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 Exclusively Theirs: The Hamilton Club and the Rule of Lancaster by Ron Harper, Jr. Friday, 16 May 2008
They talked business at the Hamilton Club - that much we know. Even though taxpayers paid for the lunch, we will never know how many millions of our dollars were given away at the $37.37 meal shared between (the private) Penn Square Partners' (PSP) President, Nevin Cooley and (the public) Lancaster County Convention Center Authority Chairman, Jim Pickard. Since 1889, the Hamilton Club has been the location where many important business decisions have been made in Lancaster. So who are members of this exclusive club representing a little over 1/1000 percent of this county? We caught up with Hamilton Club General Manager, Bryan Duquin, at his modest West Hempfield home because he had not responded to three visits to the club. Answering questions in his driveway, Duquin refused to answer anything specifically saying, "I am not a member, I am an employee," and told the Post that only members can give out such information.
Talking of women's contributions might be an exaggeration, as a woman could not be a full member of the Hamilton Club for the first 100 years of the club's existence. The night before women were allowed to be full members, the men had invitations sent out inviting all members to a "wake." They lit cigars and lamented the changing times. The integration of women into the amenities of the club really didn't happen until a locker room was opened for them a little over two years ago. Nevin Cooley's 1998 membership with the club coincided with PSP's push for the millions and millions of taxpayer dollars funneled to the convention center. PSP corporate principals Dale High (member since 1978), Fulton Bank's Rufus Fulton (member since 1974) and Lancaster Newspapers Jack Buckwalter (member since 1963) are not the first private interests to meet behind the stone veil and conspire to gain the public tax dollars. According to their Annual Report for 2000, the Economic Development Corporation was founded in the Hamilton Club in 1960. The date is significant because the 15, white, protestant, men were the only ones allowed to be members. Five years earlier, Eleanor Roosevelt had refused to attend a reception given in her honor because the Hamilton Club had a policy of not admitting "Jews" and "Negroes."
So just how does one become a member of the club? Duquin also said nothing on this subject. According to members who did not wish to be quoted in this article, the "membership committee" posts prospective member's names. Members are asked to be given any information regarding the prospects suitability. Duquin did offer that no one had been "black- balled" in the five years that he has been with the club. After a time, the membership committee approves these new members. So who is on the membership committee? Duquin refused to say. What minority members are in the club today? Duquin said he wasn't allowed to talk about who was a member. After checking a 2005 member list (the only one we were able to acquire) we were able to recognize one member of a minority, Steve Powell. Powell told the Post that the club was really nice but that he didn't really use the membership. The Pequea Township businessman and owner of Powell Steel received the steel contract for the convention center and has been heralded as one of the minority successes of the project. Bryan Duquin insisted that the club was looking for new members. "I can't introduce someone to a member," but offered that someone looking to become a member would have their name passed onto the "membership committee" who would determine when and if contact will be made. The club's website advised that submitting your name, phone number and email address, "DOES NOT CONSTITUTE ANY FORM OF APPLICATION - THE ONLY WAY TO BEGIN THE APPLICATION PROCESS IS TO BE INVITED BY A CURRENT MEMBER OF THE HAMILTON CLUB." As the publishers of the Post are upright members of the community, perhaps one or both will be nominated for memberships. Maybe then, the public will finally see how decisions are really made behind the stone veil.
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© Copyright 2008 by Lancaster Post. All Rights reserved.
The Club's website, as recently as 2005, described the membership in the
following way. After claiming the Hamilton Club and its members are "...
representative of excellence in Lancaster since its emergence a century ago"
and "leading citizens" it goes on to described the club's beginning: "...it has
been endowed by men and women distinguished in business and the professions:
attorneys and physicians, architects and engineers, merchants and manufacturers,
bankers and farmers: also the builders and developers, the visionaries and the
expansionists."
Lancaster Newspaper employee Jack Brubaker, in the vanity biography called
"The Steinmans of Lancaster" gave the club's excuse that there was no written policy
for discrimination and that "...all members had to be passed by the board." J. Hale
Steinman, newspaper heiress', Peggy
Steinman's father, had invited Eleanor.
What of her protest about Jews and
Negroes not being members? Steinman
said he would have his party where he
wanted to have it! Eleanor went to the
public banquet but missed the Hamilton
Club reception.