Rainier Club
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Rainier Club
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| Location | 810 4th Ave., Seattle, Washington |
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| Coordinates | 47°36′22″N 122°19′51″W / 47.60611°N 122.33083°WCoordinates: 47°36′22″N 122°19′51″W / 47.60611°N 122.33083°W |
| Built | 1903 |
| Architect | Cutter & Malmgren |
| Architectural style | Tudor Revival, Jacobethan Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 76001889 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 22, 1976 |
| Designated SEATL | June 1, 1987 |
The Rainier Club is a private club in Seattle, Washington; it has been referred to as "Seattle's preeminent private club." Its clubhouse building, completed in 1904, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was founded in 1888 in what was then the Washington Territory (statehood came the following year). As of 2008, the club has 1,300 members.
The Rainier Club was first proposed at a February 23, 1888 meeting of six Seattle civic leaders; it was formally incorporated July 25, 1888. The attendees of the original meeting were J. R. McDonald, president of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway; John Leary, real estate developer and former Seattle mayor; Norman Kelly; R. C. Washburn, editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Bailey Gatzert, former mayor associated with Schwabacher's, Seattle's and the state's most prominent Jewish-owned business of the era; A. B. Stewart; and James McNaught. Other founding members were lawyer Eugene Carr, Judge Thomas Burke, and William Allison Peters.
The club is named after British Admiral Peter Rainier. The name may have been chosen because of Seattle's rivalry with nearby Tacoma. Tacomans at the time were ardent in their support for the native name "Mount Tacoma" for the mountain now officially known as Mount Rainier. In 1892, the club actually sent a delegation to Washington, D.C. to argue the "Rainier" side of the case. The club's logo was modeled on that of the Union Club in Victoria, British Columbia, founded 1877.
Since territorial law in 1888 did not recognize private clubs, the Rainier Club was initially officially incorporated as a men's boarding house and restaurant. It reincorporated January 18, 1899 as a private club under a revised 1895 state law.
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