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By Elizabeth Preate Havey
Every year about this time in Pennsylvania, a skeptical newspaper columnist from this paper or another in some other part of the state, asks: Why do our politicians and business leaders all go to New York for some event called Pennsylvania Society Weekend?
Why don’t they just stay at home, and hold their black tie dinner and many receptions right here in the Keystone State? It is the PENNSYLVANIA Society, after all, they argue?
As the Society’s current president, and someone who has attended this event since I was a teenager, maybe we bear some of the responsibility for these questions. It’s possible we just have not done a good enough job explaining what The Pennsylvania Society is all about, how it got started, and why we head to New York City in early December every year.
Since this year’s PA Society Annual Dinner will be our 125th, this seems like an ideal time to tell our story.
I’m going to assume most readers are not familiar with the name Barr Ferree. His is not exactly a household name – or even a common name at all! But the PA Society story begins with him and his affection for Pennsylvania.
Barr grew up in Philadelphia late in the 19th century, graduating from Central High School and the University of Pennsylvania. He moved to Manhattan as a young man and went on to have a distinguished career as the owner of a publishing company and was even a world-renowned lecturer on architecture.
But Barr also missed home – he missed Pennsylvania. So, in 1899, longing to be with friends who shared his beloved Pennsylvania roots, he founded “The Pennsylvania Society of New York.”
For their first social event, Barr invited 55 fellow Pennsylvanians also living in Manhattan to join him for dinner at The Walford Astoria Hotel. So, you see from Day One, The Pennsylvania Society was linked to New York City.
Barr wrote then that their goal was to establish a society “uniting all Pennsylvanians at home and away from home in bonds of friendship and devotion to their native or adopted state.” Eventually shortening their name to The Pennsylvania Society, they would meet for dinner every year, same time, same place. It’s a tradition we have carried forward now for 125 years!
The weekend has grown beyond only the dinner, to include receptions hosted by organizations such as the PA Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, many law firms, higher education institutions, and many others.
The Annual Dinner, where we bestow a Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement and award significant charitable contributions, had still been held at the famed Waldorf Astoria until just recently, when it temporarily closed for renovations. Some used that closure to suggest that PA Society Weekend ought to abandon New York altogether, and instead alternate between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, bringing the weekend’s economic impact to Pennsylvania. But that has never been what The Pennsylvania Society was about.
It was created as a New York-based event and ought to stay that way.
Our members look forward to this weekend in New York for many reasons. Certainly New York City is incredibly special during the holiday season. But it’s more than that. PA Society weekend is one of those rare times during the year when we come together not as Republicans and Democrats – not as business competitors – but as Pennsylvanians. Ironically, leaving Pennsylvania behind helps tremendously in this regard. We leave behind our competitive and often combative environments for a new festive and celebratory atmosphere.
All these years later, I am incredibly proud that The Pennsylvania Society represents community, civility, and charity … and that the Society is more diverse and welcoming than ever before. We are the longest-serving, member-driven organization of its kind anywhere in the nation. We are focused on expanding our younger members who benefit from mentorship and exposure to fellow Pennsylvanians they otherwise might not meet.
Civility, which is now rare, is demanded and expected. There is no question that getting outside of Pennsylvania – coming together to celebrate the Commonwealth we all love – is what Barr Ferree envisioned. We are keeping his legacy alive and well. And we are keeping PA Society Weekend in New York City.
Elizabeth Preate Havey, an attorney at Dilworth Paxson in Philadelphia, is president of The Pennsylvania Society.
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