The College Club of Boston B&B

The College Club of Boston was the first women's college club in America. The Club's Victorian brownstone is host to a number of events and is available for member and non-member use. It is an elegant venue available for hosting an array of events. The Club is conveniently located at 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston's historic Back Bay, just one block from the Public Garden.

The Club has an accomplished staff that can assist planning any special event. We are experienced in hosting weddings, receptions, rehearsal dinners, anniversaries, birthdays, concerts, and business meetings. The Club offers many amenities, including our full catering menu, wait staff, 11 guestrooms, wireless internet access, A/V equipment, and more. We are waiting to assist you with your next event!

The Club is conveniently near Beacon Hill, Charles Street, Copley Square, the Prudential Tower, Government Center, Newbury Street and the Theater District. The Club furnishes an elegant setting for any event.
 

Located in the heart of the Back Bay on prestigious Commonwealth Avenue.
The College Club of Boston

Located at 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston's historic Back Bay, just one block from the Boston Public Garden, the Club's restored Victorian brownstone offers many amenities. The Club is conveniently located near Beacon Hill, Charles Street, Copley Square, the Prudential Tower, Government Center, Newbury Street and the Theater District. The Club furnishes an elegant setting for any in-town event.

The Percy-Dauber Drawing Room, located on the first floor, is available for cocktail parties, dinners, business meetings and other events. En suite with The Members Room, featuring 18-foot ceilings and classical decor, this is the perfect venue for weddings and will accommodate up to 100 guests.

The College Club's guestrooms offer Back Bay charm and comfort to members and guests visiting Boston. Six double rooms have private baths and decorative fireplaces. Two single occupancy rooms on each floor share a bath between them. Each guestroom is unique in color and design reflecting the college for which it is named. Complimentary continental breakfast is offered each morning.
 

Amenities:

All rooms are non-smoking
Continental buffet breakfast is complimentary
Free wireless in guestrooms and common areas
Dial-up internet access
Desktop phones with voicemail
Free local calls
Radio, CD & MP3 player alarm clocks
Daily maid service
Decorated with period antiques
Individual air-conditioning unit
Television in the Dining Room
In room hair dryers
Tea and Coffee available 24 hours
Afternoon cookies available

The Members Room overlooks the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, gracefully blending comfort with classic tradition in a very private setting. The Members Room may be reserved for small gatherings and business meetings of up to twenty guests.

The Wheaton College Dining Room, on the lobby level, offers complimentary continental breakfast each morning. With a seating capacity of 35, this room is a relaxed setting for more informal gatherings. Newspapers, magazines and television are available for guest use.

The College Club has 11 guest rooms, each uniquely designed and appointed to reflect a specific college or university.

From the Mass Pike:

Take the Prudential/Copley Square exit. At the split, take the Copley Square exit. Merge onto Stuart Street and continue to the 3 rd set of lights. Turn Left onto Berkeley Street. Follow Berkeley Street to the 4 th set of lights. Turn Right onto Commonwealth Avenue. We are #44 on the right-hand side.

From Logan Airport:

Take the Sumner Tunnel into Boston. Follow all signs for Storrow Drive. Take the second exit - Copley Square/ Back Bay (exit on the left). At the end of the exit, go right onto Beacon Street to Clarendon Street - second street on your left. Take Clarendon Street across Marlborough Street to Commonwealth Avenue. Turn left, cross Berkeley Street - #44 is two doors down.

From the South:

Take Southeast Expressway (Route 93 North). Follow all signs for Storrow Drive. Take the second exit - Copley Square/ Back Bay (exit on the left). At the end of the exit, go right onto Beacon Street to Clarendon Street - second street on your left. Take Clarendon Street across Marlborough Street to Commonwealth Avenue. Turn left, cross Berkeley Street - #44 is two doors down.

From the North:

Take Route 93 South to Storrow Drive. Take the second exit - Copley Square/ Back Bay (exit on the left). At the end of the exit, go right onto Beacon Street to Clarendon Street- second street on your left. Take Clarendon Street across Marlborough Street to Commonwealth Avenue. Turn left, cross Berkeley Street - #44 is two doors down.

