Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Institute Unveils New Clubhouse
The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770 is a social club for Harvard students, originally established to bring together undergraduates in friendship, conversation and camaraderie. The institute – comprised of The Hasty Pudding Club, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and Harvard Krokodiloes – cut the ribbon on its new headquarters at the historic Hyde-Taylor House at 96 Winthrop St. The dedication ceremony was presided over by Hasty Pudding chairman and “Grand Sphinx” Andrew Farkas, who spoke to a crowd of undergraduates and alumni, including Cambridge Mayor David P. Maher.
“This is the culmination of four years of work to reconstitute the Hasty Puddings Institute of 1770, and it is gratifying in the extreme to see it come together,” said Andrew Farkas. Dean of Freshmen Thomas A. Dingman, Dean of Student Life Stephen Lassonde, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith, and Dean of the Humanities Division Diana Sorensen were all also in attendance at the club’s opening.
The Hasty Pudding Club is known as the oldest collegiate social club in the country and has, over the years, spawned offshoots in the Theatricals and the Kroks a capella group. The three recently merged into a single entity who will share this new home, the sixth in the institution’s more than two centuries of existence.
“It is going to be a space for study, a space for socializing, a space for camaraderie, rehearsal, performance, and fun,” Farkas said. Michael D. Smith noted his “admiration for everything Andrew [Farkas] does” in his own remarks at the opening and encouraged students to enjoy the facility. The student leaders of the institute expressed their enthusiasm for the new clubhouse as well. Club President Matt G. Wardrop ’15 referred to the new headquarters as “an exciting catalyst,” and said that he appreciated that it will bring “all of the different parts of the Institute together under one roof.”
The Pudding is currently the only social club on campus that has members from all four years and is coed. Membership to the social club is gained through a series of lunches, cocktail parties, and other gatherings, which are referred to as the “punch process.” The club counts five U.S. Presidents (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy) among its noteworthy members.