The Dining Room

From the Great Hall, sliding oak doors lead into the original Dining Room, where major events of The Players take place. At the far end of the room is an informal stage used frequently for music and theatrical performances. On the east and west walls of the Dining Room, named for Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Howard Lindsay, are fireplaces framed in blue and white Delft tiles. Above the west fireplace is the John Singer Sargent portrait of founding Player, and second club president, Joseph Jefferson in the role of Dr. Pangloss. Overhead hangs a Stanford White-designed chandelier made from a cluster of stag horns. Other notable items include stained glass theatre windows, one depicting David Garrick as Richard III and the other of Richard Mansfield in the same role. Both are original leaded windows from the 1901 Garrick Theatre in Philadelphia. A portrait of actress Helen Hayes was added to the room in 1989. Miss Hayes was the first woman inducted into the voting membership of The Players, in an inaugural class of thirty women. Among her colleagues were Angela Lansbury, Leontyne Price, Mary Tyler Moore, Jane Pauley, and Eudora Welty. Longtime club President Walter Hampden appears as Cyrano in another esteemed portrait. A major contributor to the house library, he led The Players for a record 27 years.