The New York Yacht Club Building is a seven-story Beaux-Arts clubhouse at 37 West 44th Street in the

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

neighborhood of New York City. Opened in 1901, the building was designed by architect

Whitney Warren Whitney Warren (January 29, 1864 – January 24, 1943) was an American Beaux-Arts architect who founded, with Charles Delevan Wetmore, Warren and Wetmore in New York City, one of the most prolific and successful architectural practices in the ...

Warren and Wetmore Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City which was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Delevan Wetmore (June 10, 1866 – May 8, 1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and w ...

as the sixth clubhouse of the

New York Yacht Club The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...

(NYYC). The clubhouse is part of Clubhouse Row, a concentration of clubhouses on 44th Street between Fifth and

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...

s. The building is a

New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

. The building has an ornately decorated facade on 44th Street; its first four stories are clad with stone and are asymmetrically divided into four bays. The easternmost bay contains the entrance, while the western three bays contain double-height arches, ornamented with

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

s that resemble ships. The upper stories are within a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

that is slightly set back. Inside is a double-height entrance hall, visitors' room, and various other spaces in the basement and at ground level. On the second story is a double-height model room, measuring and containing over a thousand

ship model Ship models or model ships are scale models of ships. They can range in size from 1/6000 scale wargaming miniatures to large vessels capable of holding people. Ship modeling is a craft as old as shipbuilding itself, stretching back to ancient t ...

s. A private library/chartroom, dining rooms, and offices occupy the fourth story, and there are bedrooms on the remaining floors. Many of the facade and interior decorations carry a maritime theme. The NYYC was founded in 1844 and became known for holding the

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

trophy. By the 1890s, overcrowding at the club's previous headquarters prompted the NYYC to consider developing a new clubhouse.

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

bought land for the new clubhouse on 44th Street in October 1898, and Warren & Wetmore won an

architectural design competition An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel o ...

for the building that December. The clubhouse formally opened on January 19, 1901, and has hosted the club's annual meetings and events since then. The clubhouse remained mostly unchanged during the 20th century, although some rooms were converted to different uses. The NYYC renovated the interior in the 1980s and restored the facade in 1992. The interior was renovated again for the clubhouse's centennial in 2001.

Site

The New York Yacht Club Building is on 37 West 44th Street, on the north sidewalk between

and

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

, in the

neighborhood of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The rectangular

land lot In real estate, a lot or plot is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the same thing) in ...

covers , with a

frontage Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...

of on 44th Street and a depth of . The site, which is the

clubhouse Clubhouse may refer to: Locations * The meetinghouse of: ** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal ** In the United States, a country club ** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club * A ...

for the

(NYYC), is landlocked. On the same block, the

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

, and Sofitel New York hotels are to the west, while the

Harvard Club of New York Building The Harvard Club of New York City, commonly called The Harvard Club, is a private social club located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its membership is limited to alumni, faculty, and boardmembers of Harvard University. Incorporated in 1 ...

is to the east. Other nearby buildings include the

Belasco Theatre The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theatre, Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York Ci ...

to the west;

Americas Tower Americas Tower, also known as 1177 Avenue of the Americas, is a 50- story, 692-foot (211 m) skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, at Sixth Avenue and 45th Street. Construction began in 1989 and was expected to be completed in 1991. Thi ...

to the northwest; 1166 Avenue of the Americas to the north; the

New York City Bar Association Building The House of the New York City Bar Association, located at 42 West 44th Street in Manhattan, New York, is a New York City Landmark building that has housed the New York City Bar Association since its construction in 1896. History After the ...

and the

Royalton Hotel The Royalton Hotel is a hotel at 44 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. The hotel, opened in 1898, was designed by architecture firm Rossiter & Wright and developed by civil engineer Edward G. Bailey. The 13-st ...

to the south; and the

Penn Club of New York Building 30 West 44th Street (formerly the Yale Club of New York City Building, United States Maritime Building, and Army Reserves Building; also the Penn Club of New York Building) is the clubhouse of the Penn Club of New York in the Midtown Manhatta ...

, General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, and

Hotel Mansfield A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

to the southeast. The adjacent block of 44th Street is known as Club Row, which contains several clubhouses. When the New York Yacht Club Building was developed at the end of the 19th century, several other clubhouses were being built in the area. By the early 1900s, these other clubs included the

Harvard Club Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan cler ...

