The Private Clubs of Manchester

Members only: the private clubs of Manchester, NH
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8:44AM
I wasn't quite sure what to make of the city's private clubs when I moved to Manchester, NH, in 2004. They seemed to me part of a secret society. Their buildings are marked, but they contain no windows through which to peek inside. And the doors are always locked - you have to be buzzed in.
Just what goes on in there?
Last Friday, I found out.
Five years after I moved to Manchester, curiosity finally got the better of me. My first stop was the Alpine Club, which having nearly 1,000 members, is believed to be the largest and most popular of the city's private clubs.
Like the other such clubs I visited afterwards, the interior of the Alpine Club is dark, even in mid afternoon. The large upstairs room is dominated by a bar, around which mainly residents from the surrounding West Side neighborhood, including former Ward 11 Alderman Hank Thibault, far left, were gathered:

"There's a camraderie here - we all know each other," one of the gentlemen told me when asked about the appeal of private clubs versus public bars like Strange Brew Tavern, Milly's Tavern or The Shaskeen.
"And the drinks are a lot cheaper," a gentleman on a neighboring barstool chimed in. A beer that might cost you $4 in a public bar will only set you back $2.25 at the Alpine or most other private clubs.
Such clubs also offer free pool and other games to their members. The Alpine Club even has horseshoe pits out back:

And unlike public bars and restaurants, the state law forbidding smoking indoors does not apply to these clubs as they are private, members-only establishments. Likewise, they do not have to conform to a state law requiring all public establishments serving alcohol to have a certain percentage of their sales be food sales. These private clubs can - and do - serve alcohol only.
In my talks with patrons at various clubs I learned that the city's clubs - and others like them across the state - are acutally chartered by the State of New Hampshire.
Organizationally, the clubs are recognized by the federal government as nonprofit organizations under the 501(c)7 code of the IRS. It is this nonprofit status, as well as annual membership dues that range from $10-20 per member, that allow for the cheap drinks and other free or low-cost amenities for which the clubs are known.
A while these days the clubs are more known for their cheap drinks than anything else, most were started, as their names suggest, as fraternal associations by the city's early immigrant groups, including the French Canadians (Alpine Club, Club Canadien, etc.), the Irish (Raphael Club), the Belgians (the now-defunct Belgian Club), the Germans (Workmen's Club), the Ukrainians (Ukrainian American Citizens Club, otherwise known as "the Uke"), the Greeks (Pericles Democratic Club) and the British (British American Association).
"They were places where they could speak their own languages and be with their own people," one club patron told me.
The city's oldest private club was founded in 1883 as the Workmen's Relief Association. Located on the corner of Douglas and West streets on the West Side, it was started by Germans in what was then a German neighborhood. These days the Workmen's Club, as it is now known, functions mainly a bar:
(On a side note, the Workmen's Club has one of the best handwritten signs I've ever seen in a bar. To wit:

)
Today, none of the clubs has an ethnic or national membership requirement of any kind. For the most part, all that's required for membership is sponsorship by a member in good standing, followed by approval from the club's board of directors.
At present, there are 16 private social clubs in Manchester, NH, not counting the five veterans clubs operated by the American Legion, the VFW and the Disabled American Veterans:
View Private social clubs in Manchester, NH in a larger map
A complete list of these clubs, their addresses and membership requirments and dues can be downloaded here.
And if you think you want to join a club, I would advise going ahead and doing so. The state apparently stopped issuing charters for private clubs some years ago. The existing clubs were grandfathered in, but once they're gone, they're gone for good. Such has been the fate in recent years and decades of the Belgian Club, Turner Hall, the Hari Gari Club and others.
This also means the more recent immigrant groups are out of luck if they've ever thought of starting their own clubs.