Downtown Athletic Club

20 West Street | also 28 Washington Street | Financial District | built 1930

Open on the map10 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1835

    Rubble from the Great Fire of 1835 becomes the ground under the future clubhouse lot

    Before the athletic club, this stretch of West Street was open river. After the 1835 fire, the city extended West Street south to the Battery and dumped the debris into the Hudson, so the whole block rests on landfill. Early owners put up houses, stores, stables and tenements on standard 25-foot lots, and over the century realty and warehouse firms assembled bigger parcels. Whitehall Realty bought these lots in 1909 and sold them to the Downtown Athletic Club in 1927.

    “…this process did not begin until 1835, when a devastating fire created the need for a place to deposit the resulting debris…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1930

    The clubhouse's upper floors become a hotel that later hosts Ali, DiMaggio and Mantle

    Floors 20 through 32 of the new clubhouse held 143 private hotel rooms, reached by six passenger elevators. Later accounts name guests such as the boxer Muhammad Ali, the baseball stars Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, the comedian Bob Hope and Heisman Trophy winners. Lower down, the twelfth floor held a swimming pool that was described as the highest in the world when built.

    “On the 20th through 32nd floors were 143 private hotel rooms. The rooms had been occupied by guests such as boxer Muhammad Ali…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1930

    The Downtown Athletic Club opens its 35-story Art Deco clubhouse

    A group of lawyers led by Schuyler Van Vechten Hoffman organized the men-only Downtown Athletic Club in 1926. Starrett & van Vleck designed the clubhouse at 20 West Street, which opened in September 1930. It held the club's athletic facilities on the lower floors, with dining rooms and private hotel rooms above. John Heisman was hired as the club's first athletic director that year.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1935

    The club awards its first trophy for college football's top player

    In 1935, club member Willard Prince suggested that the Downtown Athletic Club give an annual trophy to the most outstanding college football player, and the first was awarded that year. When John Heisman died in October 1936, the Downtown Athletic Club Trophy was renamed the Heisman Trophy.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1950

    The club buys back its clubhouse in 1950 after losing control of it in 1936

    After the club's 1936 bankruptcy and reorganization, the General Realty and Utilities Corporation took control of the building. It was sold again in 1947. In 1950 the Downtown Athletic Club repurchased its own tower. The landmark report ties the club's fortunes closely to Wall Street's financial reversals.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1952

    The 15th-floor dining room is pushed forward to the West Street front wall

    In 1952 the club pushed its main dining room on the fifteenth floor outward until it reached the front wall of the West Street facade. The change was one of several interior updates over the years; a bar had earlier been added to the restaurant after Prohibition ended. The 15th floor also carries the greenhouse built over the outdoor balcony.

    “In 1952, the dining room on the fifteenth story was extended forward to meet the front wall of the building on the West Street facade.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  7. 1987

    An electrical transformer explodes inside the clubhouse and damages two floors

    In 1987 an electrical transformer blew up inside the Downtown Athletic Club building, causing slight damage to the 19th and 20th floors. Those floors sat at the boundary between the club's dining rooms and lounges below and its hotel bedrooms above, which started on the 20th floor and ran up to the 32nd.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 1998

    By 1998 the club has under 1,300 members and plans to sell its top floors

    The New York Times reported in 1998 that the club had fewer than 1,300 members, a crumbling building and $3 million in back taxes owed to the city. Talks with developers explored selling the upper suites while the club kept the lower floors. One scheme would have turned the tower into a 'Hotel Heisman' with interiors by Rafael Vinoly, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission's interest in protecting the exterior complicated the plans.

    “…the Times reported that the club had fewer than 1,300 members and that the structure was "crumbling…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2000

    November 14

    The city designates the Downtown Athletic Club Building an official landmark

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission held its hearing on October 24, 2000, with two speakers in favor, including a representative of the building's owner and one from the Historic Districts Council. Nobody spoke against. On November 14 the commission designated the building as a landmark, listing it as LP-2075 on Designation List 319, and protected the whole tax lot on which the clubhouse stands.

    “November 14, 2000; Designation List 319 LP-2075 Downtown Athletic Club Building…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  10. 2003

    The club vacates the building after years of decline

    By 1998 the Downtown Athletic Club had fewer than 1,300 members, and The New York Times described its building as crumbling. After the September 11 attacks put the building inside an exclusion zone, the club closed. It was unable to repay an $8.3 million mortgage and left the building in mid-2003. The Moinian Group then converted it into a 288-unit condominium that opened in 2005.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 276 buildings with stories in Financial District