Life at the Club

The Grande Salle, added by Mrs. Reid in 1911-1913 to enhance social life at 4 rue de Chevreuse, is described in The Times of India on June 16, 1928 as: "A large room with dull gold walls; no furniture but a grand piano and hundreds of small wooden chairs; two American and French flags crossed as the only decoration - and one of the best dancing halls in Paris" (page)

The article then comments on the warmth and fellowship young people can find at Reid Hall's Sunday evening receptions, particularly those hailing from America and England: "It is a little bit of home, this club, tucked away in a corner of a foreign city, a place where you forget all about the Eiffel Tower or the Rue de la Paix, and talk about Fifth Avenue and Piccadilly Circus to your heart's content" (page)

A delightful guidebook published in 1929 for young ladies, Paris Is a Woman's Town, sheds light on the more wholesome social activities that attracted Americans to the Club:

"Homelike social gatherings as comforting as long distance telephone talks with the folks back home in Missouri, are held on Sunday nights at the American University Women’s Club, 4 Rue de Chevreuse, with a musical hour given by amateurs studying in Paris to become professionals and community sings during which everybody lustily roars 'Dixie' and 'Nearer, My God, to Thee.' Afterward there is dancing to a rather weak improvised orchestra or to somebody’s volunteer piano playing. The whole entertainment is informal, with Lady Betty Foster, official Latin Quarter chaperon, sitting discreetly against the wall to receive the greetings of her artistic family" (167).

The guidebook goes on to describe the hospitality the Club offers to "thousands of lonesome women every year... presided over by fair-haired, good-tempered Dorothy Leet, Barnard graduate" (171). Interestingly, the authors also claim that the Club's residents frequently engage in sports: "Fencing also is good for keeping in physical trim in Paris where continuous bad weather often makes outdoor exercise difficult. Girls at the American University Women's Club frequently arrange small private classes" (214).

Under Miss Leet's leadership, the University Women's Club thrived during this period, and was host to a number of esteemed guests and residents. Reid Hall hosted luncheons and teas for key visitors and local personalities. The Pen Club, for example, was very active, hosting regular dinners with speakers. Several First Ladies were affiliated with Reid Hall, including Lou Henry Hoover, Grace Coolidge, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Miss Leet informed Dean Gildersleeve in an October 1936 letter that Mrs. Coolidge had visited Paris in the spring and dined at the Club with friends (Barnard College Archives, BC 5.1, box 136). Many other notable women visited the Club briefly or delivered lectures on a wide range of topics. In July 1929, for example, Margaret Proctor Smith, a writer and lecturer who had just spent two years living and studying in China, during which she also traveled to the Philippines, India and Egypt, gave a speech praising the Chinese nationalist movement. She is described in an article in The China Weekly Review as "the ambassador of good-will for the Chinese nationalist movement" (July 6, 1929, 245). In November 1930, Dorr Bothwell spoke on Samoan songs and dances, presenting her sketches and watercolors.

In its capacity as the headquarters of the International Federation of University Women, Reid Hall also hosted grand social occasions to bring together women from all around the world, not just the Americans and the French. In March 1923, the Journal of the American Association of University Women reported on an evening reception at the Club, still under the direction of Louisa K. Fast, at which Alys Russell and Theodora Bosanquet spoke on the international aims of the Federation. Russell, an American relief organizer and first wife of Bertrand Russell, as well as Bosanquet, suffragist and former secretary to the novelist Henry James, gave speeches on the value of the Federation "as a means of uniting in bonds of real understanding and sympathy those members of the different nations who are likely to profit most by international contacts and whose influence, as teachers, on the rising generation is of the highest importance" (page). The program also included a performance of Mozart and Gabriel Fauré sonatas by violinist Miss Seymour Whinyates, accompanied by the Marquise d'Elbée (21). 

Russell returned to Reid Hall in 1927 to give a lecture on Crosby Hall (London), which the British Federation of University Women had leased in 1925 and which had been expanded to include the offices of the International Federation of University Women. Crosby Hall also served as a residence for visiting university women, some of whom received IFUW scholarships to travel and study.

Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor, came to Paris on July 30, 1936 to address the Second Congress of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. She was received at the Elysée Palace by French President Albert Lebrun and met with the French Minister of Labor. Given the large numbers of suffragists who resided at the Club or served on its Board in this period, it is not surprising that she was invited to attend a tea given in her honor. The New York Herald Tribune covered her visit, including her exchanges with women at the Club:

"In her interview, to the astonishment of her feminine interrogators, Miss Perkins indicated that she did not believe married women should work unless they needed money. Miss Perkins herself is the wife of Paul Wilson. 'The right of married women to work,' said Miss Perkins in answer to a question, 'depends, I believe, on whether they need to work. I personally do not believe in a woman's working simply to pass the time away, but there are often circumstances, perhaps extraneous to her immediate household, which make added income necessary'" (July 31, 1936, p. 4A).

Miss Leet also wanted the Reid Hall residents to be introduced to French cultural and academic life:

"We wish to give the American student living at the club ...some idea of French social life and French culture. Now we have these students as comfortably housed as they could be housed in America, but we do not wish them to become an isolated group of Americans mingling with only their countrymen" (Herald Tribune date, 1928).