Public Transportation:

See www.mbta.com We are three blocks from Arlington stop on the Green line. Exit station walk across Arlington Street(Public Garden is on your right)for two blocks. Turn left on to Commonwealth Avenue. Walk 3/4 of block to #44 on left side.

While we may not be designed with children in mind, all well-behaved children and young adults are welcome. Anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. That said, there's a lot for youngsters to do right within walking distance of The College Club. In spring and summer, take a ride on the swanboats in the Public Garden. Visit the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture and take a picture sitting on the ducks! Make sure to stop by and say hello to Romeo and Juliet (both female, actually!), our swans-in-residence.

The Boston Common Frog Pond offers a wading pool with a huge sprinkler to run around in or just cool off. The Frog Pond is also home to outdoor ice-skating in the winter months. Nearby the Frog Pond, from May through October, there is a Carousel, a well-equipped playground and tennis courts. The Boston Duck Tours and the Old Town Trolley Tours are all within walking distance. The Children's Museum, New England Aquarium and Museum of Science are all a short subway ride away!

At the College Club of Boston, we have an accomplished staff that can assist in planning any special event, as well as an elegant and versatile space to suit your needs. Our executive chef/event planner brings the personal touch to your event by expertly designing all menus based on each client's individual tastes, needs, and budget.

Business professionals have chosen our elegant venue time and time again for corporate functions. Whether it be a strategic planning session, a networking event, or a full-day retreat, we have the capacity and the tools to accommodate a variety of business needs.

Our beautifully decorated event space is the ideal setting for a wide variety of social and corporate events for alumni associations, private clubs, and professional organizations of all kinds.

To get in touch with us, you can give us a call at 617.536.9510, email us at functions@thecollegeclubofboston.com, or submit a function inquiry online (see right). Let us have a personal conversation with you about how we can help you plan a memorable function.

The College Club is a perfect destination for intimate weddings, including the ceremony, reception, and accommodation for you and your guests. A typical array of events we have hosted in the past includes:

Weddings, Baby showers, Corporate meetings and dinners, Professional networking events, College and university alumni association events,  Social events and mixers, and Holiday parties.

There are numerous advantages to planning your event with us.

• The personal attention of a small facility from our event planner and executive chef
• A full catering menu, with options for passed or stationed hors d'oeuvres, multi-course meals, and buffets
• Professional and attentive waitstaff
• Eleven guestrooms for your guests' or colleagues' overnight stays
• Complimentary wireless internet access
• Audiovisual equipment including LCD projector and screen
• Podium with microphone
• A convenient and central location: The Club is located at 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston’s historic Back Bay district of downtown Boston, just one block from the Public Garden. Get directions, or learn more about our historic neighborhood.

The College Club of Boston: A rich past, a dynamic present...

One chilly day in December 1890, nineteen women met in Boston's Back Bay. Their mission? To form a club where college-educated women could "enjoy sociability and companionship" while advancing their knowledge of literature, public affairs, history and the arts.

They hosted programs, social events and lectures, attracting literary stars such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, feminist Lucy Stone and Mark Twain. A century later, The College Club of Boston, the oldest such club in America, remains a diverse and dynamic women's membership organization that more than fulfills the mission of its founders.

With afternoon tea, fashion shows, concerts and more, our members enjoy the sociability for which the Club was founded. We learn at lectures, engage in discussion at book clubs, stage art exhibits and entertain friends in our Victorian brownstone. We network to further our career goals. We connect with neighbors and make new friends.

We also enjoy reciprocity with exclusive private clubs in London, New York, Newport, RI and more, affording us privileges usually restricted to these clubs' members, such as bargain rates to stay at their elegant clubhouses. We use the Club's beautiful Back Bay brownstone as our pied à terre in the city, or as a guestroom for family and friends.

Finally, the members of The College Club of Boston are dedicated to educational philanthropy, with a campaign that each year raises scholarship funds for Boston public school seniors.

Did you know?

