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Perched atop the National Press Building within sight of the White House and just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Capitol, the National Press Club is the meeting place in Washington for newsmakers and journalists. Through its doors have come presidents, premiers, kings and queens, Cabinet secretaries, senators and House members, movie stars and sports heroes, titans of business and finance – a who’s who of the 20th and the 21st centuries - eager to share their views on current events with the media and the public.
Mission
The National Press Club is the World’s Leading Professional Organization for Journalists™. It serves its members through professional development activities that bolster their skills, through services that meet the changing needs of the global communications profession and through social activities that build a vital media community in Washington and around the world. The Club is where news happens in the nation’s capital and is a vigorous advocate of press freedom worldwide.
History
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…
Photo Galleries: 1908-1920: Beginnings 1921-1940: The Formative Years 1941-1960: NPC at Mid-Century 1961-1990: Inclusion & Expansion 1991-Present: A Professional Organization
History 2
Right from the beginning the Club attracted noted figures of the era. Sarah Bernhardt, Charlie Chaplin and Andrew Carnegie dropped by in those early days. William Howard Taft became the first president to visit the Club when he hoisted his 300-pound body up the stairs on New Year’s Day 1910. He gave the bartender a rosebud from his lapel in exchange for a glass of water. Former President Theodore Roosevelt stopped by to tell of his exploits hunting big game in Africa and hint he may run again in 1912. Woodrow Wilson visited often. He once said the Club was the one place in town where he could…
History 3
As the Club rapidly expanded, it outgrew its first three homes. In the 1920s, the Club’s board decided to build a high-rise office building with the Club at the top. It would be filled with the Washington bureaus then scattered along 14th and F Streets known as Newspaper Row. President Calvin Coolidge laid the cornerstone, and the 14-story building – the largest private office building in Washington at the time -- opened in December 1927 with a spacious Club on the top two floors. In the early 1980s, the building was torn down to its girders and rebuilt while the Club kept functioning. In…
History 4
It’s hard to imagine now, but the Club excluded women until 1971. In retaliation, women journalists began their own Club, the Women’s National Press Club, in 1919, the same year that Congress passed the 19th amendment allowing women the right to vote leading to its ratification in 1920. That club developed its own lively program, especially with the help of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It became famous for its annual “Salute to Congress” dinner. It fought the National Press Club for access to its speakers, and in 1959 it convinced Nikita Khrushchev not to speak at the Club unless women were…
History 5
When President-elect Franklin Roosevelt spoke in 1932 he began what has become the newsmaker luncheon series that has attracted thousands of leaders to the Club’s podium including Khrushchev (who explained what he meant by “We will bury you”), Madame Chiang Kai Shek, Charles deGaulle, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Boris Yeltsin, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, and the Dalai Lama. Iranian President President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the Club and took questions by two-way satellite hook up in 2007. Some historians believe the Club may have played a role in launching the Korean War. In January…
Beginning in 1994, CBS news legend Marvin Kalb launched a series of television forums that probe the craft of journalism. He has questioned such journalism luminaries as CBS anchors Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Katie Couric, CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, investigative reporters Seymour Hersh and Dana Priest, AP President Tom Curly and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch. On any given day now, the Club is bustling with press conferences, newsmaker events, forums and professional training. Hundreds of people pass through the Club daily looking to make news and to get news,…
Fun Facts
How it all began On March 12, 1908, 32 newspapermen with $300 in their treasury and promises of support from 200 of their colleagues decided to create a private club for reporters to socialize and talk shop. Meeting just 17 days later in the parlor of the Willard Hotel, they framed a constitution for what they called “The National Press Club.” There were 34 original members. The first Club president was William P. Spurgeon, a reporter at The Washington Post. The National Press Building The current home of the National Press Club is its fourth. The first location was on…
History of the National Press Club
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