Tour of the Historic and Magnificent Cosmos Club - FREE for Members and their Guests
Our volunteer guide will be Susan Koch Ph.D. '72 who serves as Cosmos Club Docent Coordinator
The Cosmos Club is a private social club in Washington, D.C., founded by John Wesley Powell in 1878. Among its stated goals is "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art".[1] Cosmos Club members have included four U.S. Presidents, two U.S. Vice Presidents, a dozen Supreme Court justices, 32 Nobel Prize winners, 56 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 45 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Since 1952, the Club's headquarters have been in the Townsend House on Embassy Row.
In addition to Powell, original members included Clarence Edward Dutton, Henry Smith Pritchett, William Harkness, and John Shaw Billings. The Club originally met in the Corcoran Building on the corner of 15th and F Streets, N.W., but moved to Lafayette Square in 1882. Eventually, the Club occupied the Tayloe and Dolley Madison Houses on the eastern side of the Square, and razed two rowhouses between them for additional space. Prompted to relocate by thefederal government, the Club moved to the Townsend House in mid 1952.[citation needed]
Since 1887, the regular meeting place of the Philosophical Society of Washington has been the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club, now called the John Wesley Powell auditorium. The National Geographic Society was founded in the Cosmos Club in 1888, and The Wilderness Society was founded there in 1935.[citation needed]
The Club's front entrance is closed for renovation work. Tour participants should enter through the Garden Parking Lot entrance on Florida Ave, just north of Mass Ave.
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