Society of Pacifica House and the Franklin Society

This is a long one, but it could be important, it's certainly interesting, and it has implications. Skip to the very end of my second post and you'll see why, if we can figure this one out, we could shed more light on other societies (namely Skull and Bones). Thanks.

I am trying to find more information about a secret society at Brown University called "The Society of the Pacifica House" as well as another secret society called "The Franklin Society". This is what I have so far. Can you help fill in the blanks?

Information to date:

1. The society has a membership of fifteen people. The society functions in a manner similar to Skull and Bones at Yale. Membership is by invitation only. Members are seniors. When they are due to graduate, each senior "taps" a junior to replace him.

2. Skull and Bones members refer to their society as "Lodge 322", which would suggest that, like other orders, they have multiple chapters. Could the Society of the Pacifica House and Skull and Bones be different chapters of the same overall organization? They apparently share very similar methods of operation.

3. According to their (www.pacificahouse.org) own website (created 15 September, 2004 at 07:36:03 UTC and last updated on 13 November, 2007 02:35:07 UTC) the society came into being in 1824.At this same time, another secret society called the "Franklin Society" came into being on the Brown Campus.The Franklin Society gave honorary membership to the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay. The coat of arms of Pacifica House and Franklin Society are different, but one can't help but wonder if they are one and the same. The Franklin Society's motto is "Knowledge is Power". They went completely underground in 1834 and remained unknown until the 1970s, when rumors about their existence apparently re-emerged. Their meeting agendas remain undecided until the meeting is called to order. They apparently look for ways to "implement societal improvements" based upon the "society's agreements". Pacifica House website claims that the society "originated with the Franklin Society".

4. The Franklin Society is said to start induction into the society in the sophomore year, slightly different than Skull and Bones and the possibly fake Pacifica House. John F. Kennedy Jr. was rumored to be a member as well as Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes. They are still apparently active today.

5. The Wikipedia entry for the Society of the Pacifica House was deleted. Apparently it was declared a hoax article. All references to the society have been deleted from Wikipedia, including a small blurb about it under "student organizations" on the main Brown Wikipedia page. The Encyclopedia Brunonian makes no mention of the society. Aside from their uninformative and small website and a handful of other mentions, there is no record of the society on the Internet.

6. The registration information for www.pacificahouse.org (the society's official website) shows that the site is registered to one "Joe Pacifica". Inventive, no? The registrant organization is given as "The Pacifica House Trust" in New York. No actual street address is on record. There is no record of the "Pacifica House Trust" anywhere on the Internet. A phone number of 212-917-1824 is given. Notice that the last four digits of that phone number are "1824", the supposed year the society was formed. When called, a recording of "you have reached a non-working number" plays on a loop. The IP address, 64.17.169.120 is for a company called "E-Commerce" out of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. There is only a passing mention of the society in the Brown Daily Herald, the school's newspaper. At the bottom of their website, once can see that the content is copyrighted "2007, Brunensis, Ltd". Records of any such company existing cannot be found. "Liber Brunensis" is the name of Brown's yearbook.


[edit on 6-2-2008 by Grozny07]

[edit on 6-2-2008 by Grozny07]

So, is Pacifica House all just some sort of prank? Or is it a real secret society that has seemingly done a superb job of remaining highly covert? The Franklin Society is accepted as being real, but also incredibly covert. Can any of you help me sort through the muck and figure this one out? The Franklin Society doesn't have a webpage. Searching for it yields a site from Whittier, but the coat of arms displayed is different and this version of the Franklin Society seems to be about drinking and trips on spring break. It is a fraternity, not the secret society I'm discussing here.

One thing is certain: both the Franklin Society and the Pacifica House have done a lot better job at remaining secret than Skull and Bones. Help me figure these two (or one and the same) societies out. If it exists, I want to get as close as possible, and attempt to identify the meeting place, time, and members. However, there seem to be too many inconsistencies for the Society of the Pacifica House to be real.

LINKS:
Franklin Society
Brown University
Pacifica's own website
Mention of Pacifica House's similarity to Skull and Bones
Wiki-watch discussion on Pacifica article's deletion from Wikipedia Can anyone find his supposed "lone piece of evidence" on the "invisible web"?

Finally, note that, if real, Pacifica House existed many years before Skull and Bones. Could it be Skull and Bones got their start and by-laws from Pacifica House? If we can prove the existence of this society, it could shed light on Skull and Bones!