Yale Club Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

Century Association The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinction ...

, and the

City Club of New York The City Club of New York is a New York City–based independent, not-for-profit organization. In 1950, ''The New York Times'' called the City Club of New York "a social club with a civic purpose" all of which remained in the area at the end of the 20th century. Prior to the development of the Yacht Club Building, the neighborhood contained a slaughterhouse, stables for stagecoach horses, and a train yard for the elevated Sixth Avenue Line. There were historically many stagecoach stables on 43rd and 44th Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, but only a few of the stables remained by the end of the 20th century.

Architecture

The architectural firm of

designed the New York Yacht Club Building, which was completed in 1901. The club was known for the

yachting trophy, which it held from 1857 to

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

. The building is designed in a Beaux-Arts style (though characterized by contemporary newspapers as being "modern Renaissance of the French school"), with marine and nautical motifs.; The clubhouse was the first of many buildings that the firm designed in New York City; the firm later designed such structures as

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

and the New York Central Building.

, one of the partners at Warren & Wetmore, wrote of his firm's design: "We consider that externally and internally the arrangements should be such as to place the subject in evidence, and not to retire it and make the clubhouse appear as that of merely a social club."

Facade

The building is seven stories tall; the uppermost stories are within a

. It contains a facade of finely-grained stone, behind which is a brick exterior wall.; Only the southern elevation of the facade, along 44th Street, is visible. As planned, the first four stories would have been clad with stone, and there would have been a brick facade above. The brick section of the facade, corresponding to the clubhouse's bedrooms, was to be set back from the street, and it would not have been visible from the opposite sidewalk. This was to reduce the cost of construction, since brick was less expensive than limestone. As constructed, the first four stories extend to the

lot line A unit of real estate or immovable property is limited by a legal boundary (sometimes also referred to as a property line or a lot line). The boundary (in Latin: ''limes'') may appear as a discontinuation in the terrain: a ditch, a bank, a hedge, a ...

along 44th Street, while the mansard roof is set back approximately from the lot line. The lower stories are divided vertically into four bays and are asymmetrical. Warren had deliberately designed an asymmetrical facade to maximize the size of the second-floor model room. The facade's asymmetry and sculpted details were intended to make the building appear larger than it actually was. The first story is treated as a podium and contains windows with grilles. On the second and third stories, the westernmost three bays are placed within a small

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

, which consists of a

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

-style pier at either end and two Ionic-style

engaged column In architecture, an engaged column is a column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall, sometimes defined as semi- or three-quarter detached. Engaged columns are rarely found in classical Greek architecture, and then ...

s in the center. Each of the westernmost three bays contains a double-height, round-arched window. There is a

in the lower part of each archway, which is surrounded by an ornate frame. These frames are patterned after the

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

s of 18th-century mans-of-war, variously described as

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

boats, Dutch yachts, and Spanish

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...

s. According to yachting historian and longtime NYYC member

John Rousmaniere John Rousmaniere is an American writer and author of 30 historical. technical, and instructional books on sailing, yachting history, New York history, business history, and the histories of clubs, businesses, and other organizations. An authori ...

, the shapes of the frames most closely resemble a Dutch yacht. These frames also contain carvings of seaweed, waves, and

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. Etymology From the ...

s, which hang from

console bracket In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

s below the center of each bay window, as well as dolphins on either side of the console bracket. The original plans had called for

torchère A torchère ( ; french: torchère ; also variously spelled "torchèr", "torchière", "torchièr", "torchiere" and "torchier" with various interpretative pronunciations), also known as a torch lamp or floor lamp, is a lamp with a tall stand of wo ...

s to be installed along the facade, but this was never carried out. W_44_St_Sep_2021_48

The easternmost bay projects slightly from the rest of the facade and is flanked by triple-height

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s, each of which contains a carving of the NYYC's shield. At ground level is an entrance topped by a carved cartouche, which depicts a sea shell topped by an octopus with curved tentacles. There is a segmentally-arched window at the second story, which is divided into multiple panes. The arch is topped by a keystone with the head of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...

