Harvard Club of New York City

27 West 44th Street | also 32 West 45th Street | Midtown | built 1910

Open on the map9 entries

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

1. 1893

   One member holds out for weeks against his committee to win the three-story lounge

   During construction of the clubhouse, begun in 1893, one member of the building committee reportedly held out for weeks against the rest, insisting on a lounge three stories tall. The story was told at the 1966 landmark hearing by an architects' representative, who said he had read it in an alumnus's obituary. The great lounge on the West 45th Street side is ranked by many architectural historians as the finest club room in America.

   “…he held out for a period of weeks against the entire committee for the three storied lounge…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1894

   McKim designs a neo-Georgian clubhouse for the Harvard Club

   Architect Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White completes the Harvard Club's clubhouse at 27 West 44th Street, a neo-Georgian manor house of dark red brick and limestone inspired by Harvard's own early buildings. The design gives the club, founded by four alumni in 1865, its first permanent home after years of renting rooms on West 22nd Street.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

3. 1905

   December 7

   Harvard Hall opens its doors to a homecoming with President Eliot as the speaker

   When the first major addition was finished, the club held a homecoming in Harvard Hall on December 7, 1905, with Harvard President Charles W. Eliot as the main speaker. In October 1902 the Harvard University Bulletin had devoted most of an issue to the plans, saying the addition would surpass any building of its kind in the world in usefulness and comfort.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

4. 1915

   A west tower doubles the Harvard Club's clubhouse

   A seven-story addition at the west end of the Harvard Club adds a formal dining room, banquet rooms, squash courts, guest bedrooms and a seventh-floor swimming pool. Designed by the original architects, the expansion follows a smaller 1905 addition that had already added Harvard Hall, a library and a grill room.

   Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

5. 1967

   January 11

   The city designates the clubhouse a landmark over the club's objection

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Harvard Club a landmark on January 11, 1967, protecting its tax lot as well. At hearings in May and June 1966, two witnesses spoke in favor while the club itself opposed designation. The designation report called the building an outstanding example of the Georgian style that reflected the taste of Harvard's alumni.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

6. 1970

   Four Harvard Business School women are turned away from membership interviews

   In spring 1970 Ellen Marram, Roslyn Braeman Payne, Katie Metzger and Lynn Salvage, all Harvard Business School students, were refused membership interviews because the club admitted only men. That fall Marram and Salvage asked club president Morgan Wheelock to grant women equal privileges, and he said no. A letter campaign to his successor, Albert H. Gordon, followed in 1971, and Gordon at first refused to bring the question to a vote.

   “…four Harvard Business School students, Ellen Marram, Katie Metzger, Roslyn Braeman Payne, and Lynn Salvage, were turned away from membership interviews…”

   Source: Wikipedia

7. 1972

   Members back admitting women by a large majority but miss the two-thirds needed

   A vote in 1972 found 1,654 members in favor of admitting women and 854 against, which fell 18 votes short of the two-thirds needed to change the membership rules. Shortly before it, alumni including attorney Brenda Feigen had sued in federal court to strip the club's liquor license over sex discrimination. The women then filed a complaint with the New York Commission on Human Rights, whose chairwoman, Eleanor Holmes Norton, wrote a letter condemning the exclusion, and the board called a second vote.

   Source: Wikipedia

8. 1973

   January 11

   Harvard Club members vote to admit women

   After Harvard Business School students seeking membership are turned away in 1970 and a bid falls 18 votes short of the two-thirds needed in May 1972, Harvard Club members reverse course on January 11, 1973, voting 2,097 to 695 to open the club to women. The decision follows years of debate among alumni over the all-male tradition dating to the club's 1865 founding.

   Source: Wikipedia

9. 2003

   Davis Brody Bond adds a limestone annex to the Harvard Club

   Architects Davis Brody Bond design a roughly 40,000-square-foot annex for the Harvard Club, extending the clubhouse with a new limestone facade. The addition follows a series of expansions dating back to 1905 and 1915 that transformed McKim's original 1894 clubhouse into a much larger complex.

   Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

• Harvard Club of New York CityWikipedia
• The Ever-Growing Harvard Club - 27 West 44th StreetDaytonian in Manhattan

Nearby

• New York Yacht Club Building37 West 44th Street | 9 entries
• Webster Hotel40 West 45th Street | 2 entries
• Sofitel New York45 West 44th Street | 6 entries
• Penn Club of New York30 West 44th Street | 4 entries
• Mansfield Hotel12 West 44th Street | 4 entries
• Iroquois Hotel49 West 44th Street | 10 entries

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown