| Formation: | 1873 (years ago) |
| Type: | City club |
| Leader Title: | General Manager |
| Leader Name: | Scott Neill, CCM |
| The Duquesne Club | |
| Size: | 200px |
| Location: | 325 Sixth Avenue Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Membership: | ≈2,700 (men and women) |
| Website: | www.duquesne.org |
The Duquesne Club is a private social club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, founded in 1873.
The Duquesne Club was founded in 1873. Its first president was John H. Ricketson.[1] The club's present home, a Romanesque structure designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow on Sixth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, was opened in 1890; an addition designed by Janssen & Cocken that included a garden patio, barbershop, and new kitchens was constructed in 1931.[1] The building achieved landmark status from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 1976, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.[1]
The Club voted to admit women for the first time in its history in 1980.[1] A health-and-fitness center was added in 1994, and the club was ranked as #1 City Club in America in 1997, an honor that would be repeated in 2001, 2003, and 2006.[1] [2]
Among notable guests to the club are U.S. Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford,[3] Ronald Reagan,[4] George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as well as Colin Powell, Polish leader Edward Gierek,[5] Jungle James, Tars Cornish, Gene Simmons, King Charles III (while he was Prince of Wales) and former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.[6] Oil businessman and millionaire Philip M. Shannon owned an apartment in the club and died there in 1915.[7]
As of 2007, membership at the Duquesne Club consisted of about 2,700 men and women.[8] Though the Club does not discriminate in its selection of members, membership is by invitation from an existing member only.[8]