The Pickwick Club


The Pickwick Club is a private gentlemen's club in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1857, The Pickwick Club and the Mystic Krewe of Comus were originally one group comprising two organizations. After The Boston Club, The Pickwick Club is the second oldest remaining in the city.

History

The history of social clubs in New Orleans began with The Elkin Club, founded 1832 and folded in 1838, was an open club that sponsored dances and balls in the vicinity of Bayou St John and closed due to the financial crisis of 1837. The Pelican Club, founded 1843 and folded at the beginning of the Civil War, confined its membership through blackball policies to bankers, cotton brokers, attorneys, physicians and political leaders; the smallest lapse in credit spelled denial of membership. Younger gentlemen, who had been rejected membership to the Pelican Club, organized The Orleans Club in 1851 with similar, yet less restrictive, membership policies; but similarly shuttered its doors, never to reopen, at the outset of the Civil War. It was the ex-members of The Orleans Club, who would have themselves organized a carnival celebration, that would go on to form The Pickwick Club.
In 1857 a group of men, some former Orleans Club members, who resided in the Anglo-American neighborhoods of New Orleans, met in the Club Room of the Gem Saloon-a former residence of William Parker of Natchez, located at Old No 17 Royal Street . The idea was initially conceived at Pope’s pharmacy on the corner of Jackson and Prytania. Six gentlemen sent out an invitation to a select group of friends to meet at the Gem Saloon, where The Pickwick Club and the first carnival organization the Mistick Krewe of Comus was organized.
The Pickwick, unlike the Boston Club, began as a "closed club," but evidence suggests before the turn of the 19th century the club allowed members to extend the club's hospitality to out of town guests during Carnival.

Background

, Alabama, the former capital of French Louisiana, had adopted Mardi Gras celebrations sometime before New Orleans. There the earliest mystic society formed was known as the Cowbellions de Rakin Society. These revelers, known as Cowbellions, a few of whom emigrated to New Orleans, decided to continue their carnival traditions there.

Notable members