Century-old club strives for survival

With membership rapidly declining in recent years, The Engineers’ Club of Toronto faces the difficult choice between closing its door or merging with another club. Alternatively, members must raise more than $2 million to pay off debt and refurbish its old premises.

Founded in 1899, the club has a strong mining heritage. Its close tie to the resource community in downtown Toronto, says President David Wahl, has made it vulnerable. Toronto businesses, scattered all over the metropolis, have also spilled into neighboring cities, towns and suburbs. “Most of the large engineering organizations, like Kilborn, have moved to Mississauga, Unionville and Rexdale,” he adds. “Even Ontario Hydro employees near Queen’s Park find the downtown core too far away.”

As well, days of the private clubs are diminishing, he says. “Some people prefer quick lunches. In the evenings they spend time at home with their family rather than at clubs.” The number of his club’s resident members has dropped to 330 from 560 in December, 1989.

Ken Hymas, longtime member of the century-old club, has cancelled his membership. “It is no longer a place for networking,” he explains. Some members attribute the club’s plight to the country’s economic downturn. “In the state of the economy, a lot of people are looking at expenses such as membership fees for the Engineers’ Club as an opportunity to economize,” says Hymas.

A Toronto-based professional engineer who shuns all clubs notes that they have lost their social relevance. “There are a lot of restaurants, hotels, where people can have their meetings,” he says.

But John Cooke, publisher of The Northern Miner, values his membership in the Engineers’ Club. “In this fast moving business world, I find lunching in the seclusion of a downtown club an important change of pace,” he says. “It provides me with a congenial place to meet friendly faces instead of strangers.”