Club staff remains calm as 2001 attacks occur

September 11, 2001: The National Press Club was handling an all-day conference for 300 participants when news of the attacks came. Tom Glad, director of the library, was in the library as the plane hit the Pentagon. When he saw smoke rising, he hurried to warn everyone to get away from windows and stay inside, not knowing whether or not other planes might be targeting the White House and the Capitol. Many of the conference attendees were from New York and understandably panicked, so the club set up telephone banks and televisions for them to follow the news. The Club staff remained calm throughout the morning, and had permission to leave by 2:30 p.m. By then, the Club was pretty well empty, as was downtown Washington, “like a ghost town,” recalls staffer Patty Powers.

This Week In National Press Club History is brought to you by the History & Heritage Committee, which is dedicated to preserving and revitalizing the Club’s history through displays, panel discussions, lectures and events, as well as the oral history project.

For more information about the committee, or to join the committee, contact Bill Hickman at [email protected].