[edit on 6-2-2008 by Grozny07]

More information:

John D. Rockefeller Jr. attended Brown University starting in 1893. Considering his family and wealth, we could probably be safe in assuming that he was a member of the Franklin Society or the possibly fake Society of the Pacifica House. The Rockefellers are typically thought to be involved in Bilderberg by conspiracy theorists, so we have a possible interesting connection to another "secret" society. John D. Rockefeller's son, David, is a known member of Bilderberg and even dedicated the John D. Rockefeller Library on the Brown campus in 1964.

Brown University claims that the Franklin Society, in its Encyclopedia Brunonian entry on said group, was dissolved in 1834, two years after the formation of Skull and Bones. According the university itself, the Franklin Society gave up it's books to the school's library. However, the wikipedia article on the society claims the group didn't really dissolve, they just became more elitist and decided to remain completely secret. Is the Pacifica House a splinter group of the Franklin Society?

The Franklin Society/Pacifica House (I'm referring to them together until we can figure out who is real, who is fake, or if they are one and the same) reportedly meets in a 95 foot tall clock tower on campus in the late hours of the night. In 1950, the clock was sabotaged. When workers went up to fix the clock, they found the eight hats of the Corporation members (the school's governing body) placed there. Is the story of this prank where the idea that the society met in the tower originated. Was it a prank pulled by the society (though forever burning their own "hideout") or, more sinisterly, was it a way of the group showing displeasure with the Corporation?

My current theory is that when the Franklin Society dissolved itself in 1834 and created a new constitution, they also changed their name to Society of the Pacifica House, the name coming from their new headquarters. They also supposedly removed themselves from the campus culture. The website for Pacifica House says that they "originated" from the Franklin Society. This could be a clue that the Pacifica House is the 1834 reinvention of the Franklin Society. Skull and Bones had already been around for two years by the time the Franklin Society reinvented itself, so perhaps they adapted many of the same by-laws and practices from Skull and Bones.

[edit on 7-2-2008 by Grozny07]

In my continuing discussion with myself ( ) I've discovered that the Pacifica House website is either an elaborate hoax, or, if the society is real, they have a great sense of humor. Liber Brunensis wasn't always a regular old yearbook; it started as a publication of the secret societies on campus. Prior to that, a similar secret society publication called the "Brown Paper" was published. They used to freely publish the members of the secret societies, which I suppose makes them not so secret. Anyway, remember that the content of the Pacifica House webpage is copyrighted by "Brunensis, Ltd.". Apparently it is a reference to the Liber Brunensis of old, a publication of the secret societies. An "inside joke", as it were.

Liber Brunensis entry
Brown Paper entry


Note that both publications started many years after the formation of the Franklin Society and the supposed start of Pacifica House. If the first one appeared in 1857, then the Franklin Society was long underground (supposedly dissolved in 1834). Therefore, these papers cannot help prove or disprove the existence of either of these societies, as they would have been either totally secret or truly dissolved by the time of these papers.

I certainly don't believe anything too sinister is going on if the Franklin Society/Pacifica House is still active, I'm still immensely curious to identify current members, practices, and meeting places.

Do people even read this?

UPDATE: I was able to find copy and pasted text of the original wikipedia article before it was deleted. In this article, it says that the Franklin Society was renamed Society of the Pacifica House!

Also, I found a reference to an obscure article dating from 1997 from a local paper called "The College Hill Independent". The paper is reported to have looked into "Brunensis, Ltd." and their tax records. They reportedly found assets of $400,000. However, I have found no record of this company existing today. Where did it go? I can't find the article because their online archives only go back to 2002.

Additionally, this article talks about a corporation set up in New York to manage the society's holdings. Their website is registered to "Pacifica House Trust" in New York. No record of this trust exists, and this is an entirely different name than "Brunensis, Ltd.". So what gives? After the College Hill Independent's article, did the society change the names of their corporation and move the money? Could this account for the apparent lack of records relating to these two dummy corporations, the missing New York address, and the bad phone number I uncovered using traceroute?

More to follow, I'm sure.

[edit on 8-2-2008 by Grozny07]

I have found a yahoo group of supposed Pacifica House alums. Here is how it is described:

Board of Graduates
Society of the Pacifica House
Brown University

However, there is absolutely nothing of any value relating to the society here. Maybe someone could find something though. Here is the link.

It seems to have been made in jest or it was abandoned by the actual society, as there is nothing but homework help posts there. Plus, there is open membership to the group, so that raises a red flag. Another dead end.