• Founded in 1890 with annual dues of $12 per year, The College Club of Boston is the oldest such club in the country.
• Guests and lecturers at The College Club have included Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Senator Edward Kennedy.
• The Club's beautiful Victorian clubhouse at 44 Commonwealth Avenue was built in 1864 and purchased for $50,000 in 1925.
• The cost of tea for members and their guests has actually gone down! Five cents a cup in 1896, afternoon tea is free for members and their guests today.
• Our members range in age from 28 years to 90+ years old. They include lawyers, doctors, homemakers, realtors, scientists and entrepreneurs.
• The Club's bed and breakfast bedrooms were originally residential "sleeping rooms" for the members, decorated in colors to reflect those of well-known women's colleges like crimson for Radcliffe and blue for Wellesley.
• Many of our lovely antiques and artwork were willed to the Club by loyal members.
• In 2004 the Club raised over $15,000 in college scholarship funds to benefit 11 high school seniors in Boston neighborhoods including Dorchester, Roslindale and South Boston. In addition, $1,000 is given each year to the Community Music Center of Boston.

In the Fall of 2004, the members of the College Club decided to proceed with a unique “makeover” to its gracious Victorian brownstone guestrooms.

In April 2005 the first bedroom was unveiled as part of the Dream Room Makeover Challenge.   Lisey Good, an interior designer and Club vice president, had the idea to begin a re-decorating program that would allow the Club to makeover its eleven bed and breakfast bedrooms without completely shutting down.  Lisey completed the first room and named it after her Alma Mater. See the results!

The challenge was for a New England designer to transform the room in just two weeks with a limited budget set by the Club.   The Club’s own antiques and art were used.   In keeping with the Club’s educational focus, each finished room was dedicated to a different college or university.  The makeover spanned a three year period.  The last rooms were unveiled in the spring of 2008.

The results of the "Dream Makeover Challenge" garnered significant attention in the local press, as well as in featured colleges and universities' alumni magazines.

The Back Bay Sun, February 28, 2012
"Today, 122 years after it was founded, the The College Club of Boston
is still providing a warm welcome to members, their guests, and visitors to the city."

The Boston Globe, November 2008
"A Social club overhauls its interiors on the cheap after a top designer volunteers his time - - and reuses everything. A lesson in divine reinvention."

The Boston Globe, October 19, 2006
"To honor the history of the club, members decided that each renovated room would be dedicated to a college, and contain elements related to the school mascot or colors. Good's room is the Connecticut College Room and is a vision in camel, after the mascot." 

The Beverly Citizen, August 7, 2008
"Newly decorated spaces created by Patricia Finn-Martens of Finn-Martens Design and Allison Hughes of Hughes Design, both of Beverly, were recently unveiled at the Back Bay institution, The College Club of Boston." 

The Connecticut College Official Website
 "The challenge was launched in an effort to promote The Club's facilities. As a member and proud CC alumnae, Good was eager to accept the invitation to participate. The project is modeled after TV shows like 'Design on a Dime' and 'Trading Spaces' where designers are allowed limited time and resources to complete a makeover project."

The Back Bay Sun, November 9, 2007
"Plans for the September 2008 renovations were announced.  The Club's second floor Drawing Room and Members' Room, as well as the grand staircase and foyer will be unveiled next Fall. The remodeled rooms will be named after two past residents of The Club, Elsbeth Melville Percy and Catherine Dauber."

New England Home, November 2008
"The ambitious restoration, and redecoration of the  College Club of Boston may be the most important interior design project in a private club since Elsie de Wolfe created New York's Colony Club in 1905."

SOCO, September 2008  
"You may not have heard of it; you might not have walked by its entrance. But it's a story that's worth your attention because The College Club of Boston (CCB), the oldest college club in the country, is getting dressed up for another century."

New England Home
"[Allison Hughes's] College Club room succeeds in sharing some of the Tisch's atmospherics: a warm space that invites hours of reflection while at the same time offering a window on the world."

Wheaton Quarterly
"The oldest women's college club in America, The College Club of Boston, will honor member and Wheaton alumna Janet Carr Bayley '45 by naming the soon-to-be-redecorated dining area The Wheaton Dining Area."

Smith Alumnae Quartery, Winter 2007-08
"Wells, principal of Heather G. Wells, Ltd. Architectural Interiors, and her design team recast the room in shades of blue and yellow, the colors used by Smith athletic teams. Pale yellow walls in the bedroom with Delft -blue upholstery on the chairs give the room a nostalgic feel that blends with the antique furnishings."