About Quad
|  The Princeton Quadrangle Club is one of ten Princeton University eating
clubs, and is located at 33 Prospect Avenue. Founded in 1901 and
referred to as "literary Quadrangle” by F. Scott Fitzgerald in This Side of Paradise,
present-day Quad is known as one of the most diverse and welcoming
clubs in the University. One of the five "sign-in” clubs, Quad allows
any second semester sophomore, junior, or senior to join. Quad is
known for hosting amazing concerts (previous acts include Maroon 5,
Rihanna and B.O.B), having the best technology on the Street, and its
delicious Soul Food Night. Most ‘Dranglers consider Quad their home on
campus, and can be found within the building’s four corners day and
night. |
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History
| In 1896, Ivy Club purchased a lot on the south side of Prospect
Avenue to construct a new Gothic-style clubhouse. The house on the site,
formerly the residence of Professor Henry Burchard Fine, Class of 1880,
was moved to the north side of Prospect. In 1901, the newly formed
Quadrangle Club took over this structure as its first clubhouse.
 Although the architect of the original Fine house is unknown, the
structure was built in the late 1880s and was a fine example of the
shingle style. Fully sheathed in shingles, it featured a gambrel roof
with a variety of gables, porches, and bays. In 1903, however,
Quadrangle moved this building back across Prospect Avenue to a site
immediately east of Campus Club (where Tower Club stands today) and
thoroughly renovated it.
 This renovation saw a large wing tacked onto the rear, with a large
wraparound porch added to the front and west. The shingle style was
maintained, but many of the interesting elements from the original
structure were lost. In particular, the facade of the renovated
structure eliminated the gables and bays that gave texture to the
original Fine house.
Quad remained in the Fine House until 1910, when the club acquired
the house that the University had built in 1887 as a retirement home for
President
McCosh and his wife, Isabella. Designed by New York architect A. Page
Brown, only 28 at the time, this was a handsome, shingled house in the
Colonial Revival style. A number of architectural historians have argued
that Brown drew heavily on his design for the Taylor house in Newport,
Rhode Island, although the McCosh House is much smaller and not as
heavily ornamented.
Unlike many Colonial Revival structures, McCosh House was
asymmetrical. A picture of the rear elevation taken after Quad took
possession, for example, reveals the curved, off-center dining room with
three large windows looking out to the south. This picture also reveals
a major alteration undertaken by Quad. A second story was added above
the covered piazza on the west end of the building.
By 1915, Quadrangle determined that the McCosh was not large enough
(or grand enough). The following year, it sold the McCosh House to Lloyd
Grover, who moved it to its current location on Nassau Street, a block
from the intersection with Harrison Street. Quad then commissioned one
its board members, Henry Milliken, Class of 1905, to design a new
building.
Milliken's plan for Quad called for a classic brick Georgian Revival
structure, with the corners defined by white quoins and featuring a
large entrance portico.
The facade of Milliken's Quad Club is rigidly symmetrical, with eight
tall sash windows framing the entrance portico. This portico is the
club's most notable feature and was modeled on the entrance to
"Westover," one of the great houses of Tidewater Virginia and built in
the 1730s. |
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| Notable Alumni
- R. W. Apple, Jr. - New York Times editor
- John Peale Bishop - writer, poet
- Jeff Bezos - founder of Amazon.com
- Ralph D. Denunzio - investment banker and chairman of the New York Stock Exchange
- Fred E. Fox - collector of Princeton traditions known as "Keeper of the Princetoniana"
- Barry Glick - founder of Mapquest.com
- Robert F. Goheen - president of Princeton University and U.S. Ambassador to India
- George P. Shultz - Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989
- Adlai Stevenson - governor of Illinois, U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations, and Democratic Party nominee for President in 1952 and
1956
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