Has anyone looked for that 1997 article in the College Hill Independent? I can't find it anywhere, even in the deep web. If found and authenticated, it will prove that Brunensis, Ltd. was once a real corporation since dissolved. They could have dissolved it and started it up under something new after the public attention.

Can someone at least say hi

I appreciate your work. You've taken some real time and effort here and have presented the information in an informative & objective manner, which is rare on ATS. For that, I say "thanks" and keep up the good work.

Unfortunately, I think you'll find that topics like this don't get that much traffic. Too many people are only interested in topics that feed into their viewpoints, or if it differs than they're interested in blasting their opponents. Had you titled this "OMG Secret Society!!! Linked to George Bush & Skull & Bones!!!" this thread would be 5 pages long already. I, for one, am glad you didn't take the sensationalist, "National Enquirer" route.

Thanks for the post! I'm glad to see people are reading it! I know there is a lot here.

I hate to beg, but if anyone can find that article I've been talking about in the College Hill Independent, I'd be much obliged.

I've made some headway:

I have found a copy of the Franklin Society's constitution in the Brown University archives. It proves that the Franklin Society was created on May 17th, 1819, and not the oft-quoted date of 1824 found on other websites (including Wikipedia). It is interesting that the Franklin Society first met in May. This is the same month that other secret societies, like Skull and Bones, meets to "tap" members of the junior class. It would appear that the date of 1819 makes the Franklin Society (and thus perhaps the Pacifica House, it said society is an offshoot of the FS) the oldest student secret society in the US. Their motto "Knowledge is Power" appears in the constitution, making me certain that this is the same Franklin Society I've been writing about.

I've also been able to find a book of meeting minutes from all meetings of the Franklin Society dating from 1823 to 1833 (a year before they went completely underground). It's very mundane stuff (role of women in society, etc.). I was able to find two more honorary members of the society from these minutes: William Wirt, and Levi Woodbury. Though the constitution was voted into existence in may of 1819, the university only recognizes the society as existing from 1823 to 1833 and "dissolved" in 1834.

There is also on record a listing of all the books that the Franklin Society had in their library at the time they went totally clandestine, but, alas, I cannot access this book to view their holdings as it is viewed by special appointment only and I don't have the proper credentials.

There are absolutely no hits on Pacifica House in the archives, even though it is rumored that members of the university's corporation are members. Once again, it is either totally secret or not real at all.

It is very hard to pin these guys down. It's not like at Yale, where the societies have buildings you can go look at. These two societies, if real/active, have totally clandestine meeting places and times. People even know when Skull and Bones meets, but not these guys!

reply to post by Grozny07


Hmm... I've alsp been interested in Pacifica House and the Franklin Society the same way you have. Have you ever encountered any weird use of geometrical shapes or things like that (like Pythagorean religious references)? I did once, and I decided not to make much of it, but I'm curious.

Ultimately, you seem to be doing a better job at this than I am--even if you haven't done it for awhile--keep it up!

Originally posted by driftingthere
reply to post by Grozny07

 

Hmm... I've alsp been interested in Pacifica House and the Franklin Society the same way you have. Have you ever encountered any weird use of geometrical shapes or things like that (like Pythagorean religious references)? I did once, and I decided not to make much of it, but I'm curious.

Ultimately, you seem to be doing a better job at this than I am--even if you haven't done it for awhile--keep it up!

I would be interested in these 'geometrical shapes' that you speak of...any elaboration?

I join you two as someone currently interested in this subject. Step carefully, though- I would not discuss much of what I've learned on a public forum, and I advise the same. Grozny has done a pretty damn good job, though, most Brown students are pretty ineffective when it comes to things like this.

My email is [email protected], for any and all interested.

somebody referred me to this link, that's why i'm posting as a new user. i did go to brown (graduated in mid-1990s) and had a close friend who was in one of yale's senior clubs (not S&B... i think wolf's head? don't remember), so i've always had an interest in these societies.

anyway, this is what i know. yes, pacifica house does exist or at least did exist a decade ago. they didn't have a website when i was around and the only time i heard about it was reading this thread, so that online thing must be new. pacifica house was very secretive but nothing like yale. see, at brown we don't have off-campus buildings for clubs and societies.... even our fraternities are all on campus. nobody ran around at midnight in suits carrying torches, lol. there were rumors these guys met up at the clock tower (which is probably false as it was locked and decrepit half the time) or another creepy looking building on campus, but there was no proof or disproof. just rumors.

