The Frog Pond, a small, stately memento of Harlem’s lustrous past.
The proliferation of gentleman’s clubs was common to New York society of a century ago, but the Frog Pond at 111 West 132nd Street in Harlem is unfamiliar to most of the city at large.
The building was the venture of The Frogs, a circle of African American theater men. Their exclusion from the White Rats — a fraternal performers union that barred women and Blacks — induced them to form their own alliance in 1908: The Frogs, whose far more charming zoological name was derived from the 5th-century BC Greek comedy by Aristophanes. The original membership, comprising some of New York City’s Black theater royalty, included Bert Williams, George Walker, James Reese Europe, Alex Rogers, Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, Jesse Shipp, Tom Brown, Sam Corker, R.C. McPherson (aka Cecil Mack) and Lester Walton. The following year they bought a 10-room red brick townhouse in Harlem, but prolonged fully moving in a few years until their membership expanded.
A badly needed club for New York
Early 20th-century New York City had a notable society of African American men of arts and letters. But compared to other, smaller cities, it was “far behind in the matter of maintaining first class clubhouses.” Philadelphia had its Citizens Club, Pittsburgh had the Loendiz Club, Chicago its Appomattox Club and St. Louis the Forum Club.
The Frogs’ time seemed to have come.
The Frogs was a private club, however its townhouse was also a forerunner, at least aspirationally, of the neighborhood’s first swank hostelries for middle-class black travelers that were yet to come during the Harlem Renaissance era. Preeminent among these would be the short-lived Rose’s Hotel, which opened in 1919 (and closed the next year) at 246–250 West 135th Street, the site now occupied by a police precinct house. Also the Hotel Olga, which opened in 1920 on Lenox Avenue at 145th Street; its quarter-century of prestige soon dimmed after the owner’s death. Both hotels had anticipated the desegregation of Harlem’s looming and iconic Hotel Theresa, built in 1913, but which refused Black guests until 1940.
Luxury in a small pond
Like the Theresa, the comparatively minuscule Frog Pond also opened in 1913. Reports have it that the Frog Pond was a sumptuous affair. Its basement contained a grill, kitchen and buffet. The first floor held the parlor, a library, art and music rooms. The second floor contained the billiard, pool and poster rooms. And third, top, floor contained the club’s executive offices and sleeping rooms. A planned backyard swimming pool and a gymnasium for the townhouse were probably never realized. Indeed, the Frog Pond’s actual projected July 1 opening is inconclusive.
The Frogs were long renowned for their “Frolic,” an annual charity benefit that was usually held at the Manhattan Casino up on West 155th Street. With a new clubhouse available, its membership planned to sponsor programs opened to both sexes. These included original musicals and a series of leading speakers, both Black and white.
Unfortunately, The Frogs’ zestful initiatives soon began to flag. By 1913 its membership had increased, but the deaths of a few original members may have strained the group’s buoyancy — both George Walker and Bob Cole (former creative partners to Bert Williams and J. Rosamond Johnson, respectively) died in 1911. And though Williams himself was emphatically alive — he was a headliner of the Ziegfeld Follies, and one of the biggest and highest paid stars on Broadway — he was now likely too big a frog to superintend a small pond.
But that same summer of 1913, Lester Walton announced in the New York Age that The Frogs had a “monster show planned” for August 11 (again at the Manhattan Casino), and hinted at the infusion of some new royal blood with the “appearance of Bert A. Williams and Aida Overton Walker on the same stage” during the evening. The latter was not only the widow of the late George Walker (who was The Frogs’ first president), and a former star of the Williams & Walker Company; many still regarded her as the foremost Black woman of the stage. “Miss Walker is deeply interested in The Frogs,” Walton wrote, throwing in the inticing “possibility of Miss Walker and Mr. Williams doing a turn together just for old times’ sake.” The Frogs’ August 11 event was indeed a smash success, and shortly afterwards “the company, made up of Frogs, Frogesses and Tadpoles, fifty in number” set off on tour in two fitted Pullman cars to Black theaters in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond and Washington, D.C.
But it wasn’t long before The Frogs suffered another deflating blow. In August of 1914 came the accidental death of Sam Corker, show manager and press agent. Then two months later, just two townhouses from the Frog Pond, Aida Overton Walker died in her home at 107 West 132nd Street.
Today, both the former Frog Pond and Aida Overton Walker’s house are within the Central Harlem Historic District.