, the ancient Greek god of the sea. Flagpoles are affixed to either pilaster above the second story, projecting diagonally above the sidewalk. The easternmost bay contains a rectangular

transom window In architecture, a transom is a transverse horizontal structural beam or bar, or a crosspiece separating a door from a window above it. This contrasts with a mullion, a vertical structural member. Transom or transom window is also the customary U ...

at the third story, which is recessed from the facade. Above the third story, an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

with

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

s runs horizontally across the entire facade. The upper stories are also divided into four bays, with broad pilasters between each bay. The fourth story contains small, recessed rectangular windows flanked by smaller piers. Above the fourth story, the broad pilasters between each bay are designed as freestanding piers, which support a pergola above the fifth story. A

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

runs between each set of piers above the fifth story. There was originally a roof garden on the fifth story, beneath this pergola. In the original plans, the pergola was to have contained plantings, which were never installed. The mansard roof is recessed from the facade and is pierced by multiple tiers of windows.

Features

Warren & Wetmore manufactured oak furniture and ornamental lighting fixtures for the New York Yacht Club Building. The interior was mostly upholstered in dark green leather. As with the facade, many of the decorations contain a maritime theme. The walls also contain maritime artwork from painters such as James E. Buttersworth.

Lower stories

Immediately inside the main entrance, a short staircase ascends to a double-height entrance hall. This space contains

Caen stone Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about ...

walls and a marble staircase in the center, leading to the model room on the second floor. Originally, the clerk's office was to the right (east) of the hall, while the visitors' room, coatroom, letterboxes, and telephones were to the left. The visitors' room was decorated with photographs of large yachts. All non-members were originally directed to the visitors' room, where they waited for a member to accompany them upstairs; this space was later converted into a reception desk. The coatroom was at the bottom of the grand staircase. On the opposite side of the entrance hall was a stair leading to the club's cafe. On the left side of the vestibule, next to the coatroom and behind the visitors' room, a narrow staircase on descended a half-story to a grill room and billiards room. The grill room measured either or and was used as a dining room. The entire room was intended to resemble a ship. The oak decorations, including a low beamed ceiling and curved walls, which were meant to evoke a ship's tweendecks. Unstained-oak benches, medieval-styled iron lamps on the ceiling, and clusters of electric lamps on the walls all further contributed to the ship-like ambiance of the grill room. There was a large fireplace on one wall, which was surrounded by a mantel with an oval panel. The grill room's "stern" faced south toward 44th Street and contained a relic of the ''

Gimcrack Gimcrack (1760 – after 1777) was an English thoroughbred racehorse. Background Gimcrack was a small grey horse at 14.2 hands sired by Cripple, a son of the Godolphin Arabian, his dam Miss Elliot was by (Grisewood's) Partner. Racing career ...

'', the ship on which the NYYC had been founded in 1845. New York Yacht Club interior, 1901 cph

At the rear of the grill room were glass doors, which led to a billiards room with four billiards tables and another large fireplace. The billiards room was

wainscoted Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a Millwork (building material), millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was deve ...

in dark oak, and the walls above the wainscoting were covered with green burlap panels. When the billiards room was converted to a bar, the glass doors were replaced with a wall. Above the billiards room was a cafe. A curved double stair connected the cafe and billiards room. The cafe originally contained green leather furniture but was converted into a trophy room after World War II. The trophy room is circular in plan, measuring across, with a double-height domed ceiling. A bronze-and-gold chandelier hangs from the center of the dome. The walls of this room are made of Caen stone and originally contained mirrored glass panels, held into place by mullions. Another staircase leads up to the second-story landing of the clubhouse's main staircase. The mechanical equipment and the culinary staff were placed in the basement. From the main entrance vestibule, a passageway led to the kitchen, pantries, engine and boiler rooms, and cellars. The pantries originally had

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrig ...

es lined with oak, although the iceboxes have been since changed into refrigerators.

Model room

The model room on the second story is a double-height space, which from the outset was intended as the clubhouse's most important room. Sources disagree on the exact dimensions, but the room measures approximately wide and deep. The space is illuminated by the large windows on 44th Street. It is decorated in gold, green, and maroon. The room houses the NYYC's collection of

s; in 2001, there were 150 full models and about 1,200 half-models. According to ''Town & Country'', "some of the models are as expensive as some yachts". Some models are of America's Cup challengers and defenders. Other models depict ships that participated in regattas sponsored by the NYYC; before 1951, all regatta participants had to donate at least a half-model of their ships, and many owners chose to donate full models. Models were placed in chronological order based on when the ships were commissioned. The full models were displayed in glass cases at the center of the room, while the half-models were displayed along the walls. The model room also contained awards and trophies, as well as other artifacts from club members. The artifacts include the

