Metropolitan Club (Washington, D.C.)
The Metropolitan Club is a private club in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1863, it is considered one of the country's most prestigious and exclusive clubs, along with the Knickerbocker Club and The Brook in New York, and the Somerset Club in Boston. For its first century, the members of the club refused to accept non-white people as members. In 1961, 30 members quit in protest, including Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. In 1972, the club started accepting Black members. The club's members also refused to accept women until forced to do so in  1988, when the Supreme Court upheld a law forbidding gender-based bans at private clubs with more than 400 members. In 1883, the club moved into its own building at 1700 H Street NW. Designed by the architects W. Bruce Gray and Harvey L. Page, it was destroyed in a fire in 1904. The club's current home, designed by the architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge, was built from 1906 to 1908. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites since 1964 and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 . The club's website declares: "Since its founding in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, by six Treasury Department officials, it has pursued its primary goal of furthering 'literary, mutual improvement, and social purposes'." It also says: "The Metropolitan Club's proximity to the White House and other icons of the nation's capital has made it a destination for many local, national and international leaders, including nearly every U.S. president since Abraham Lincoln." Relationship with other clubs. The Metropolitan Club has reciprocal agreements with: