| Founded in 1902, The Franklin Inn Club began at 1218 Chancellor St., when nine leaders of Philadelphia’s cultural life met at the University Club to plan for the pleasures of dining and conversation in a permanent city setting. The Franklin Inn Club is one of the many quaint institutions that have characterized Philadelphia’s cultural history. Caldwell’s original inspiration was the noted Tavern Club of Boston. In a spirit of inclusiveness, the Club membership voted in the early 1980’s to include women, also active in the arts, sciences, learned professions and other intellectually stimulating fields. And so, The Franklin Inn Club was the first such club in Philadelphia to be co-ed. It remains among the smallest of Philadelphia’s town clubs.The 1907 design by the club’s architect, Francis G. Caldwell, reproduced the appearance and ambiance of an inn in Ben Franklin’s time. The Inn moved to its present location in 1907, when it bought and combined four small row houses dating from the early 19th century. Camac Street, running parallel to 12th and 13th Street, south of Walnut Street, has been called “The Avenue of the Artists,” because of the many arts and dramatic clubs which lined it for several blocks southward from Walnut Street. A few still remain. Camac St. is a charming narrow cart way still paved with wooden blocks, once used throughout Philadelphia, to reduce the noise from horses’ hooves.The Franklin Inn Club (FIC) is one of many quaint institutions that have characterized Philadelphia since its earliest days. Now, in its second century, the FIC began as a watering hole for writers of all sorts: novelists, poets, academic scholars, journalists, contributors to trade and professional publications, etc. Gradually, being an author was removed from the requirements for membership, although a large number of current members are writers. Today, members share broad interests in many fields: the arts, education, social and political affairs, history, science, economics, medicine, law, and culture broadly defined as well as a love for reading across these areas of human endeavor. Early members wrote and produced plays, masques, musicals and other theater productions. Recently, this theatrical tradition was revived in connection with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The Franklin Inn has reciprocity with a list of notable clubs across the USA, Europe and Australia. |