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

of the yacht ''

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

'' (namesake of the America's Cup); well as a NYYC burgee that

Henry Morton Stanley Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa Cen ...

carried during one of his expeditions to Africa; and a model boat carved out of bones. There was also an alcove known as the Palm Court, where the America's Cup trophy was displayed from the building's opening until

. The trophy was placed in a glass case atop a wooden table; the NYYC had installed a custom bolt in 1972 to secure the cup to the table. The model room's floor is covered by a Indian rug, which was installed in 2000. The eastern wall of the model room contains four pairs of French doors, which lead to the grand staircase and the stair hall's balconies. The western wall, directly opposite the main stairway contains a fireplace and mantel made of Caen stone. This fireplace measures about wide and tall. Weighing over , the fireplace was so heavy that several brick piers had to be installed to support its weight. There is a sculpted panel above the center of the fireplace. The north, west, and east walls originally had dark oak paneling, above which was green burlap. There were benches next to the walls. On the south wall, there are niches next to each bay window, which contain green seats. At the center of the model room was a circular oak table measuring across. There is a balcony at the third story, wrapping around the north, west, and east sides of the room. The balcony rests atop carved brackets and contains a balustrade with galleon motifs. The ceiling above the balcony is supported by oak columns, which are topped by capitals with shell and wave motifs. The balcony is interrupted by the massive fireplace on the western wall and by the main staircase hall to the east. The original plans called for a circular stair between the model room's main floor and the balcony, but this stair was never built; the clubhouse's main staircase connects the model room and the balcony. At the center of the ceiling is a

skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History Open ...

made of

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, placed above the main floor. The skylight is the only remaining

Tiffany glass Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios in New York City, by Louis Comfort Tiffany and a team of other designers, including Clara Driscoll, Agnes F. Northrop, an ...

skylight in New York City that has not been relocated. It contains decorations of stars and is flanked by a pair of white panels. Three large chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling. The club's card room is at the same level as the model room's balcony. The card room contains dark-red burlap walls, upon which numerous portraits are hung.

Upper stories

The fourth story is the highest story that is visible from the street. It contains a library/chartroom facing 44th Street, which spans the entire width of the facade. The library and chartroom occupy the front section of the building, and the spaces measure either or . The library itself measures , and the chartroom measures . The library featured rare old prints, lithographs, photographs, watercolors, and other objects relating to yachting. It could fit thousands of volumes; in 2001, the space had 13,000 volumes, which were stored in climate-controlled spaces. The library originally contained oak bookcases with glass doors, and it had a

marquetry Marquetry (also spelled as marqueterie; from the French ''marqueter'', to variegate) is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case furn ...

floor covered with red rugs. Also in the library is a massive fireplace donated by James Gordon Bennett. Generally, access to the library is restricted to club members, although its visitors have also included historians, researchers, and lawyers. At the rear of the clubhouse's fourth floor are the club's private dining rooms, two committee rooms, and the offices of the librarian, treasurer, and secretary. The rear wall is set back by about 11 feet, giving the dining room a private terrace that faces northward. In the original plans, there were to be 20 bedrooms on the fourth through seventh floors. These rooms would have been illuminated by a

light court In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...

in the center, as well as windows to the north and south. As built, there were 18 bedrooms on the fifth through seventh floors, within the mansard roof. The fifth story also contains a club room with French doors on its south wall, which open onto a balcony facing 44th Street. The balcony was originally paved in red stone and was covered with green trellises. The top floor was used as servants' quarters.

Staircases and elevator

A grand staircase of Caen stone leads from the ground floor to the second story. Its balustrade is carved to resemble waves. The grand staircase's second-story landing contains two columns with marine-themed capitals. The second-story landing overlooks the former cafe. A

French door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by ...

to the left leads to the model room. Three additional French doors from the model room lead to balconies that overlook the staircase. Portraits of

and John C. Stevens were placed on the second-floor landing, just outside the model room. A narrow staircase connects the second story and the upper floors. Next to the staircase, an elevator also connects all of the floors.

History

The NYYC was founded in 1844 and occupied five clubhouses before moving to 44th Street. The NYYC established its first clubhouse in 1845, holding its

regattas Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other water ...

near a

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the so ...

