Our History

In 1866, baseball was already an established, popular sport in the United States. The New York Knickerbocker’s version, invented in 1845 by Mr. Alexander Cartwright, was relatively new. The New York version was limited to New York City until the arrival of the Civil War, when men from other parts of the country learned to play the game in Union Army camps.

Mr. Charles Warren Clifford, then a graduate student of Harvard College, organized an athletic club in 1866 to play the new baseball. That was the beginning of the Wamsutta Club.

Baseball, at the time, was a social sport, played by professional men who could take afternoons off. The Wamsutta Club soon evolved into a social club. The original clubrooms were in the old Ricketson block on Purchase Street. In 1880, the club moved to the old Masonic building on Pleasant and Union Street. After being formally chartered in 1889, the club moved once again to the former Perry House… read more