Yale Eating Clubs

Student complaints about the quality of the food served at Yale increased in the nineteenth century, culminating in the closing of the College Dining Hall in 1842. This led to the formation of numerous private eating clubs in nearby private homes and restaurants.

A Yale eating club, circa 1890s.

The steward of the club was usually a poor student who would get his meals for free, arranging for food in establishments managed by women. The annual college yearbook, the Yale Banner, provides documentation, with a listing of each eating club's members accompanied by drawings that frequently depict the food servers, as seen in the examples below from the 1881 volume of the publication.

Mrs. Moriarity in her rocking chair behind the counter.

An excerpt from College Days, or, Harry's Career at Yale, 1894.

Students also frequented local pubs, especially Mory’s. Mr. and Mrs. Moriarty’s Quiet House became a hang-out, especially after the death of Mr. Moriarty, when The Widow moved to Temple Street, where it also became known as the Temple Bar. Mrs. Moriarty, famous for her rarebits and revered as a surrogate house mother, was immortalized in college memoirs and novels of the era. The example depicted in these two images—College Days, or, Harry's Career at Yale, written by John Seymour Wood, B.A. 1874, and published in 1894—includes a sketch of Mrs. Moriarity and describes her as “a kind mother to freshmen, always refusing a fourth mug of ale if she thought they had had enough.”