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

.; The club's membership grew in the mid-19th century, and the club acquired the

McFarlane–Bredt House McFarlane–Bredt House is a historic home located in Rosebank, Staten Island, New York. It was built about 1840 and is a two-story, wood-frame clapboard house in the Italian Villa style. It consists of four sections: the original, two-story ...

Clifton, Staten Island Clifton is a neighborhood on the North Shore of Staten Island in New York City, United States. It is an older waterfront neighborhood, facing Upper New York Bay on the east. It is bordered on the north by Stapleton, on the south by Rosebank ...

, in 1869 and relocated their regattas there. In 1871, the NYYC rented several rooms in a house at the intersection of 27th Street and

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. The club relocated to

Stapleton, Staten Island Stapleton is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City in the United States. It is located along the waterfront of Upper New York Bay, roughly bounded on the north by Tompkinsville at Grant Street, on the south by Clifton a ...

, and stayed there until 1877. The NYYC moved yet again to 67 Madison Avenue in 1884. By the 1890s, many of New York City's social clubs were headquartered in converted residences, but increased membership forced several clubs, including the NYYC, to build clubhouses of their own. By that decade, the NYYC's members were advocating for a new clubhouse. The club had 1,038 members in 1894, and membership elections and special events at 67 Madison Avenue were often

standing-room only An event is described as standing-room only when it is so well-attended that all of the chairs in the venue are occupied, leaving only flat spaces of pavement or flooring for other attendees to stand, at least those spaces not restricted by occup ...

Planning and construction

In October 1897, the NYYC's board voted to establish a five-person committee to select a site and raise money for a new clubhouse in New York City. The committee first convened in January 1898,; even as the NYYC's members debated constructing the proposed clubhouse outside city limits. The committee eventually identified two sites as suitable locations for the clubhouse. At a board meeting on October 27, 1898,

(the club's former commodore) offered to acquire the larger of the two sites, a plot on 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. The site was composed of three separate lots at 37 to 41 West 44th Street. Morgan promised to buy the site immediately, but only if the NYYC raised its annual membership dues from $25 to $50 and if the new clubhouse occupied the entire site. The NYYC's board accepted his offer, and Morgan bought the lots the next day for $148,000. At the time, the building itself was projected to cost $200,000, and the NYYC's members had already pledged to donate $75,000 toward the clubhouse's construction. The NYYC hosted an

for the clubhouse in November 1898; each contestant had to submit a plan within one month. Each plan was to include a model room with space for 300 people, as well as a library that could fit 15,000 volumes. Seven architects entered the competition. The plans ranged from R. H. Robertson's relatively simple design, which ''The New York Times'' characterized as resembling "a small-town businessman's lunch club", to Howard, Cauldwell & Morgan's ornate French design, with three large windows. The NYYC hired Whitney Warren to design the clubhouse in December 1898, rejecting a more conventional proposal from George A. Freeman. The consulting architect for the project had recommended two other designs, but Morgan had preferred Warren & Wetmore's design because of its French details. The club's secretary announced that construction of the clubhouse would begin immediately. Marc Eidlitz & Son was the general contractor. The architects displayed a model of the proposed 44th Street clubhouse at the NYYC's Madison Avenue headquarters in early 1899. The NYYC acquired the title to its new clubhouse from Morgan that November. ''The New-York Tribune'' reported in September 1900 that the New York Yacht Club Building "lacked one story" and was nearly completed. By the following month, the members had subscribed $113,000 toward the construction of the clubhouse, which was scheduled to be completed that December. Although the building was still incomplete at the end of that year, the NYYC had begun relocating its books from its old Madison Avenue headquarters into the new 44th Street clubhouse. The NYYC held its final meeting at its Madison Avenue clubhouse on January 15, 1901; at the time, the club had 1,495 members. Members started moving to the 44th Street clubhouse four days later, on January 19, although the building was still incomplete. The structure's final cost was estimated at $350,000; including the land, the entire project had cost about $500,000. NYYC members hosted an informal housewarming party on January 29, 1901, giving Morgan a trophy in gratitude of his purchase of the site. Two days later, the all-male club held its first formal reception for female guests.

