ENGLISH SPEAKING UNION PURCHASES DARTMOUTH HOUSE
From "Fleet Street Windows" in the Baltimore Sun the ALUMNI MAGAZINE reprints the news of the acquisition by the English Speaking Union of Dartmouth House, Charles Street, Berkeley Square London, where the Union will now have its headquarters in England.
"The Engish Speaking Union, which does more than any other British organization to make life agreeable and interesting for Americans who visit Great Britain, has outgrown its present quarters in Trafalgar Square and has purchased Dartmouth House in Charles Street, Berkeley Square, one of the handsomest and most commodious mansions in London. This is now being reconstructed and made ready for occupation early next year as the permanent home of the organization on this side of the Atlantic.
"The house was built by Lord Revelstoke about thirty years ago. A room will be set aside for the Walter Hines Page Memorial Library—a memorial to the American Ambassador who perhaps contributed more to the idealism for which the union stands than any other man. There will be a large dining room and an American chef who promises to give American members a special menu of chicken a la Maryland, waffles, hot biscuits and other delicacies for which the exiles particularly yearn in this red-meat-eating land.
"It is interesting to Americans to remember that an early Lord Dartmouth was one of the best-known of the New England colonial governors and established Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The name Dartmouth is also well-known to every lawyer in the EnglishSpeaking world. It was in the Dartmouth College case that the United States Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution as preventing any State Legislature from interfering with the sanctity of the contract.
"The purchase and adaptation of Dartmouth House for the use of the Union will cost that spring to make way for the new library, and organization about $350,000, of which only about $70,000 remains to be raised. A number of large contributions for the purchase of this great clubhouse were made by American members. The English Speaking Unions of the British Empire and of the United States now have a membership of about 20,000."
