The Twilight Club was a dinner club in New York City that operated from 1883 until 1904. It was founded by Charles F. Wingate "to cultivate good fellowship and enjoy rational recreation."[1]
On January 4, 1883, the Twilight Club was founded by Charles Frederick Wingate[1][2][3][4][5] during "a gathering at Mouquin's restaurant of a number of congenial friends..."[6] Meetings consisted of dinner[7] or discussions both humorous and serious on disputable topics of the day. Some recorded topics were fishing, rearing of children and the value of a college education. Sometimes the questions would be hypotheticals such as "what would you do if you were King of Manhattan Island?", or "who is the most remarkable man on earth?"[1][8][9]
The inspiration for the club came from a dinner at Delmonico's held to honor sociologist Herbert Spencer on November 9, 1882,[10][11][12][13] prior to his departure from the United States.[14] Herbert Spencer made a speech on this occasion in which he said, "We have had somewhat too much of the Gospel of Work; it is time to preach the Gospel of Relaxation."[13] This motto engendered the formation of the Twilight Club.[10][13] Herbert Spencer did not participate in the club. However, Charles Wingate offered him an honorary membership, which, upon acceptance, he offered this advice to the club, "I would, however, remark that the reports of your proceedings seem to imply rather more gravity of speech in your conversations than is altogether consistent with the 'expectation of relaxation.'"[15] The official motto of the club was, "To cultivate good fellowship and enjoy rational recreation."[1]
An article in 1884,[16] states, "Among all the clubs in New York, of which prominent men are members, few are not better known than the Twilight club, and, at the same time, few are more worthy of note…" While the members were "club-able fellows with $1,"[1][6][13] some dinners were "ladies' nights", where women were involved and active in the discussions. By January 1887, the Club went through growing pains and found that their membership dues of $1 per year could not cover their expenses and raised the amount to $2 per year[17] and later to $3 per year.[6] "Full dress was absolutely prohibited", although sometimes diners would wear full dinner dress. Instead of rules, they had principles. Additions and amendments were accepted, but they were required to be submitted in writing, along with a deposit of $17.34 (as a guarantee of good faith) two years before being voted on.[1][16][18]
There was an executive committee. However, the only officer was Charles F. Wingate, who acted as "secretary, treasurer, committee of admission, and head and doer of what ever was to be done." Wingate kept a complete list of members, which was published in a contemporaneous biography of the club and corroborated in multiple newspaper articles at the time.[1][6][10][18][19]
Dinner began promptly at 6 and ran until 8 followed by two and a half hours of intellectual discussion. Speeches were limited to 5 minutes[20] "with the express understanding that each orator will speak his inmost thoughts without hesitation or reserve, and with the perfect assurance of the esteem and good-will of all his listeners."[18] During its most active period, the club met every two weeks,[13][21] eight months of the year. It was called the Twilight Club because the meetings happened much earlier than other clubs in the city. Meetings could be over before other similar clubs had begun dinner. The low cost, sometimes just the cost of dinner, the early hours and the casual nature of the discussions were unique factors that led to the club's popularity among its members.[1][10][18][22]
The St. Denis Hotel (also referred to as the Hotel St. Denis) became the most common location for gatherings.[1][18][22] There was no permanent master of ceremonies. For each dinner, the secretary Charles F. Wingate would appoint one member to be the president for the night. Wingate would inform the temporary president of the program for the evening and coach him in conducting the discussion. The dining party consisted of a mixture of paid members, their guests, and invited experts who were brought in to give their testimony and opinions in reference to the topic of discussion for that evening.[1][22]
The following is a catalogue of noted gatherings (dates, location, topics, attendees and guest speakers):
Club meetings ended in the early 1900s with the last reported meeting in 1904.[40] In 1910, Joel Benton[3] recounts that, "The Club has held no gatherings of late years, on account of its founder's now fatally terminated illness" and "The Club, beginning in 1883, suspended 5 or 6 years ago."[1] Waters said, "But alas! Wingate is absent, and there is no one to replace him."[22] When Charles Wingate Died in 1909, he was noted as the founder of the Twilight Club, and its factotum.[2] The club lasted over twenty years and hosted hundreds of dinners with guests numbering from dozens to several hundred. The last public meeting of the Twilight Club was May 19, 1918. By a unanimous vote at the annual meeting in September, the Twilight Club officially became the Society of Arts and Sciences.[41]
In 1893, the Manhattan Athletic Club went into receivership. Charles Wingate and a consortium of Twilight Club Members raised $500,000 to purchase the building as a permanent home for the club. They also intended to rent the club to other similar social clubs that could benefit from such a meeting place. While dues had been raised from $1 to $2, at the time of the athletic club purchase, Wingate mentions the initiation fee of $100 and dues of $15, which is contrasted with the dues of $30 for a similar club in London. At the time the club reported 800 members, although attendance at dinners was reported as between 50 and 200, depending on the event. The Twilight Club hoped to increase membership to 1,500 with this purchase.[42][43] However, no record of a purchase or such club operations was recorded. The only noted use in this time period was for conducting boxing matches.[44][45][46] The Twilight Club continued to have dinners mainly at the St. Denis Hotel following discussions of this purchase.
Twilight Park in the Catskill region of New York state was founded by Charles F. Wingate. Besides the name and a handful of Twilight Club members purchasing property there, it had no connection to the Twilight Club and its operations.[1]