The Arlington Club was established in 1867 by thirty-five Portland business men as a place to “fraternize for mutual enjoyment and relaxation, and to provide a meeting place for discussing their own and Portland’s destiny.”
Translation: No girls (or Jews or ethnic minorities) allowed!
That is, until the 1960s when Jewish-American federal judge Gus J. Solomon (yes, that Gus J. Solomon), amongst other, pointed out the discriminatory practices. Slowly things began to change as non-whites were accepted for membership.
But it wasn’t until February 11, 1990 that women were permitted to join the club (and presumably join discussions of Portland’s destiny).
Photo credit: Arlington Club photo by Wikimedia Commons contributer Finetooth used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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