Conflicts Between the Evite Invitation and This Page
Other Parties Given at the Downtown Harvard Club
Membership in the Harvard Club
Crimson Pub
Read James' essays.
This page is written generically for all of the Pub Nights given by the Harvard Club. If there are any conflicts between the information contained in the Evite invitation I sent to you and this page, the information in the Evite invitation supercedes the information contained in this page.
We now have sections for Business, Computers, and Dating & Romance.
See photos from previous parties.
Twice a month during most months, the downtown Harvard Club has a Pub night for those 40 and younger. In many months, it is given on the second and fourth Thursday of each month, but that schedule is not cast in stone.
Pub Night offers free hors d'ouevres 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. In addition, there is always a raffle to win tickets — usually tickets to a sporting event, such as Red Sox, Celtics or Bruins tickets, and sometimes theatre tickets.
Please note that although I usually send out announcements for Pub Night to those on my invitation list who are 40 or younger, Pub Night is not my party — it is sponsored by the Harvard Club, not me. If you attend Pub Night, please do not ask for "James Mitchell's party," since they may not know what you are talking about (as opposed to when I am hosting my own party at the Harvard Club, in which case they will know what you are talking about). Instead, simply ask for "Pub Night."
Pub Night is sponsored by the All Ivy Younger Members Committee. It is designed solely for those who are 40 or younger. If you're older than 40, you're welcome to come to lots of other parties that I will invite you to, but unfortunately Pub Night is not one of them.
Pub Night is given in the Crimson Pub (the bar) and sometimes the adjoining room (which is called the Veritas room). The downtown Harvard Club is quite popular, and many groups and organizations give parties there. Most likely other parties will be given in other rooms in the Club on the same night at Pub Night. Please understand that those other parties are private parties and are not open to those who have not been invited by the sponsoring company. In the past, a few people have crashed those other parties, and the next day I received a telephone call about this. Please make certain that no one (including yourself) who has been invited to Pub Night crashes these other parties. If you see someone crashing another party, please let me know about it immediately.
For our large and smaller cocktail parties and for Pub Night, we ask that people RSVP, even if they are not attending. You can tell that a response is expected because the invitation begins with "RSVP --". If you don't know whether you can attend, please RSVP "Maybe." If you don't respond, you will continue to receive reminders until you do. See our RSVP policy.
The Harvard Club of Boston
One Federal Street, 38th floor
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 542-2070
www.HarvardClub.com
Please note that the downtown club is different from the Main clubhouse, which is located in Back Bay on Commonwealth Avenue.
One Federal Street is at the corner of Federal and Milk Streets in the financial district.
If you're taking the MBTA, your first choice would be the State Street subway stop, which is
available on the Orange and Red lines. Second choice would be the Downtown Crossing subway stop,
which is available on the Orange, Red and Blue lines.
Directions to the downtown clubhouse
Veritas Room
Parking is available at One Federal Street. If you're coming for an evening function, the parking cost is only $6. When you leave and pay the parking attendant, make certain that you inform him that you were at the Harvard Club party, so that they only charge you $6.
The downtown clubhouse has a panoramic 360 degree view of Boston. When you arrive, there will a sign titled "All Ivy Pub Night" which will point you to the Crimson bar. As you follow that and subsequent signs, the first room you will pass will be the Miller Room. You will then pass the Veritas Room, and then you will come to a reception table, which will be immediately in front of the Crimson bar. Pub Night is given in the Crimson bar and in the Veritas room. The Miller and Veritas rooms and the Crimson bar have a view of Back Bay and Cambridge; the other side of the building has a view of Boston Harbor and Logan airport.
Do not press 38 on the keypad for the elevators; rather, press the "Harvard Club" button at the bottom of the keypad. It will then display on the keypad which elevator will take you to the Clubhouse. Make certain you enter that elevator (look up near the door of the elevator for the right elevator); otherwise, you will take a ride to, say, the 36th floor and then ride down. If you have any questions, ask the security guards. It's frankly a goofy system and I don't know why the building spent tens of thousands of dollars to replace a system that worked fine.
Pub night starts at 5:30 and usually lasts until 10 and sometimes 10:30..
Pub Night is not my event. I ask that people on my invitation list dress up for Pub Night. Cocktail party dress would be idea, but business attire is also acceptable. I ask that people not come in anything less formal, including business casual. Since many or most of the people attending are not from my invitation list, there may be several people who are dressed more casually. Please see our dress code. If in doubt, err on the side of overdressing slightly. If you have any questions about the dress code, please give me a call at (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night.
There are unattended coat racks immediately next to the Crimson bar, and sometimes in the Miller room.
