Terrace Club - History

History

As was then common practice for newly-founded eating clubs, when Terrace Club began in 1904, the members dined in a building on Olden Street known as "The Incubator". This small structure had previously been the original home of Cap & Gown, and had been relocated to Olden Street from Cap's current location. It served as a temporary home for many eating clubs while their own buildings were under construction or being renovated.

In 1906, the club relocated to the current Washington Road location, which was occupied by a house in the Colonial Revival style which had formerly belonged to faculty member John Grier Hibben. This building was remodeled by architect Frederick Stone in the 1920s to the current configuration with its Tudor-style exterior.

A tea party at Terrace in 1936 is credited as the birthplace of the idea for the short-lived Veterans of Future Wars, an organization that satirized the acceleration of bonus payments to World War I veterans by demanding that its young members be similarly paid for the services they would render their country in conflicts to come.

In 1967, Terrace became the first club to abandon the Bicker process. Terrace Club and Colonial Club were the first clubs to accept women following the University's decision to admit women in 1969. In 2011, Terrace became the first club to offer membership to graduate students.

From 1977 until 1984, while many of the sign-in clubs faltered amid low membership numbers, Terrace was kept alive by the late Chef Larry Frazer. As an attempt to attract new members Chef Frazer began cooking vegetarian meals. Now vegan and vegetarian friendly choices are available on all of the eating club menus, but at the time this was an entirely new concept at Princeton. Students can thank Chef Frazer and Terrace Club for starting vegetarianism as an accepted alternative dining choice. Chef Frazer was actually married in Terrace Club in 1982 with the officers acting as attendants and guitarist extaordinaire Stanley Jordan as the musical performer. He remarried in 2005 at Cap and Gown. When Frazer decided to transfer to Campus Club as chef, he hired an old friend, Barton Rouse, to take his place as head chef at Terrace.

Much of the reputation Terrace enjoys today grew out the leadership and love of the late Barton Rouse, the creative force behind Terrace's parties and excellent food from the eightes to late nineties. Barton was the originator of the Food=Love motto,.