Leet and the Herald Tribune regularly reported on the Club's myriad activities, listing the many noteworthy French guests at teas and dinners. Among Reid Hall's regular speakers:

• Nadia Boulanger, French composer, conductor, and teacher (1927, 1937)
• Abbé Henri Breuil, prehistorian (1929 and after WWII).
• Pierre Comert, director of the Information section of the League of Nations from 1919 to 1932 and the head of the Information and Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1933 to 1938  (1927, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938)
• Benjamin Crémieux, writer, literary critic, translator (1927, 1930, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939);
• Etienne Dimnet, Catholic priest, writer, and teacher (1927, 1930, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939);
• Etienne Gilson, historian, philosopher, Académie française, Collège de France (1929, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1938)
• Paul Hazard, historian (1932, 1933, 1935, 1938, 1939)
• Pierre de Lanux, writer, diplomat, and teacher, Paris Bureau Chief, League of Nations (1928, 1931, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938)
• André Siegfried, sociologist and historian (1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1938)
• Jules Romains, writer and poet (1936, 1937)
• Firmin-Roz, essayist and member of the Institut de France (1929, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1938), who was later decorated by the Vichy Regime. 

There were also numerous recitals and concerts, often at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners.

In a letter to Helen Rogers Reid (date), Leet describes the 1931 Christmas dinner: 

“Christmas day we gave our usual dinner, and there were about 115 guests present. The hall was decorated with holly and mistletoe, and we had a big Christmas tree in the library. Our guests enjoyed very much the Russian singers who added a great deal to the gaiety of the occasion. I did not invite any special guests for the occasion since there were no stray foreigners in town. Miss Janet Scudder, who has one of our studios, invited Gertrude Stein, and the young students were delighted to have this opportunity of talking to her.”

Amid all the social delights and fun, 4 rue de Chevreuse was also sometimes the unwitting site for serious issues. There were instances of young women rebelling against their parents, as when the The Washington Post reported in September 1934 on a certain Ann Moorhead's (mis)adventure on her last day at the Club:

"This morning, two hours before she and her mother were due to take the boat train for the Aquitania, Ann walked out of the American University Women's Club. Because she had little money, no friends in Paris and knew French but slight, her alarmed mother asked police and Embassy officials to try to find her. During the day they watched dancing schools in the belief the missing girl would attempt to enroll in one. 'She was resentful,' Mrs. Moorhead explained, 'because I refused to consent to her remaining in Europe to study dancing. She has always been independent. Her disappearance was intended to prove that she was grown up. I told her she could have all the independence she wanted at home, but I couldn't let the ocean separate us.' A few hours were enough, her mother said tonight, to convince her that independence 'was not what she expected,' so she changed her mind and came home" (September 2, 1934, pg. M1).

Mental illness also appeared in certain residents of Reid Hall. In some cases, overworked students succumbed to their anxiety and required treatment at the clinic or even had to return home. But there were also a handful of major incidents involving French law enforcement.

These disturbing situations, often well-documented, were fortunately rare. Far more frequent were accounts of the captivating, blissful experience of life at the Club, like the May 1936 account published by Louise Trueblood in the Barnard Alumnae Magazine: 

"From the instant that I stepped into the cobblestoned courtyard... peace and charm seemed to envelop me and the impression grew with the length of my stay" (May 1936, page)... Some day I hope to get back to Reid Hall with enough time to do all the things that I had no time for last summer. I want to read books in that fascinating library, attend lectures in the impressive lecture room, explore thoroughly all the old building, and sit at my ease in the glass enclosed gallery and read the newspapers" (21)

Reid Hall's ambiance had long been praised by every individual who resided there or visited for a short while. It's ability to afford the comforts of home while also providing regular opportunities for young Americans to sample the French way of life made it such a unique third space. Gertrude Homans Cooper, who became the Club's director in 1938 expressed the spirit of Reid Hall in a report to the joint operating committee (May 17, 1939, RH archives):

"As a place of residence, Reid Hall is unique in Paris and thanks to Miss Leet and Miss Porter it has its place in the intellectual life of the city. The charm of the old house and garden exercises its spell on everyone who comes. Because the house is rambling and built around a courtyard, it is more expensive to keep up, but I doubt very much if people would be eager to come here if it were a completely modern type of building, entirely American in atmosphere."

As the world inched terrifyingly toward war in the latter half of 1938, Miss Leet's successor, Mrs. Cooper, reported to Dean Gildersleeve about the farewell tea held in Miss Porter's honor:

"On the 28th of September, the Club had a tea which served as a farewell to Miss Porter and an introduction to the new director. It was on the morning of that day that we felt there was but little hope left of averting war, so all who came were anxious and preoccupied. Before they left, however, word was sent us from a news agency that there was to be another conference with Mussolini included. Immediately, the whole spirit of the group changed, and our party ended in a much happier mood" (October 12, 1938, Reid Hall Records, Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library).

Sources

Heilig, Sterling. "Girls In Paris Find Freedom: They Want To Look Out For Selves And Not ...The Baltimore Sun, Jul 11, 1926, p. SF21. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.

"Paris Suffragist Group in Chains Cries for Vote." New York Herald Tribune, Jul 31, 1936, p. 4A. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.