The men's restrooms are next to the entrance to the Crimson bar, which is on the side of the building that has a view of Back Bay and Cambridge. The women's restrooms are on the exact opposite side of the floor, on the side of the building that has a view of the Boston Harbor and Logan airport.
From 5:30 to 7:30, there are free hors d'ouevres at Pub Night. In addition, you can order food. I don't know the exact cutoff time for ordering food, but you're can always order food before 9 p.m.
Miller Room
At Pub Night, the Harvard Club accepts cash and credit cards.
We encourage you to bring several guests to the party, preferably the most interesting people you know. Because Pub Night is focused on those who are 40 or younger, the guests you bring should be 40 or under. The most appropriate guests are those who would be eligible to join as members. Please inform your guests of the dress code. The kind of people we're looking for is explained here, and our expectations of our members are described here. If you have doubts about whether you should bring a particular person, we've learned the hard way that it's best to err on the side of caution and to not bring them, as our experience has been that when members have doubts about a particular guest, such doubts are well-founded. Our invitation list is already quite large and is growing at an increasing rate, so it's more important to focus on keeping the quality of the invitation list high than adding even more people. If you have any questions about what we look for in guests, please give James a call at (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night.
If you know ahead of time that you're going to invite someone, we strongly encourage you to e-mail James their name and e-mail address. That way, we can add them to the general invitation list. If you don't know, you're free to just bring them to the party.
Please bring numerous business cards with you in case you meet people you want to follow up with. After every party, I receive several e-mails from people, saying that someone they met at the party wrote down their contact information and they can't read their handwriting. Wouldn't it be easier if the other person just handed them a business card? If you don't have business cards, Professional Taste Printing will print 1000 business cards for as low as $35.
During Pub night, you can reach me on my mobile phone (781 718-1301). Except when you know for certain that I am out (i.e., I'm hosting a party), the best number to reach me is (781) 647-0136, which is good day and night. When I'm out, I transfer the 647-0136 number to my mobile phone.
Main Dining Room
If you have not already done so, please create an Evite account. This will allow you to view all of your Evite invitations — whether sent by me or someone else — in one place. If you delete an Evite invitation sent to you, you can log into Evite and it will be there. It costs nothing to create an Evite account.
If you're busy and wish to not receive invitations for a certain period of time, you can suspend your membership for X months or X years. Simply write to James and tell him what X is.
If you wish to no longer receive invitations for any parties going forward (as opposed to suspending your membership), simply write to James. Before you do, please read this page and this page.
Some anti-spam programs incorrectly identify the invitations I send to me as spam (a false positive). In your e-mail package, please add jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com and info@evite.com to your white or approved list. Your company's technical support department should be able to show you how to do this.
The Harvard Club is looking to increase membership. At Pub night, the Club will be offering tours and will be offering a financial incentive to those who join that evening. The downtown clubhouse offers memberships to any graduate of any university.
Lobby
The Harvard Club has two facilities. The main clubhouse on Commonwealth Avenue in Back Bay is a very large, elegant, stately Back Bay building, with 100+ rooms, including bedrooms for guests out of town, athletic facilities, and several dining areas.
There is a second facility that is located on the top floor of One Federal Street in the financial district. The downtown clubhouse has literally the best view of Boston in the city. Depending on where you are facing, you can see all of Back Bay, the Charles River and then Cambridge, or alternatively the Boston Harbor and beyond. The downtown clubhouse is open daytime and evenings but is not open weekends.
The Harvard Club is looking to increase membership. There are two categories of membership. The first is full membership, which is open to:
All of these people can join as full members. Unlike past eras, there is no committee that interviews and vets you, you can simply sign up as long as you meet the Harvard Club's requirement for Harvard affiliation. General membership permits you access to the Main clubhouse and the downtown clubhouse.
The second class of membership is for the downtown clubhouse at One Federal Street in the financial district. This membership is open to ANY alum of ANY university. Those who work in the financial district would find such membership particularly appealing, given its central location.
During the party, the Harvard Club will be providing tours of the downtown clubhouse. If you join that evening, for either membership, one-third of your initiation fee will be credited towards your general account at the Harvard Club, which you can use to purchase food, beverages and other charges. The dues structure depends on when you graduated ahd how far you live from Boston; this information will be provided at the party.
If you join that evening, the Harvard Club will issue you a membership card and number on the spot, and you can charge your food and drinks that evening to your account. How's that for instant gratification?
The Harvard Club has an extensive Web site, which should answer most of your questions. If you cannot attend the party or if you want to join now, please call Tom Martorelli at (617) 450-8431 with any questions. Tom's e-mail is tmartorelli@harvardclub.com. If you wish, you can join on-line.