Early and mid-20th century

The NYYC conducted its annual meetings in the model room, where it inducted new members, elected its commodore, scheduled competitions, and changed rules for its regattas. The New York Yacht Club Building also hosted events such as annual New Year's Eve dinners, where club members drank eggnog. At the club's 1902 annual meeting, the NYYC's secretary reported that the club "was in the best condition in its history". By the next year, the club had grown to 2,000 members; the club reached its maximum membership in 1907. The 44th Street clubhouse was known as the "city house". In addition to the 44th Street clubhouse, the NYYC had stations on the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

in Manhattan, as well as in

Glen Cove, New York Glen Cove is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island. At the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 28,365 as of th ...

;

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

; and various other locales in the northeastern United States. During the summer, the NYYC met in Glen Cove and Newport and held regattas there. The NYYC station in Glen Cove was actually the original Hoboken clubhouse, which had been relocated there in 1904, while the Newport station had been acquired in 1915 for use as a summer clubhouse. The clubhouse's main entrance was slightly truncated in 1916, when the New York City government widened 44th Street. In 1928, the NYYC bought an adjacent three-story building at 35 West 44th Street from J.P. Morgan,

Arthur Curtiss James Arthur Curtiss James (June 1, 1867 – June 4, 1941) was a wealthy speculator in copper mines and railroads. Early life He was the son of Daniel Willis James and Ellen S. Curtiss. His grandfather was Daniel James, one of the founders of Phel ...

, and

Cornelius Vanderbilt III Brigadier General Cornelius "Neily" Vanderbilt III (September 5, 1873 – March 1, 1942) was an American military officer, inventor, engineer, and yachtsman. He was a member of the Vanderbilt family. Early life Born in New York City to Cornelius ...

, thus protecting the building's natural light exposure. By the end of the decade, many of the area's clubs were relocating uptown, but the NYYC remained at its longtime headquarters on 44th Street. The clubhouse continued to be used for events such as annual meetings and informal dinners. Women were finally allowed into the clubhouse after the NYYC started accepting female members in 1936. Prior to this change, women could only enter the visitors' room, and no woman had visited the upper stories since 1901. The NYYC had several female associate members, who could use the Glen Cove, Newport, and East River stations but could not enter the 44th Street clubhouse. The club's membership was still predominantly male; women still could not visit the bar or eat lunch at the clubhouse. In the 1940s, the clubhouse's barbershop was closed and replaced with a women's restroom. The NYYC sold off 35 West 44th Street in 1945, but it continued to operate out of 37 West 44th Street. After World War II, the cafe became a trophy room, and the billiards room became a bar when the clubhouse's original bar was converted to mailboxes. In 1955, the club filed alteration plans with the

New York City Department of Buildings The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) is the department of the New York City government that enforces the city's building codes and zoning regulations, issues building permits, licenses, registers and disciplines certain construction tra ...

. At some point during the mid-20th century, the facade was painted gray, and the pergola and flagpoles on the facade were removed. The skylight began to leak, causing lead panels to fall onto the model room's floor, and was repaired. By the end of the 1950s, the number of social clubs in New York City had declined significantly, and the NYYC was one of the city's only yacht clubs. At the time, the city had about 30 social clubs, compared with the 100 clubs at the beginning of the 20th century. Even so, the New York Yacht Club Building remained prestigious.

Late 20th century to present

The

New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

(LPC) designated the New York Yacht Club Building as a city landmark on September 11, 1979, The club had opposed the designation, which would make it more difficult to modify the building, and the NYYC and LPC became involved in a legal dispute over the city-landmark status. The club's lawyer had claimed that the building had "no historical significance" and that it should not have been designated just because the clubhouse contained the America's Cup, "the ugliest sporting trophy in the world". The NYYC subsequently lost the 1983 America's Cup to the

Royal Perth Yacht Club The Royal Perth Yacht Club (RPYC) is a yacht club in Perth, Western Australia. It is the third oldest yacht club in Australia after the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

, and the America's Cup trophy, which had been a longtime fixture of the clubhouse, was removed from the model room. During this decade, the Yacht Racing Association of Long Island Sound also had offices on the sixth floor of the clubhouse. By then, the NYYC no longer had a dock in New York City. The club began renovating the building's interior in 1985, restoring chandeliers and other architectural details to their original condition. The building was further designated as a

in 1987. After the interior modifications were completed, the club started renovating the exterior in 1992 at a cost of $600,000. The NYYC requested permission from the LPC to restore the flagpoles and pergola on the facade. The club also planned to remove the gray paint on the facade, since the paint had decreased the

porosity Porosity or void fraction is a measure of the void (i.e. "empty") spaces in a material, and is a fraction of the volume of voids over the total volume, between 0 and 1, or as a percentage between 0% and 100%. Strictly speaking, some tests measure ...

