Harvard Final Club is Poor

In March 2008, the City of Cambridge took possession of the A.D. Club—the final club conspicuously located at the corner of Plympton Street and Mass. Ave.—for failure to pay over $41,000 in taxes.

The A.D. Club is a final club established at Harvard in 1836, the continuation of a chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity existing as an honorary chapter until 1846, and then as a regular chapter until the late 1850s. At that time, owing to the prevailing sentiment against such societies, it became a strictly secret society, known among its members as the "Haidee," the name of a college boat. The chapter surrendered its charter in 1865, and has since existed as the A.D. Club.

According to a government document obtained by The Crimson, the club fell short on its 2007 tax payment and did not subsequently make up the difference when the city first contacted the club in the summer of 2007.

A member of the City of Cambridge Finance Department—who declined to be named because the document is confidential—said that the club has begun paying off the back taxes and interest but that city records show that it is still approximately $17,000 short.

The individual said that the club still retains physical possession of the building, but that the document—signed by Louis A. Depasquale, the assistant city manager for fiscal affairs—constitutes a lien on the property, which will be seized if the club fails to pay the unpaid taxes and accrued interest.

The A.D. is one of Harvard’s eight final clubs—all male social organizations that are no longer affiliated with the University.

Several A.D. alumni, listed as corporate officers or directors on the club’s 2007 tax filing, said they had no knowledge of the back taxes when contacted last night.

After a Crimson reporter left a voicemail for Michael L. Madden ’76—whose signature appears on the 2007 tax forms as the vice president and clerk of the A.D.—a man identifying himself only as Madden’s “representative” called The Crimson and threatened potential legal action.

“You are blinded by your hatred of final clubs. The Harvard Crimson should have other news besides the tax matters of the A.D. Club,” he said. The Crimson article, blinded though they are.

Update: Okay, not poor.

-Not for Four Years