The Club

Perched atop the National Press Building within sight of  the White House  and just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol, the National Press Club is the traditional meeting place in Washington for newsmakers and journalists.

Founded more than a century ago as a haven for Washington reporters to relax, enjoy a drink and play cards, it is now the world's leading professional organization for journalists, and one of the most popular venues to host business, news or social events in downtown Washington.

Through its doors have come presidents, premiers, kings and queens, Cabinet secretaries, senators and House members, movie stars and sport heroes, titans of business and finance - just a who's who of the 20th and 21st centuries. Here they have found a willing audience of reporters waiting to grill them with questions, interpret what they say and send the news around the world.

It all began on a cold, blustery February day in 1908 when a one-legged reporter for the old Washington Times by the name of Graham Nichol crossed 14th Street on crutches and met a colleague, James Hay. "I'm getting tired of having to hunt a stuffy, ill-ventilated little hall room in a cheap boarding house every time I want to play a game of poker," Nichol exclaimed. "Hells bells, why don't we get up a press club ? A place where the fellows can take a drink or turn a card when they feel like it."

"How? Where?" Hay responded through chattering teeth. "I don't know and I don't give a damn where," Nichol replied. "But all the same, we're going to have club." And he hobbled to the pressroom at police headquarters on the 12th Street and started collecting signatures of reporters willing to plunk down $10 each to get the Club started.

The National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists. It serves its members through activities that bolster their skills, through services that meet changing needs of the global communication profession, and through social activities that build a vital media community in Washington and across the world. The Club is where news happens in the nation's capital and is a vigorous advocate of press freedom worldwide.

The Board of Governors is governing body of the Club. The business and affairs of the Club are managed by or under the direction of the Board. The Board of Governors shall adopt rules for the conducts of the members of the Club and create an environment that supports the goals and purpose of the institution.