club was deliberately non-partisan. The sole requirement for membership was “unqualified loyalty to the Constitution and Union of the United States,” inviting both Republicans and pro‑Union Democrats to gather under one roof. Though membership did not formally require abolitionism, the Club quickly earned a reputation as a center of anti-slavery thought.
Within six months, the Club moved into its present Park Street home—mere steps from the Massachusetts State House. By the end of its first year, it boasted over 500 members, many of them serving in uniform for the Union cause. Among its early members were some of Boston’s most influential figures in literature, science, law and government: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Sumner, Louis Agassiz, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Louis D. Brandeis, William Barton Rogers (founding president of MIT) and future President Calvin Coolidge.
As the Civil War ended, the Union Club naturally evolved into a place of conversation, dining and social gathering. Yet it retained the spirit of inclusivity and civic engagement that defined its founding. Reflecting this, it later became the first of Boston’s traditional men’s clubs to voluntarily admit women to full membership—a decision embraced without controversy.
For more than 160 years, the Union Club has played an enduring role in the fabric of Boston—a meeting place for ideas, fellowship and the quiet yet powerful work of shaping a city’s civic life.
“In every corner of Boston, the past remains alive—a city where history is not just remembered but continually redefined.”