most people assumed pacifica was mostly the do-gooders and go-getters--chairs of various student committees, councils, etc. were known members. the same sort of people that i guess would be part of societies at yale or harvard. the only time we ever heard about pacifica house in the campus paper was when they helped host events (like speakers), authored a few articles and editorials, and in general helped with other low-key events. i'm not sure they even lived in a house, despite the funny name (and nobody knew where the hell it came from). it was pretty much an old boys club, pretty elitist. a few of us who snooped around did get the general sense of their tradition--the centuries-long origin, and that certain members of the Brown corporation (university's governing body) were sympathizers or members, but of course nobody could verify. and we could honestly have cared less since they didn't factor into campus life a great deal.

i guess they are still active but i'm not sure what their whole raison d'etre is. i have a hazy memory regarding my old g/f who knew somebody on it, and her telling me all it amounted to was a bunch of mostly rich white upperclassmen getting together and meeting in fancy places on their elders' dimes. it wouldn't surprise me if that's all they were, because that's what most of these senior societies tend to be at ivy league institutions. i also heard that the pacifica people did have some decent dough from their alumni... but then again, so did the twelve or so mainstream athletes' fraternities so that wasn't extraordinary. and, this is a school where you regularly find sons and daughters of multibillionaire executives, so this wasn't a mindblowing revelation.

otherwise i don't have juicy details on their mysterious origins or what purpose they serve (if any). but just that yes, they did exist and were active a decade ago, so it's not a "fake" organization. yeah, they probably did (do?) have sympathizers among the higher-ups at brown. i hardly doubt if they were discriminatory or destructive they'd be allowed to operate on campus. but overall, it was hardly a group that meant a great deal to most people and from what i understand most people still don't care. brown's not yale--it's just not that kind of school, and we don't have that kind of student culture.

reply to post by mworth


Guys, I go to Brown now. Discard your illusions. Here's the cold truth. Yes, Pacifica House exists at the university. They are quite secretive, but they try to justify themselves through "good works." They meet regularly, they "tap" people every year.

But as for their nefarious connections to other societies and organizations? Laughable, at best. Plus, the last guy was right: most people at Brown simply do not care who is in this group and what they do in their spare time. They do not own a "tomb" and whatever money they do spend is on themselves. Regardless of their historical legacy and/or heritage, right now they are far from the pinnacle of our social system on campus.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Whoever made that list post is entirely wrong. The society exists today on campus as stated, and does have historical documents that date it all the way back to 1820's and 30's. I myself did not attend Brown, however I do have a close friend that later identified himself as a member of this society. I did not get too many juicy details, however he revealed to me that the group met (this would be back in the 80's) in three secretive locations around campus on certain dates every month. That is all I have, however I felt as if the last post really downplayed the secrecy and clandestinity of this particular organization.

so i think we can agree that pacifica house is currently active on campus, and that there is cited evidence (though unconfirmed by any objective off-site source) that their heritage extends back to the early 19th century, to the franklin society.

what we do not know is far more important: what precisely transpires within this organization. i could care less where they meet on campus, how big their endowment is, etc. i want to know what sorts of people are members, what they actually do for each other, and most importantly what these members do after they leave college -- is there a pacifica "network" or society underground? do they come back for joint meetings? do they engage in activities that, like the societies at yale, etc., are so hidden from view that we need an insider to tell us? are there pacifica members in highly placed positions in any industries now? do they interact with members of their societal kin from other ivy league institutions?

i ask because brown tends to come off as perhaps the most liberal of the east coast establishment schools, with a radical history and self-selecting student population. this is an institution for lord's sake that has no general curriculum or "core" classes, no required classes, the option to take all your classes for pass/fail rather than real grades (a/b/c/d/f), and the option to create your own major if you are unhappy with the existing choices. this is no harvard or columbia or chicago, which tend towards producing conservative students reared in structured environments. what's surprising, after all, is that a relatively elitist senior society has survived all this time in a university that seems to be diametrically opposed to any sort of hierarchy, secrecy, and selection.

the search continues, i suppose. it would help if these guys at least left a paper trail. it's shocking how much material online you can find out about old groups like berzelius or sphinx or the like, but there are only a few real documents it seems that say anything about this pacifica organization.

finally, what the heck does "pacifica" mean? do they have some affiliation with the west coast or california? even the name itself seems a little weird, just like the school that spawned this organization.