OLD NEW YORK
Racquet & Tennis Club
370 Park Avenue
Architect
Designated a landmark on
May 8, 1979
s: McKim, Mead & White
Built: 1916-18
This building was erected as the third
home of the Racquet & Tennis Club, first
organized in 1875 to “encourage all manly
sports among its members.” From its
beginnings, it was considered one of the
most exclusive of New York’s social and
athletic organizations. Dominating the
blockfront of Park Avenue between E.
52nd and 53rd streets, the structure is a
notable essay in Italian Renaissance
Revival style, as taught at the École des
Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Based on 16th-century Italian palazzi,
the Racquet & Tennis Club Building is an
imposing structure noted for its refined
and restrained detail and for the clarity
with which its detail is expressed. A
powerful rectangular block, fully visible
on three sides, the building rises five
The dining room at the Metropolitan Club features ornate moldings and ceilings painted with celestial scenes.
“e
The Racquet & Tennis Club
was first organized in 1875 to
ncourage all manly sports amongst
its members.”
stories on a rusticated granite base
pierced by large, arched openings. Stone
quoins mark the corners of the building,
contrasting with the smooth beige brick
of the upper walls. A central loggia is
recessed behind three arched openings
on the piano nobile. The major courts
for sports are located on
the upper floors, indicated on the
exterior by the large blind arches at the
fourth-floor level. The terra cotta frieze
on the fifth floor incorporates racquets
into the pattern. A balustraded
roof parapet above a decorative cornice
provides a fitting termination to the
handsome design.
Metropolitan Club
1 E. 60th Street
Archi
Designated a landmark on
September 11, 1979
tects: McKim, Mead & White;
Addition, Ogden Codman Jr.
Built: 1891-94; Addition, 1912
The Metropolitan Club, designed in the
Italian Renaissance style by Stanford
White, was the largest and most imposing
clubhouse of its day. The purpose of the
club was to give its members—some of
New York’s wealthiest citizens, including
balanced is façade
J.P. Morgan, the club’s president, and
Cornelius Vanderbilt—a place from
which to enjoy a view of Central Park
and the procession of society along
Fifth Avenue.
A seven-bay
asymmetrically on the east by a three-bay,
two-story wing fronted by a courtyard.
An elaborately modeled marble and
copper cornice, projecting six feet beyond
the plane of the façade, caps the building.
Other prominent features include a
restrained rusticated base, horizontal
bands and quoins that strengthen the
corners. While the exterior is purposely
restrained, the interior is extravagantly
decorated, with a vaulted vestibule and
monumental entrance constructed of
book-matched marbles.
The 1912 addition by Ogden Codman,
Jr., now houses the New York office
of the American Academy in Rome.
A plan to develop an apartment tower
over the Codman addition was rejected
by the Landmarks Preservation
Commission. ;
