The Seminole Club

The Seminole Club was organized in 1887 with F.R. Osborne, J.M. Barrs, A.C. Cowan and W.R. Hunter as the organizing officers. Named in honor of Florida's Native American Seminole tribe, the club was Jacksonville's oldest social club for men and the seventh oldest of its type in the country. Jacksonville architects Rutledge Holmes and Arthur Burton Giles designed this Colonial revival building and in 1903 construction was completed by the Halsema-Woodcock Construction Company at a cost of $25,000. Originally built as a two-story, red brick structure, a third floor was added to accommodate fifteen bachelor apartments in 1907 at a cost of $5,000., The club's first event was the Patriarch's Ball held on April 20, 1903, followed by a Seminole Cotillion and the official opening on New Year's Day 1904. In 1905, introduced by Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech to local citizens from the club's second floor balcony with the purpose of helping heal the nation's sectional division still lingering forty years after the Civil War. At its peak, the club's roster consisted of more than 1,000 members, including leading figures in business, politics and law, including Louis Hampton "Lou" Ritter. A former club president and the last mayor in Jacksonville before Consolidation, Ritter was credited for supporting the Civil Rights Movement, integrating the Jacksonville Police Department and initiating the development of the Jacksonville International Airport., Despite the Seminole Club's racially segregated atmosphere, Oscar C. Carter made national news in 1917. A Food inventor and Black head waiter of the Seminole Club, Carter created a sauce that was favored by the famous Wall Street speculator Jessie L. Livermore. At a Seminole Club luncheon, Livermore issued Carter a significant check to market the product known as the Oscar Carter Sauce. Also gender segregated, another inclusionary barrier was broken in 1988 when Nancy Seely, the daughter of the former mayor and club president Lou Ritter, became the first woman to be admitted as a member., The Seminole Club is a contributing structure to the Downtown Jacksonville Historic District, which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016., (captions) , An early conceptual elevation for the Seminole Club (Shelling and Potter Architects) , The Seminole Club originally opened as a 2-story Colonial Revival-style brick structure in 1903 (State Archives of Florida) , President Theodore Roosevelt at the Seminole Club on October 21, 1905 (University of North Florida) , For more information visit dia.coj.net.