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The Brook Club (New York City, New York)

USA / New Jersey / West New York / New York City, New York / East 54th Street, 111
 Georgian (architecture), social club

5-story clubhouse completed in 1925. Designed in the Georgian Revival style by Delano & Aldrich, it is clad in red ironspot brick above a rusticated limestone ground floor. The central entrance has wood-and-glass double-doors and transom framed by Doric columns supporting an entablature decorated with seashells. There is a small window on either side of the entrance, and light fixtures mounted on the wall next to the columns. On either side of the entablature, a frieze with a wave motif underlines a band course with an egg-and-dart molding.

The upper floors have three bays of multi-pane windows with white wood sash; they have stone sills and brick lintels, and are taller on the 2nd floor, where they are fronted by low, wrought-iron Juliet balcony railings. Between the 2nd & 3rd floors are stone medallions - round at the end bays and square in the center, with carved seals. A flagpole projects from above the center panel. The top floor is set off by a stone band course and is capped by a stone cornice with a balustrade.

The Brook is an exclusive private men's only club that was founded in 1903 by a group of prominent men who belonged to other New York City private clubs, such as the Knickerbocker Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, and the Metropolitan Club. The name is derived from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem The Brook, whose lines "For men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever" were consistent with the intention that the Club would provide 24-hour service and would never close its doors.

In 1992, the City Journal wrote that the name was "supposed to mean that the Club is always open and the conversation flows on forever," but that "neither is strictly true." One version of the club's origin holds that The Brook was formed by two young men who had been expelled from the Union Club for trying to poach an egg on the bald head of another club member. Notable members have included Fred Astaire, Michael Bloomberg, John F. Kennedy, Henry Kissinger, William Vanderbilt, and John Jacob Astor IV. In 2018, the club sold its air rights to the 405 Park Avenue office building.

www.acontinuouslean.com/2015/03/09/opening-door-yorks-p...
www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20180809/REAL_ESTATE/1808...
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°45'34"N   73°58'17"W
This article was last modified 4 years ago