Organizational History
In 1909, when the Des Moines Club was a project, the following officers and trustees were elected and charged with the responsibility for organizing the Club:
President--Charles Hewitt, President Charles Hewitt and Sons, wholesale grocers.
Vice President--F.C. Hubbell, President of Des Moines Union Railway and subsequently President of Equitable Life Insurance Company of Iowa.
Treasurer--Simon Casady, President of Central State Bank, now Central National Bank and Trust Co.
The Club was opened with a reception at 2 P.M., Saturday, April 13, 1912. Its total membership was 300 residents and a few non-residents.
On March 5, 1909, the Articles of Incorporation were signed by: Charles Hewitt, P. J. Mills, P. K. Witmer, H. H. Polk, C. S. Hunter, H. D. Thompson, Lafayette Young, Jr., F. M. Hubbell, Dr. A. R. Amos.
These articles described the purpose of the club as:
"The object of this club is to advance by social intercourse and athletic exercises the bodily and mental welfare of its members and by friendly interchange of views, the commercial prosperity of the city of Des Moines and the State of Iowa: and to obtain and enjoy a place of common and frequent intercourse between its members, with all rights, privileges, franchises and powers by law conferred upon or in any wise pertaining to such a corporate body."
On January 8, 1910, the present ground on which the Des Moines Club building stands was leased for 99 years from Grover C. Hubbell, the decision was made to erect a 5-story building, and plans were authorized.
It is extremely interesting to review the chronological history of the Club's initiation fees, dues structure and its total revenues. Such a review provides a fascinating and accurate reflection of business cycles from the periodic peaks of prosperity or boom to the troughs of economic recession and despair and the subsequent recovery to a new peak. These national economic fluctuations are accurately mirrored in the Club's financial status in its membership and total revenues.
From the 1929 peak, membership shrank rapidly to 174 in 1932, a figure below the membership of 1920. The Board of Directors resorted to a number of temporary expedients to arrest this alarming trend. Certain memberships were offered at a special membership fee of $200. Members were offered luncheons and dinners at substantial reductions in prices for a six week period to increase patronage.
The economic conditions of the Club became progressively more stringent necessitating a wage reduction for employees of 10%. By 1933, it had become necessary to reduce the purchase price of memberships to $100 plus $10 federal tax. This $100 membership fee contrasted sharply with the $1,000 fee assessed new members in 1928.
The trough of the great recession was reached in 1933 and thereafter a slow economic recovery began. This recovery process is also accurately reflected in the Des Moines Club's financial history. It is generally conceded that national economic recovery was fully accomplished by 1937 and in that year the club membership had increased to 450 members.
The expansion of the club's facilities and continually increasing requests for membership resulted in the Board's increasing the 1958 maximum membership limit to 885 resident members.
Family Suffrage
In the beginning, the portals of the Des Moines Club were taboo to both the female and the children of the family. It was the Sanctum Sanctorum of the gentleman. Some years later a Club politician succeeded in acquiring admission for the ladies during the evening, but only as far as the main dining room, there to be confronted by a sign, edged in funeral black, prohibiting them from entrance, even to the lounge.
It was not until September, 1921, that F. W. Hubbell successfully sponsored a motion admitting children for short periods during dinner, when accompanied by parents. This liberalization was rescinded in 1923, and children again were "out".
The depression of the 1930's was not without its blessing to the families of Club members. When the Club dived into the financial doldrums of 1933, Armistice Day became doubly important - it was the day on which families of members were given privileges of the fourth floor after 6 P.M. without being accompanied by a member.
Then, in 1934, the Board of Trustees passed probably one of the most appreciated motions - widows of deceased members were granted thenceforth, without dues, the same privileges as those extended to wives of active members.
Families of servicemen came in for attention in 1940: they were privileged to use the Club, without dues, while the husband was off to the wars.
It wasn't long until the ladies were permitted entry into the cocktail lounge, and social events included buffets and dinner-dances which could be attended by families. Eventually, even weddings were held in the Club, with the bride and groom being spirited away by the management through the dark recesses of the Club to hidden automobiles, given a bottle champagne to be opened on their 25th anniversary, and bid adieu - while, upstairs, rice-in-hand friends searched frantically for the missing pair.
The Club In Wartime
The History of the Des Moines Club spans three major armed conflicts--World War I, World War II, and the Korean War.
In each instance the effects upon the Club, its membership and operations were somewhat similar, varying only in degree.
A large number of the Club's membership participated in these conflicts as members of the Armed Forces or in government agencies closely related to the war effort. In each instance the privileges of the Club were offered to the families of members with full remission of dues. For locally stationed non-member officers, facilities of the Club were made available without membership upon payment of resident dues.
The rationing system of World War II resulted in particular problems in food service. Often the Club management could not determine a luncheon menu until 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning. Mobilization severely curtailed Club staff and Frank Dowie, Sr., as manager, often assumed the role of waiter for the members.
During the war periods, improvement and maintenance programs to the Club's facilities, of necessity, were substantially curtailed. This inevitably resulted in a major construction program at the war's end to correct deferred maintenance and expand facilities sufficiently to meet the needs of members returning from the armed services.
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