of the stone, which in turn had caused moisture problems. The following year, Eliot Soffes of architectural firm Paino/Soffes designed a restoration of the pergola at a projected cost of $35,000. The pergola was rebuilt entirely for aesthetic purposes, as the rooftop terrace under the original pergola was not rebuilt. These renovations were conducted in advance of the club's 150th anniversary. In the 1990s, the NYYC sold of the site's unused

air rights Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others. This legal ...

to the developers of the Sofitel, which was built immediately to the west. During the Sofitel's construction, workers underpinned the New York Yacht Club Building's foundation and erected scaffolding above the skylight. The grill room and model room were cleaned prior to the clubhouse's 100th anniversary in 2001. Before this renovation, the grill room had never been cleaned, and the walls had been blackened by the residue that had accumulated over the prior century. The NYYC hosted a party in January 2001 to mark the clubhouse's centennial, at which point the club had grown to 3,000 members. To celebrate the anniversary, John Rousmaniere wrote a book about the building's history.

Critical reception

After the clubhouse was completed, A. J. Kenealy wrote for ''

Outing Outing is the act of disclosing an LGBT person's sexual orientation or gender identity without that person's consent. It is often done for political reasons, either to instrumentalize homophobia in order to discredit political opponents or to com ...

'' magazine, "The interior is superb in every way, combining all the luxuries and conveniences of this sybarite age", praising the model room and grill room in particular. ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' magazine wrote that Warren & Wetmore's design had produced "an extremely pleasing and satisfactory result" and that the cozy ambiance of the interior "should be a ''

sine qua non ''Sine qua non'' (, ) or ''condicio sine qua non'' (plural: ''condiciones sine quibus non'') is an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for " conditionwithout which it could not be" ...

'' in every clubhouse". Frederick Toombs of ''Town & Country'' magazine wrote that, while the facade "presents a most inviting appearance ..it is not until the interior is seen that the building and its equipment is best appreciated". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' stated: "One of the most interesting spots that an enthusiastic yachtsman can visit is the model room of the New York Yacht Club". ''

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism � ...

'' magazine wrote that there was "some semblance of reserve in the exterior", but it sharply criticized the interior: "Surely this is not legitimate architectural design. It is very pleasant fooling, but scarcely anything more." ''Architectural Review'' particularly criticized the space as having a "riot of swags and spinach, icicles and exotic vegetation". The clubhouse continued to receive critical acclaim long after its completion. Upon the NYYC's 70th anniversary in 1914, ''The New York Times'' wrote that the 44th Street clubhouse was "one of the finest buildings of the kind in the city". The ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' wrote in 1927 that the building has "such distinction and dignity as to arrest the attention of passers-by", but that the model room and the grill are "perhaps the most interesting spots". At the club's centennial in 1944, the ''Herald Tribune'' wrote that the 44th Street building represented "the growth of the club and the spread of its influence". The ''Times'' called the clubhouse "one of the city's most attractive structures" in 1959, while another writer described the structure as a "bulbous stone fantasy". ''Times'' architecture critic

Ada Louise Huxtable Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an architecture critic and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of the ...

described the building as "a baroque extravaganza with flowing water carved below galleon‐shaped windows". A writer for '' Vanity Fair'' said in 2012 that "the windows look like they were plucked from a galleon". The NYYC wrote of its own building: "There is no industrial restlessness in Whitney Warren's remarkable building on West 44th Street. Here, all that moves is the imaginary bow wave under a favorite model and, if one looks at the fireplace long enough, the occasional sway of the seaweed." Rousmaniere said in 2001: "It seems strange that an elite club, and that's what they were, was so open. But

he club He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

wanted you to look in." Robert Mackay, of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, described the model room as "one of the great rooms of the city in terms of architectural heritage".

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * *

External links

* * ** ** {{Portal bar, New York City, Architecture, NRHP 1901 establishments in New York City Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan Cultural infrastructure completed in 1901 Midtown Manhattan National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan * Warren and Wetmore buildings