The Calumet Club celebrates a century, so hats off to the Bliss family for their stewardship of an institution.

Under renovation, 2006.

We begin with the newspaper's account on Friday (June 12), then turn to our legal bagel Shane for a new/old word, before concluding with three vital links.

Calumet Club celebrates 100th anniversary as family continues legacy, by Daniel Suddeath (Hanson's Dotty Folly)

NEW ALBANY — It helped launch the career of a Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player, provided a gymnasium for local basketball teams at a time when such space was scarce, and served as the base for a group of men who valued community spirit.

A century ago today, the Calumet Club moved into its new headquarters at 1614 E. Spring St. Considered a prestigious organization that reached a membership of about 800 at its peak, men paid about $1.50 a month to be part of the social and athletic club.

The continued use of the building and the living history behind its century of existence are testaments to a family's vision.

Richard Bliss died in 2012, but he got to fulfill his dream of owning the Calumet Club and restoring it into a charming centerpiece of the East Spring Street and Vincennes Street corridor.

“The main reason was to save a beautiful building because of its history and to give back to the community,” Mark Bliss said of his parents’ intentions for buying and restoring the Calumet Club.

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Back in 2016, the Calumet Club prompted a question of our resident municipal bond fetishist wordsmith.

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

 ... Many readers already know about the Calumet Club in New Albany. There are also Calumet rivers, regions and towns. But what is a calumet when used as a noun?

It's a Native American pipe.

Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.

The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.

Calumet Club Dates in History, courtesy of the Calumet Club, illustrate that it was a thriving social institution on post-WWI New Albany. Finally, from the library's Stuart Barth Wrege Indiana History Room comes this memento of times long gone.

As the singer pithily observed, we have all been here before.

November 25, 2004:

NA Confidential goes troubleshooting, enjoys dessert, and visits the Calumet Club

December 16, 2006:

A peek inside the Calumet Club's third-floor future ballroom.

November 24, 2009

The Calumet Club adds an elevator ... so when's the beer festival upstairs?

Sherman Minton Bridge leadership litmus test as Mark Seabrook stays for the entire meeting, while Jeff Gahan lasts seven whole minutes.

Ever since it was announced that repairs to the Sherman Minton Bridge might require its complete closure, or barring this drastic remedy at least a prolonged period of reduced access and heightened economic pain for New Albany, we've been waiting for Team Gahan to step up to the plate and lead.

Silly us.

At Thursday evening's "Six Great Ways to Suffer" community meeting at the Calumet Club, which began at 5:30 p.m., I arrived at 5:37 p.m. to find Dear Leader standing outside the venue's exterior door. Like most reasonable people, I assumed he was on his way inside.

But no; actually he was leaving. 

As more than one onlooker confirmed, evidently one glance of 125 persons milling around the third floor ballroom caused Gahan's agoraphobia to kick in with a vengeance, and he turned tail and skedaddled, terrified of an unscripted setting in an enclosed space amid uncontrollable people.

Probably there exists medication for this condition, maybe even marijuana-laced Rice Krispies Treats with a Kool-Aid chaser, although first the patient must concede to being ill. If it's too much for his insurance policy deductible, maybe the Genius of the Floodplain could donate some of Mr. Lanz's money to the Democrats, who in turn would give it back to Gahan for a scholarship prescription.

Meanwhile Mark Seabrook, Republican candidate for mayor who is about to be pilloried by the Fanged Adamites for poor health, arrived early and stood through the entire presentation.

Like I always say: Socialists for Seabrook in 2019.

As for the content of the proceedings, I'll leave that to another post. It should suffice to say that there'll be epochal pain accompanied by scant recognition of the very real possibility of epic small business tribulations.

At the end of the day, it comes down to this: there are no good choices, because this manner of clusterfucking is what happens in a society that has concluded the very best way to have "mobility options" is to compel people to drive everywhere for everything, generally with cars occupied by the driver alone.

But what, Gahan worry?

After all, it's not like HE'S going to be the mayor when the hammer falls in 2021.

The noun "calumet" and the David White for Mayor Town Hall TONIGHT at the Calumet Club, 6:00 p.m.

I hate having to miss this forum. It's in my neighborhood, and as such, we're in desperate need of an antidote to ward off the pervasive Kool-Aid-drinking proclivities therein.

But alas, I have a previous engagement. Please consider coming out and talking to the candidate, all the while trying to imagine Deaf Gahan looking at you and saying: "Ask me anything."

You just can't imagine that, can you?

Meanwhile here's a smidgen of background on the actual word "calumet" (kal-yuh-met, kal-yuh-met), as posted here three years ago.

