The Journal · The Brantford Club
The Stewards: The People Who Kept the House
The Brantford Club’s centennial history honours its Stewards by name: Jack Ball of Blackpool, formerly of the Mercantile Marine, famous in the house for his steak and kidney pie, and forty-five years of husband-and-wife teams, the Marynicks, the Trepaniers, and the Cuthberts, who kept the Club at 98 George Street running.
A club’s history usually gets written about its members, and its days get made by its staff. The centennial history knows this and capitalizes the office accordingly: the Steward. This entry is theirs, from the record: a Blackpool seaman with a famous pie, a couple who once served Perry Como, and the forty-five-year era when the house was kept two by two.
Who were the Stewards of The Brantford Club?
The Steward the centennial history draws most fondly is Jack Ball, a Blackpool man formerly of the Mercantile Marine, whose steak and kidney pie earned the kind of fame in the house that no committee can vote anyone. The book also credits Ball with hiring women behind the bar, a plain sentence that says the house’s manners kept moving with its century. A Steward in a members’ club is not a manager in the hotel sense; the office is closer to a ship’s, which may be why a Mercantile Marine man wore it so well.
Forty-five years, two by two
After the era of single Stewards came the era the book counts as forty-five years of husband-and-wife teams: the Marynicks, the Trepaniers, and the Cuthberts. The Trepaniers arrived with the Club’s best piece of staff trivia, having formerly been in the service of Perry Como. A house kept by couples runs on a different rhythm than a house kept by shifts, and nearly half a century of it is the quiet spine of the Club’s hospitality: the same faces at the door, the same hands on the table, year over year.
Why the record keeps their names
What guests remember about a club, in every era, is a person who knew them. The centennial history’s care with its Stewards’ names is the Club practising what its whole category preaches: the house is the people who keep it. The members supplied the roll; the Stewards supplied the welcome; the Minutes kept both. The people keeping the house today are on the Club’s own Meet the Team page, which is this tradition, continued.
The house remembers its Stewards the way members remember the house: by name.
Questions the record answers
Who was Jack Ball?
A Steward of The Brantford Club from Blackpool, England, formerly of the Mercantile Marine, remembered in the centennial history for his steak and kidney pie and for hiring women behind the bar.
What does a Steward do at a private club?
The Steward runs the house: the dining room, the bar, the staff, and the daily keeping of the premises. The Brantford Club’s centennial history capitalizes the office, which tells you the standing it carried.
Which families served as the Club’s steward couples?
The centennial history counts forty-five years of husband-and-wife teams: the Marynicks, the Trepaniers, formerly in the service of Perry Como, and the Cuthberts.
Sources: the Club’s centennial history, privately printed for the hundredth year, for Jack Ball, the steward couples, and the forty-five-year count.
The tradition’s current chapter is on Meet the Team.
