Neiman, Howard S.

The Pleiades Club emerged in 1896 from the gatherings of some members of the Greenwich Village artistic community in the small Italian restaurant of Maria del Prato on MacDougal Street. Among the customers of Maria's, the Pleiades Club named: Amos Cummings, Colonel William Gulder, Ripley Oswood Anthony, Paul Du Chaillu, Clara Louise Kellogg, Mark Twain, Valerian Gribayedoff, Signor Tagliapietra, "Billy" (W. E. S) Fales, Cleveland Moffett, Stephen Crane, "Billy" Welsh, Henry Tyrrell, Sam Chamberlain, Colonel Patton, William Garrison, George Luks, and Ernest Jarrold as its progenitors. For several seasons (each season lasted December through May) the Club continued to meet weekly at Maria's, first on Saturday and then on Sunday nights. As it became more widely known, the Club moved in search of larger quarters, first to the Black Cat (Uptown) and then to the Hungaria. After the first few years of uncertain and varying policies, in 1901 a new Board of Governors was elected, the name Pleiades Club regularly adopted, and the incorporation papers granted on January 9, 1902. After several seasons of moves, the Club settled in 1906 at the Hotel Brevoort, where it remained for most of its existence, with the exception of a few short-term stays at Reisenweber's and Hotel Martinique.

The Club's activities primarily consisted of weekly dinners, accompanied by an entertainment program, such as music performances and poetry readings, where club members and guests of honor gathered "to enjoy and foster the allied arts of Music, Drama, Art and Literature, and to Promote the spirit of good fellowship" (The Pleiad, 1931-32). The Club saw its mission as providing a friendly and appreciative audience to the inexperienced artists, helping the needy artists with free scholarships in the various branches of arts. The Club also published a yearbook, The Pleiad.

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