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Many readers already know about the Calumet Club in New Albany. There are also Calumet rivers, regions and towns. But what is a calumet as a noun? It's a Native American pipe.

Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.

The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.

Calumet Club Dates in History, courtesy of the Calumet Club, illustrate that it was a thriving social institution on post-WWI New Albany. Finally, from the library's Stuart Barth Wrege Indiana History Room comes this memento of times long gone.

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Democratic mayoral candidate David White understands that change begins with a whole lotta scrubbing, and NA Confidential advocates just such a deep civic cleansing. 

After eight years on the job, Mayor Jeff Gahan's list of stunning "achievements" is long, indeed: tax increases, budgetary hide 'n' seek, self-deification, daily hypocrisy, public housing takeover, non-transparency, pay-to-play for no-bid contracts, bullying city residents and bullying city employees. Eight years is enough. It's time to drain Gahan's swamp, flush his ruling clique and take this city back from Gahan's Indy-based special interest donors. 

NA Confidential supports David White for Mayor in the Democratic Party primary, with voting now through May 7. 

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: Calumet.

Welcome to another installment of SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS, a regular Wednesday feature at NA Confidential.

But why all these newfangled words?

Why not the old, familiar, comforting words, like the ones you're sure to hear when asking the city's corporate attorney why the answers to my FOIA/public records request for Bicentennial commission finances, due to be handed over on July 8, still haven't arrived on November 23?

Bicentennial commission financial trail? What's two (yawn) weeks (shrug) after 463 days?

November 23 update: Make that 20 weeks since the FOIA record request's due date and 588 days since I asked Bullet Bob Caesar to tell us how many coffee table books were left unsold, and how much the city's 200-year "summer of love" fest actually cost us. It's with Indiana's public access counselor now, and a verdict is to be rendered no later than the first week of December, so perhaps "compliance" would be a word for our friend's future consideration.

No, it's because a healthy vocabulary isn't about intimidation through erudition. Rather, it's about selecting the right word and using it correctly, whatever one's pay grade or station in life.

Even these very same iniquitous, paving-bond-slush-engorged municipal corporate attorneys who customarily are handsomely remunerated to suppress information can benefit from this enlightening expansion of personal horizons, and really, as we contemplate what they knew and when they knew it, all we have left is plenty of time -- and the opportunity to learn something, if we're so inclined.

Many readers already know about the Calumet Club in New Albany. There are also Calumet rivers, regions and towns. But what is a calumet as a noun? It's a Native American pipe.

Tobacco, indigenous to North America, followed Indian trade routes throughout the continent long before Columbus arrived, and pipe smoking took on a ritual and religious importance in many tribes. Naturally, the crafting of pipes became equally important.

The most famous Native American pipes are the long calumets or "peace pipes" of the Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, which were made by attaching a wooden stem to a bowl carved from catlinite or "pipestone." (Pipestone is native to Minnesota, but due to intertribal trade was available throughout Native North America.) Other native pipe-making traditions included the smaller one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwest Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.

Calumet Club Dates in History, courtesy of the Calumet Club, illustrate that it was a thriving social institution on post-WWI New Albany. Finally, from the library's Stuart Barth Wrege Indiana History Room comes this memento of times long gone.

Calumet Club: On the right side of New Albany street grid history.

At today's Be Local Expo, there will be soothing progressive pints from NABC.

I'm pleased to announce that Blake Montgomery will join me this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. at the Calumet Club, as we vend NABC Community Dark and Tafel Bier at the Be Local Expo. This cash bar arrangement is courtesy of Mark Bliss, whom we thank for the opportunity.

DNA to follow this week's restaurant seminar with next week's Be Local Expo.

Whenever I see the Riverfront Amphitheater used as visual enticement for the city of New Albany, I think to myself: Then, why not use it more often?

Maybe it's time to get serious.

Yeah, and although no one knows exactly why, there's a restaurant seminar on Wednesday.

The Calumet Club adds an elevator ... so when's the beer festival upstairs?

It's been exciting to watch as the final piece in the Calumet Club's upstairs ballroom drops into place. It's a bouncing baby elevator, funded in part by the Horseshoe Foundation's revolving loan program.

The middle picture shows the scene in early October, and the first and third views are from yesterday.

Congratulations to the Bliss family for approaching the final act of this long restoration process. Now all we need is to schedule a party to kick things off.

I mean, c-mon ... Community Dark is on tap, and home's within crawling distance ...

Develop New Albany's "First Tuesday" at Calumet Club this afternoon (February 3).