Terrace Club

Terrace Club is one of the ten current eating clubs at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Terrace was founded in 1904 as the twelfth club at Princeton. It is located at 62 Washington Road, making it the only one of Princeton's current eating clubs that is not on Prospect Avenue.

Membership and Culture

Terrace is one of the five clubs to use a nonselective lottery "sign-in" system to determine membership, as opposed to the selective bicker system of the other five clubs. Along with Campus, Colonial, and Cloister, Terrace switched from bicker to the sign-in system during the politically turbulent 1960s [The Daily Princetonian, February 6, 2004, "Bicker process evolves as University grows" (article by Natasha Degen)] . Terrace was the first of the clubs to accept Jewish, African American, and female members, and today is considered on campus to be the most "alternative," politically liberal eating club. Often, members are stereotyped according to this reputation, but the actual membership is very diverse in terms of background, sense of style, and academic interests. From 2000 to 2008, Terrace has been a popular choice for sophomores, filling all of its membership slots either during first round sign-in [The Daily Princetonian, February 5, 2001, "Terrace, Charter lead sign-ins" (article by Molly Bloom)] [The Daily Princetonian, February 6, 2006, "Colonial, Terrace fill in first round" (article by Brett Amelkin)] [The Daily Princetonian, February 4, 2008, "Charter, Terrace fill in first round" (article by Josh Oppenheimer)] or by the end of the second round.

Terrace's motto is "Food=Love," and has been since the mid-eighties. The food is served cafeteria-style and is famous for being more "vegetarian friendly" than other clubs, although this is not always the case. Members of Terrace often refer to the club as TFC. The expression "Terrace Flaming Club" led to the use of these initials, the phrase having become popular after a fire of mysterious origin significantly damaged the club's building on December 14, 1987 [The Daily Princetonian, December 14, 1987, "Fire Severely Damages Terrace - Officials uncertain about blaze's cause" (article by Douglas J. Widmann)] . The name refers both to the fire and to Terrace's queer-friendly attitude. The fire also inspired the now defunct motto, "Gas up, get wild, burn down, rebuild....Terrace: The Flammable Family." Members have been known to refer to themselves as "Terrans".

Much of the reputation Terrace enjoys today grew out the leadership and love of its Chef, the late Barton Rouse, the creative force behind Terrace's parties and excellent food from the eightes to late nineties, when he passed away. Barton was the originator of the Food=Love motto [Gastronomica, Spring 2006 Volume 6 Issue 2, article "Eating Ivy" by Lisa Harper, p.20] , which is carried on today by Chef Chris Nord and sous-chef Gladys and the Terrace kitchen crew. Also, Terrace is often referred to by club officers as "mother" or "the womb".

Weekend events at Terrace often include concerts of indie-scene bands from a variety of genres, including rock, hip-hop, salsa, jazz, and electronica. Unlike the other eating clubs, Terrace rarely hires DJs for dancing. Indeed, it is not uncommon for Terrace to have more nights of live music in a given weekend than all of the other nine clubs put together. Many notable artists and groups, including Elliot Smith, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips and Girl Talk, played at Terrace before they were nationally well-known. Terrace also hosts the Queer Radicals' annual Drag Ball in October.

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 [ [http://etcweb.princeton.edu/Campus/text_Terrace.html Terrace Club ] ] .

A tea party at Terrace in 1936 is credited ["A Princeton Companion", Alexander Leitch, Princeton University Press 1978] 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.

Notable alumni

Stanley Jordan - jazz guitaristFact|date=January 2008

Clifford J. Levy '89 - Winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for the New York Times [Amy Westfeldt, "The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal Win Pulitzers," Associated Press State and Local Wire, 7 April 2003.]

Jonathan Safran Foer '00 - author [cite web |url=http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2002/04/23/5013/ |title= Young author Foer '99 illuminates his place in the literary world|accessdate=2008-01-30 |author=Julie Kestenman |date=2002-04-23 |work= |publisher="Daily Princetonian"]

References

External links

* [http://www.terracefclub.com Official Terrace Club Website]
* [http://etc.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/eating_clubs.html History and culture] of the clubs, at Princeton's official site.
* [http://wiki.ulfmagnet.com/A_List_of_Shows_At_Terrace_Club%2C_Princeton%2C_NJ#1985-1991 List of shows at Terrace]