up to the Boston Scrabble® Club
The following history is spotty and tentative. A first cut seemed a good place from which to go. Changes and additions are planned, as we get the folks who know to fill in the details.
This club was formed in the mid-1970's. In 1980, it was directed by Steve Penner, and it was held at the Jackson-Mann School in Union Square, Allston. In the Spring of 1980, the club had an attendance of about 50 players each session. There were two divisions, and players seldom crossed the line. When a player performed sufficiently well in the lower division, the player could advance to the upper division.
Then in the next year or two, the directorship was handed over to Alan Frank, Eric Albert, and Susan Assman. Under their leadership, the segregation of the two divisions was removed, and a rating system was implemented which allowed play between any two players. The ratings provided a kind of handicap. Unfortunately, and probably because of this change, the club attendance experienced a decline. After the triumvirate ran the club for some time, Alan took over the job as the sole director.
At some point in the 1980's, the club directorship was handed off to Hilda Siegel and Michel Cohen, who have been running the club ever since. The club could no longer meet at the school, and thus it moved to Hilda's home, since at that time, there were not too many players to fit into a house.
Then the club moved to a public place - the Community Room at the Allston-Brighton Police Station, where the club met until October, 2006. The police station is undergoing a major renovation, and so the club has moved to a new location as of 13-Nov-06, namely the Covenant House Community Room at 30 Washington St. in Brighton. There have been times when lesser renovations at the station forced the club to return to meeting at Hilda's home, albeit a different house than before.
Another page of this web site, specifically the club roster, lists the currently active players, but here are some who used to be regulars and have ceased attending for one reason or another, often because they have moved away:
| back to the top of this page | This page, maintained by Mike Wolfberg, was last updated on November 14, 2006. |