For roughly the first century of Franklin & Marshall’s existence, students--all men at that time--couldn’t live or eat on campus.  Like many colleges in the era, F&M saw its purpose as limited to educating students, who were expected to take care of the basics of life themselves.  A majority of the student population at that time came from Lancaster and other nearby towns.  Those not from within commuting distance of campus would rent rooms at boarding houses in town or join with other students to rent a house.  Students would generally eat at their homes or at local establishments.

In 1871, F&M followed the lead of other colleges of the day and began to function as a residential college.  Harbaugh Hall was built as the first dormitory and dining hall and within a few years of its construction, all freshmen were required to take their meals there.  Students began to live and eat on campus in a way that looked much like modern student life.  Unfortunately, the food served left much to be desired and given a choice almost no student would eat there voluntarily.  As a result, students from F&M as well as the Lancaster Theological Seminary–many of whom in that era were F&M graduates continuing their education and also in need of a good meal–began banding together to buy their meals economically; and so the eating clubs of F&M were born. 

The earliest clubs had jovial names–the Live to Eat Club, the Jolly Bummers, and the Starvation Army–with later clubs adopting more formal names such as the Paradise Club, the Nevonian Club, and the Franklin Club.  By the turn of century there were at least a dozen such clubs at F&M, becoming so prolific on campus and providing food to so many students that Harbaugh Hall was demolished and F&M would cease to function as a residential college for almost 30 years.

One of the first eating clubs at F&M was called the Mixed Pickles.  Founded in January 1893 with the motto “simple living and high thinking,” this club’s initial members were F&M baseball players; a sport that was not yet 20 years old at the time.  The Mixed Pickles operated similarly to the other eating clubs.  Members would hire a local cook, who often was the proprietor of a boarding house in town, and who they would pay a weekly fee ($4 per member) to prepare three meals per day.  After a few years, the Mixed Pickles would break up, with its members going on to found other eating clubs at F&M. 

The Harbaugh Club, founded on September 13, 1900, was one of these clubs.  It should be noted that the Club’s namesake was not the aforementioned Harbaugh Hall, but rather the man that building had been named for: Dr.  Henry Harbaugh, distinguished poet and preacher of the Reformed Church.  Initially, activities were limited to members dining together at a boarding house at 442 North Mary Street, but by 1905 Harbaugh began renting a house at 535 North Mary and reorganized as a broader social club. 

The Club continued to feed its members, but also held dances and bowling nights as well as annual banquets at hotels and halls throughout Lancaster; bringing current students and alumni together.  Its members regularly held offices within student government and other college clubs, dominated the ranks of the Goethean literary society, and year after year topped F&M’s rankings of student organizations by GPA.  Over the years, the Harbaugh Club would move between houses – also renting 351 Charlotte Street and 536 West James Street – but there was always a strong desire within the Club to own their own house. 

A more detailed account of the Mixed Pickles and the origins of the Harbaugh Club can be found in the History of the Harbaugh Club (1918) by Fred Wenzel, a part of the F&M College Library’s Digital Collection. 

Unfortunately, by 1917 the Harbaugh Club would come under great strain.  Many members were sons and grandsons of recent German immigrants and were away from school fighting in World War I, eager to prove their American patriotism.  Change was about to come. 

In the 1910s and 1920s, fraternities became increasingly popular on college campuses, and the eating clubs – existing social clubs of young men – were eager to affiliate with them.  In fact, all but two of F&M’s fraternities were born out of eating clubs. 

At the end of 1917, Harbaugh Club members who remained on campus became the Alpha Theta chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha.  At first the Club continued as a subsidiary organization; the annual banquets continued, now billed as joint Harbaugh / Lambda Chi Alpha events.  In 1927, Lambda Chi Alpha fulfilled the Harbaugh Club’s great desire, building a house at 637 College Avenue.  As time passed however, and Lambda Chi Alpha became a prominent fraternity on the F&M campus, memories of its earlier identity as an eating club faded and the Harbaugh Club became dormant. 

The late 1970s into the 1980s proved to be a difficult time for many fraternities and sororities.  In 1988, the F&M Board of Trustees voted to no longer officially recognize the Greek system on campus, removing financial and administrative support from the college.  During this time several of F&M’s fraternities lost their national charters and became inactive; Lambda Chi Alpha was among them.  The house at 637 College Avenue was sold to the College by Lambda Chi Alpha alumni, becoming the F&M Admissions building. 

In September 2004, F&M ended the “de-recognition” of Greek Life on campus after 26 years.  One year later, Ty Brooke ‘53, and other Lambda Chi Alpha alumni from the early 1950s through the 1970s met with the F&M administration to propose forming a new organization on campus, one that was actually an old organization--an eating club, the predecessor of their beloved fraternity. An agreement was reached, and the Harbaugh Club was reborn.

This “new” eating club would be a dry organization with a focus on the academic values of the college.  It began modestly, with alumni and student members taking meals together and hosting speakers at monthly luncheons in the Old Main boardroom during the academic year and at bi-annual formal dinners at 637 College Avenue. 

Lambda Chi Alpha alumni still held hopes of reviving their fraternity at F&M, and within a few years, the Harbaugh Club’s positive reputation on campus laid the groundwork for the school’s welcoming the fraternity as well as a new sorority to campus--with both to be affiliated under the Harbaugh Club umbrella.  These plans ultimately did not come to fruition, but Ty and other Lambda Chi Alpha alumni who had been working to bring back their fraternity and the values it represented found they cared more about the values than the name.  They committed to support the Harbaugh Club for its own sake as a model of the good college life.

The 2010s saw the Harbaugh Club, now established as a co-ed organization, continue to thrive.  In addition to the monthly luncheons and formals, members regularly took meals together at the campus dining hall, off campus establishments, or in private residences.  Then-F&M President John Fry had long been impressed by the eating club, and in words immortalized by the revived Club’s founder Ty Brooke, said after attending one luncheon, “We need to get those kids a house.”  F&M was unwilling to give up its admission building at 637 College Avenue, the former Lambda Chi Alpha house and an intrinsic part of the Harbaugh legacy. However, they installed the Club a few doors away at 611 College Avenue, where up to 12 student members are able to live today.

The period of 35 years between Lambda Chi Alpha shutting its doors and the revival of the Harbaugh Club remains the only break in an otherwise continuous lineage of this organization, from its roots with the Mixed Pickles up to the present day.  Even as many aspects of life on and off campus were put on hold due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, student and alumni members continued to find ways to come together.  

The Harbaugh Club continues to welcome new students with a simple question: “Do you want to have dinner at my house?”  It is more than just meals that are shared however; it is the college experience at F&M that is taken together.  The present-day Club proudly models itself on the Club of a century ago.  Formal dinners continue to be held twice a year and, while the Club may no longer field most of F&M’s baseball team, it continues to top campus organizations in GPA every time F&M compiles statistics and includes several winners of the Williamson Medal --given to the member of the F&M graduating class who, during his or her college career, reached the highest standing in character, leadership, and scholarship.