A piece of history will been given a second life if the Canberra Club realises its plans to save the ACT institution by merging with another club.
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The Canberra Club, founded in 1931, hopes to merge with the Canberra Services Club this year after selling the Civic property it has called home for more than 40 years.
The property will be demolished in September to make way for an apartment building.
Canberra Club president Rick Reeks said the proposal to merge with the Canberra Services Club still required a majority vote by the club's members.
He said the proposed union would give them a chance to save their club.
"If all goes well, the new entity will be called the Canberra Services Club, trading as the Canberra Club," he said.
Mr Reeks said all surplus equipment from the Canberra Club would be auctioned off to help raise cash.
He said he hoped the process would be finalised by the end of September, when Canberra House was due to be demolished.
"Even though the Canberra Club as we know it will cease to exist, the name and the traditions and the history will continue on through this merger," he said.
Canberra club member Chris Mackay, who joined the organisation just after it moved to Canberra House in 1973, said that while these changes left him with some regrets he looked forward to the future.
"It is a feeling of regret, however the management of the club has not been able to find a new paradigm, a new business formula, so, bang, it's closing," Mr Mackay said.
"It's making an arragement with the Services Club and we're all moving over there."
He said the Canberra Club had originally been called the Servicemen's Club, so joining the Canberra Services Club had an element of deja vu.
"We have a need [for] a club and here is a situation that really revisits the origins of the Canberra Club," he said.
It had previously been reported the Commonwealth Club and the Yowani Country Club had been vying for the former members of the Canberra Club, but Mr Reeks said these moves "hadn't come to fruition".
The Canberra club, one of the ACT's oldest institutions, has fallen on hard times and has been losing up to $40,000 a month.
One of the venue's last large events was held on Thursday night when the ACT branch of the Sunday Assembly held its first trivia night at the club.
Sunday Assembly organiser Richie Merzian said his group felt lucky and honoured to be able to hold an event at the Canberra Club.
"It's kind of exciting but with that tinge of sadness," Mr Merzian said. "It's like as one community starts to stand up and institution starts to peel away.
"We're just lucky that the two kind of overlapped and we're able to use what is such a well-known staple of Civic to help us come together and socialise as one of Canberra's newest communities."
