The Quinnipiack Club

Quick Facts



Name of the building: Quinnipiack Club



Location: 221 Church St., New Haven, CT



Owners: The Quinnipiack Club



Use: Private club, now a bed and breakfast



Years of completion: 1929 - 1930



Architect: Douglas Orr, New Haven (architect)



Construction company: H. Wales Lines Co., Meriden



Previous occupant: Trowbridge House



Surrounding environment: Commercial, high building density area



Style: Colonial Revival



Materials: Brick, cut stone



Structure: Load bearing masonry, structural iron and steel



Roof: Mansard roof made of slate



Stories: Five stories plus a basement



Renovations: On original site, has had interior alterations and added parking area in the rear



The Building: Structure and Architecture



The Quinnipiack Club was designed by Douglas Orr, a well-known 20th-century architect based in New Haven. Orr was known primarily for his art deco and colonial revival buildings, and designed a number of well-known New Haven buildings including The Eli (formerly the Southern New England Telephone building) and the J.W. Gibbs Lab at Yale University. The Quinnipiack Club falls into the later category: it is a colonial revival building whose design was inspired by the Federal townhouses of Charles Bulfinch in Boston. It also incorporates some features of mid-18th-century Georgian architecture from the south.



The Connecticut Historic Resources Inventory describes the building with the following: “[these elements] were melded and refined by Orr in a highly sophisticated design that was well suited to the conservative tastes of its constituency. Orr was at his best in the Colonial Revival medium and this was one of his finest examples. Details have been reduced to simple, pure forms and have been carefully ordered. The result is a building that is almost timeless.”



Structurally, it is a five-story masonry building with a brick exterior. The roof is stylistically a mansard roof, with paired end-chimneys. Each gable has a circular window. The height of the windows decreases for successively higher stories. On the second floor, false balconies “articulate” each window.



History and Uses



The Quinnipiack Club, at 221 Church St., is on the site of the former Winston J. Trowbridge House. Trowbridge had graduated from Yale in 1879, and then attended Yale Law School, graduating in 1881. In 1885, he became involved in property management and trust estates and was treasurer of the New Haven Savings bank. Although Winston died in 1864, his family completed construction of the Trowbridge house after his death. The house was occupied by the Trowbridge family until 1925 when it was taken down to make room for the new location of the Quinnipiack Club.



The Quinnipiack Club is a men’s city club that was started in 1871 to provide its members camaraderie and a respectable urban living space. It was founded at a time when this type of club was becoming increasingly popular, not just at Yale and in New Haven, but also in metropolitan cities across the globe, such as London, New York, and Washington. The building housed the club’s café, served as a meeting place for the club and provided residence to a number of members. During the 1920’s, members sought a new location because their old club location—the Darling House on Chapel Street—was constantly in need of costly repairs. They purchased the site at 221 Church in the mid-1920’s and contracted Douglas Orr as the architect for their new house. The building was completed in 1930 at a cost of about $250,000. Club meetings in the new location began in 1931.



An article from the Dana Collection authored by Quinnipiack Club members states that the new location was “designed to meet certain future requirements.” Further description includes the following: “There will be opportunity for expansion both by the addition of another floor and by the construction of another section toward the rear upon property owned by the Club…The sleeping accommodations for members who may wish to make the Club their home [and] for guests will be on the upper floors. [There are] thirty-six bedrooms of generous size with good light and air exposures…The ladies’ dining room will have a separate entrance from the street through a private lobby and reception room.”



Over the years, the building has undergone a number of internal renovations, updating the club with modern amenities. A parking lot has been added in the rear to address parking concerns. The club still has official membership, but now also functions as a bed and breakfast accepting unaffiliated guests.



Sources:



Historic Resources Inventory, State of Connecticut, Connecticut Historical Commission, 59 South Prospect Street, Hartford, CT 06106



The Dana Collection, New Haven Museum



The First One Hundred Years (Informational booklet published by The Quinnipiack Club)