Type Private club Website www.macwi.org | Headquarters Milwaukee, Wisconsin | |
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Founded Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1882 | ||
The Milwaukee Athletic Club (often referred to as the MAC or MACWI), founded in 1882 and located in the East Town neighborhood of Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is the oldest existing gentlemen's club in Wisconsin. Early in its history, it was an Olympic gold-medal-winning amateur athletic club. Notable members have included Senator Herb Kohl, Olympic legend George Poage, and early basketball star Christian Steinmetz.
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Clubhouse
The club is headquartered at 758 North Broadway, at the corner of East Mason Street. The twelve-story clubhouse designed by Armand Koch (son of Henry C. Koch) in 1917 contains two restaurants (including one on a rooftop deck), two cocktail lounges, a ballroom, a barber shop, child care facilities, a library, 20 private meeting rooms, 55 guestrooms, and full-service athletic facilities. The athletic facilities include racquetball, squash, and basketball courts, a co-ed fitness studio, and private men's and women's athletics areas, each with its own swimming pool, steam room, sauna, and resistance and cardiovascular equipment. On the club's facade is a noted limestone sculpture, "Diana," installed in 1954.
History
Eight young men founded the Milwaukee Athletic Club on September 18, 1882, for the express purpose of "developing of the bodily powers through gymnastic and other exercises." Soon thereafter, the MAC joined the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU); members participated in several early Summer Olympics, including the 1904 Summer Olympics held in St. Louis, where its tug of war team won the gold medal. As part of the AAU, the MAC formed basketball, swimming, track, baseball, and other teams, which competed throughout the United States.
The MAC was housed in nine different buildings before establishing its present clubhouse in 1917.