The Stock Exchange Luncheon Club was a members-only
dining club, on the seventh floor
of the
New York Stock Exchange Building
The New York Stock Exchange Building (also the NYSE Building), in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City, serves as the headquarters of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It is composed of two connected structures occupyin ...
at 11
Wall Street in
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 was founded on August 3, 1898, and moved from 70 Broadway to 11 Wall Street when the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
(NYSE) opened its new building in 1903. It closed on April 28, 2006, after more than a century of service.
The club had an inaugural membership of 200, with a "long waiting list", when it first opened as the Luncheon Club at 70 Broadway and 15 New Street, Manhattan.
Joseph L. Searles III, who became the first
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
member of the NYSE when he joined in 1970, said that his "biggest fear...was where would I sit in the luncheon club?". The situation was resolved when Searles was given his own table by the club, and he dined alone for a while.
A ladies' restroom was installed in the club as late as 1987, some twenty years after women were first admitted to the NYSE.
In 1999, the club had more than 1,400 members, and was lavishly decorated with various animal heads, most shot by members on
safari.
[Cashin, Arthur D. ''A View of Wall Street from the Seventh Floor''. Foreword. Greenwich Pub, 1999. ]
In August 2001, the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club served as the venue for the presentation of custom-made motorized wheelchairs to 17 quadraplegic in-patients of a local hospital for paralyzed people.
A fund-raising event was held by the New York City Police Foundation at the club in November 2003.
Following security measures put in place at the NYSE, after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
, the club became less accessible, and this, coupled with the ousting of regular patron
Richard Grasso
Richard A. "Dick" Grasso (born July 26, 1946 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York (state), New York) was chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003. He started in 1968 when he was hired by the Exchange as a floo ...
from the head of the NYSE, and a decline in similar local dining clubs, was cited as a factor in the club's demise when it closed in 2006.
The space continued to be used for important events for example, the NYSE shareholder vote to merge with
Euronext
Euronext N.V. (short for European New Exchange Technology) is a pan-European bourse that offers various trading and post-trade services.
Traded assets include regulated equities, exchange-traded funds (ETF), warrants and certificates, bonds, ...
on December 19, 2006.
See also
*
List of restaurants in New York City
This is a list of notable restaurants in New York City. A restaurant is a business which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money, either paid before the meal, after the meal, or with an open account. New York City is th ...
*
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
References
External links
New York Times'', "Where Wall Street Meets to Eat, the Last Lunch", April 28, 2006, by Peter Edmonston.*
O'Rourke, P.J. ''Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics'', 1999.
{{coord, 40, 42, 24, N, 74, 00, 41, W, region:US-NY_type:landmark, display=title
New York Stock Exchange
Defunct restaurants in New York City
Dining clubs
Restaurants established in 1898
Restaurants disestablished in 2006
1898 establishments in New York City
2006 disestablishments in New York (state)
Financial District, Manhattan