Gateway Club, founded in 1913, occupied the Incubator
on Olden
Street for eight years -- the longest tenancy in that building's long and
varied history as a club facility. In 1921, Gateway moved into the Italianate
Revival building
designed by William Ralph Emerson as Cap
& Gown's second clubhouse. This structure had been moved in 1907 to make
way for Cap's present brick clubhouse, and at that point had been taken over by
Dial Lodge. This redoubtable old structure became vacant when Dial finished the
construction of its new stone clubhouse on the north side of Prospect, allowing
Gateway to move in.
Gateway remained in this building from 1921 until 1927. The club then shifted
operations to a house at 70 Washington Road, next door to Terrace Club. This
structure
had originally been designed by Raleigh Gildersleeve
(architect of Cap & Gown, Campus, and Elm Clubs, as well as numerous
buildings for the University) as a private residence for Jesse Lynch Williams.
David Patton later owned the building and sold it to Gateway as its
clubhouse.
The building
was remodeled to fit the needs of an eating
club and to blend stylistically with the mock Tudor appearance of Terrace Club
to the north. The half-timbers and other Tudor details visible in photographs
of the building date from these renovations.
Never very secure financially, Gateway Club folded in 1940. Shortly thereafter, the building was taken over by Prospect Club, established by the University as a non-selective alternative to the upperclass eating clubs. Prospect Club continued in business until 1961. The building was then converted for academic offices before being demolished to make way for the Center for Jewish Life in 1994.