Manufacturer: Syracuse China
User: Saturn Club
Date of soup plate: 1922
Notes: The Saturn Club was founded on Oct. 21, 1885, by 12 young men in Buffalo, N.Y., headed by Carleton Sprague. In reality, it was actually 13 guys who had been invited to that first organizational meeting, but only 12 were allowed to meet because they were superstitious about the number 13. Originally, the Saturn Club was intended to be an informal Whist club so that the men could retain their college friendships and camaraderie.
Since they originally only met on Saturdays, they decided to name it the Saturn Club. They first met at Sprague's family's old, vacant house at 25 Park Place. On April 10, 1886, the club moved to new rooms built for them at 640 Main Street on the west side of what was referred to as "The Holland." As membership increased, they rented a house at 33 Delaware Avenue, and their first meeting there was April 23, 1887.
In a nod to the many university clubs of that time, they patterned their board of directors after a small college, with a dean, faculty, registrar, and bursar. The original membership was limited to 31 but gradually increased to 125 by Feb. 18, 1888. Nearly all the members were college graduates and elected by a unanimous vote of the club's "faculty." During that time, the club had the reputation of having a "Bohemian" vibe, shorthand, perhaps, for a fraternity-party atmosphere.
The club early on decided to open their house on Wednesday evenings as well as Saturdays and soon after to open it every night of the week. By 1889, they had 150 members and formally incorporated. They decided to construct their own building – three stories – on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Edwards Street, which was dedicated on Dec. 13, 1890.
In 1920, 30 years after the original building's dedication, they decided to sell the existing clubhouse and build a new building at 977 Delaware Avenue, that (as of 2026) continues to be their home.
According to Wikipedia: "During the early years of Prohibition, Saturn had a bar and a bartender but did not provide drinks. On advice from its lawyers, members could keep items, unquestioned, in private lockers and order all the ingredients for a drink, without spirits, to be passed into the club's rooms through a small sliding door.
"On August 29, 1923, Federal agents under William J. Donovan, who himself was a member of the club, raided both the Saturn Club and the Country Club of Buffalo. Agents found at least sixty quarts of whisky, a similar amount of gin, five gallons of moonshine, bottles of champagne, vermouth, and other liquors inside the organization's lockers, according to court documents. The chair of the club's house committee told reporters the night of the raid that the liquor 'evidently was smuggled in by bootlegging employees of the club.'
"A listing of those charged with dry law violations was published in the newspaper. After the names were published, the members and the club had little option but to agree to a settlement and do away with the sliding doors."
As a side note, the club members, who represented the height of Buffalo's aristocracy, were furious since they did not believe that Prohibition applied to people like themselves and considered Donovan a traitor to their class. There were calls for Donovan to be excluded from the club, and Donovan and his wife lost many of their social contacts in the city. Donovan's law partner quit their firm in anger over the raid, and Donovan's wife never forgave him for it. However, in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge appointed him to head the criminal division in the Department of Justice in Washington. From the Wikipedia article about him, "Wild Bill" Donovan would go on to a storied career and "best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during World War II. He is regarded as the founding father of the CIA, and a statue of him stands in the lobby of the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia."
A story in the Buffalo Courier Express dated Feb. 4, 1940, about a change in club policy to open the club to women on Thursday nights, states: "The shades of old Saturn are very probably shaking their heads at this desecration of the club's famous motto on the walls of the men's lounge, 'Where The Women Cease From Troubling And The Wicked Are At Rest.'"
In 1985, women were finally officially admitted, and by 1988, the club had approximately 400 members. In 2005, the Saturn Club elected its first female leader: Kathleen S. Carey, a certified public accountant and tax director at a large accounting firm.
In 2006, the initiation fees for members were based on age and ranged from $600 for a 21-year-old to around $4,000 for someone 35 years and older with an extra few hundred dollars for monthly dues.
According to the club's website in 2026: … "the Club remains true to its origins. It is a social club first, offering recreation, fine dining, fitness programs, member-friendly banquet facilities, and meeting rooms with high-tech support. We've come a long way since 1885, and we look forward to exceeding our standards as Western New York's premier private social club."
White body soup plate with a narrow navy stripe around the center of the rim with a coin gold pinstripe underneath it. There is also a coin gold pinstripe at the top of the verge. The two stripes on the rim are broken at the top by a drawing of the planet Saturn in a gold color (non-metallic) with navy rings.
For more info:
Saturn Club, by Maddock Pottery
Saturn Club 2 by Syracuse China
Saturn Club 4 by Buffalo China
Sources:
Wikipedia – history of the Saturn Club
Wikipedia – bio of James Donovan
Saturn Club website – information about the club
Buffalo Times dated Oct. 20, 1922 – story about new clubhouse at 977 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo Times dated Aug. 24, 1923 – story about liquor raid
Buffalo Post dated Aug. 24, 1923 – story about liquor raid
Buffalo Courier Express dated Feb 4, 1940 – story about women being admitted on Thursday nights
Buffalo News dated July 28, 1988 – story about women being admitted as members
Contributors:
Max Jackson: ID
Tito Norris: soup plate photos
Ed Phillips: author