Club Dowdall

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Club Dowdall
Last Update March 2020
Zashiya (talk) 21:50, 30 April 2023 (UTC)
Club Dowdall

Crowbank [74, 63]

the Nott Museum St. Lorenzo's Church Stickling Park
Wootton Square Club Dowdall Nickols Drive
Blight Park Templar Place Whitehorn Grove

Basic Info:

  • Clubs are Dark buildings.
  • The usual internal description of a Club reads as follows:
    "…in the near-darkness of the main dancefloor."
  • When powered by a portable generator, the internal description changes to the following:
    "Coloured spotlights highlight an empty stage, and distorted music echoes over the speakers."
  • Clubs can be barricaded normally.

Club Dowdall

Description

You are standing outside of a run down three story masonry building. Boards are securely fastened across all of the windows on the ground floor. There are ruined double doors underneath a faded canopy. A ragged carpet leads from the street edge under the canopy and doors. There are dried blood stains on the carpet.

History

Club Dowdall has served many purposes over the years. Originally, the building was erected by the Dowdall brothers in 1901 as a private club, The Union Club of Malton, where gentlemen gathered to read newspapers, smoke cigars, and discuss the issues of the day. The Market Crash of 1929 led to a greatly reduced number of clients and the club was sold. The new owner also kept the club private and retained the original name. However, none of the original members, oddly enough, were members of the new club. Instead, up until 1933, the members of the Union Club were less well-respected citizens of Malton including entertainers, blue collar workers, and many persons of poor reputation. Citizens from many walks of life were often found walking at odd hours of the day in the alleys adjoining the club. They were usually carrying boxes or heavy bags. On 4 December 1933, the Malton police raided the club and revealed a highly professional liquor distillery and bar. The proprietors were hauled off to jail and convicted in spite of the repeal of Prohibition on the day after the raid.

From 1933-1942, the club was used as a recruiting center for the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Second World War took precedence however so most of the building was used by the Red Cross and wartime volunteer organizations from 1941-1945. These groups did little to maintain or change the building infrastructure so the large distillery setup continued to occupy the basement floor. The Red Cross moved to nicer facilities immediately after the war and the building remained unoccupied until the city established a Civil Defense planning office there in 1950. This remained the building's function until the end of the Cold War in 1991, when the city sold the building at auction to the Tabletop Gaming Society.

Since 1991, the Society used the building for weekly game night sessions. Members were having a jolly good game of Zombies!!! on 3 July, 2005 when loud screaming was heard from the city streets. Being gamers, the Society Members were not the least bit surprised to see a Zombie Apocalypse but they were, nonetheless, remarkably unprepared. Fortunately, odds and ends left behind by the old Speak Easy operation, Red Cross, and Civil Defense office filled some of the requirements gap. The chances of a long term successful defense were completely undermined, however, by a complete lack of real food supplies (other than chips and cookies) and any weaponry more dangerous than a Games Workshop whippy-stick and a handful of heavy dice. It is not known when the zombies finally found a way in, but it is certain that they did.

Barricade Policy

Per the guidance of the Crowbank Restoration Program, the barricade level for Club Dowdall should be VSB.

Current Status

The club is dark and quiet. No signs of human activity. Slow and Purposeful 16:04, 1 September 2013 (BST)