The Roaming Social Club takes you behind closed doors
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Western Pennsylvania still has many ethnic, fraternal and other old-school social clubs that you can’t get into unless you are a member or a guest of a member.
But now there’s another way to explore these places: The Roaming Social Club.
It’s a new group that you can join for VIP membership at $120 a year. Or you can pay $60 to attend any of six events. (Or you can pay $15 at the door.)
Each month, the group will visit a different club for a history lesson and a drink. The first visit is Saturday: South Side’s Kollar Club. Originally the John Kollar Slovak Literary and Library Society of Pittsburgh, it started almost 105 years ago.
The new club also plans to roam to the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 23 in Lawrenceville (Feb. 24), the Teutonia Männerchor on the North Side (March 23), and the Bulgarian Macedonian National Educational and Cultural Center in West Homestead (April 21).
The idea is that of Deutschtown Music Festival co-founder Ben Soltesz, who is a member of many of the old clubs, where he sometimes attends and puts on shows. “Those are the places that are unique to Pittsburgh,” he says. “Once you lose them, they’re going to be gone.”
The clubs they’re already working with love the idea of bringing in some new faces and maybe picking up a few new members. “I hope so,” says Kollar Club president Paul Timms. “We need more younger members.”
The Kollar Club is readying old photos, snacks and entertainment for the visitors, who can purchase a yearlong social membership for $20. Mr. Timms doesn’t know if it’ll work,but, “I like the idea. It can only help us.”
Mr. Soltesz already is planning a prize for the roamer who winds up with the most club membershipsat the end of the year.
His co-organizer is Stephanie Brea, one of the folks behind the Bayardstown Social Club in the Strip District that the Deeplocal ad agency ran as an outdoor music venue from 2013 to 2016. She continues to manage the similar Weather Permitting in Shadyside. Ms. Brea says, “One of the aspects of this project that really interested me was learning some of this history and preserving old Pittsburgh before new Pittsburgh takes over. Or maybe celebrating them both together.”
What links the centuries is that sense of community, and she really wants Roaming Social Club gatherings to foster that.
They’re timing their visits to be early and short enough — 6 to 9 p.m. — so that attendees can still go do something else or get home. But of course, the clubs will welcome them to stay and have a second drink and another helping of community.
“It’s kinda getting your foot in the door to see these places,” says Ms. Brea. “Just to be able to share that with them for a few hours and feel that pride and excitement and sense of history.”
For more information and to join, visit roamingsocialclub.com.