Engineers' Club Building
32 West 40th Street | also 30 West 40th Street | Midtown | built 1907
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1891
A finishing-school student dies of morphine poisoning on the site
Before the Engineers' Club clubhouse replaced it in 1904, the address held the Comstock School, a finishing school for young women. Student Helen Potts died there in January 1891 after taking a quinine capsule secretly laced with morphine; medical student Carlyle Harris was convicted of poisoning her and was executed in 1893.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1904
Whitfield & King, led by Carnegie's brother-in-law, finish plans as old houses on the site come down
On September 10, 1904, the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that the two old dwellings at 32 and 34 West 40th Street were being demolished and that the architects expected to finish plans within a month. The firm, the little-known Whitfield & King, had won a design competition over established names like Carrère & Hastings. One of the partners, Henry Whitfield, was the brother of Louise, Andrew Carnegie's wife. The building was to have 12 stories, a basement and a sub-basement.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1907
The Engineers' Club clubhouse opens despite labor delays and runs far over budget
The clubhouse opened on April 25, 1907, despite contractor delays, strikes and other labor troubles. The cornerstone had been laid in 1905 by Louise Whitfield Carnegie, wife of Andrew Carnegie and sister of one of the two architects. The building alone cost about $550,000, and the whole project nearer $870,000, far above early estimates, with Carnegie's grant covering only the $450,000 first promised.
“The new building opened its doors on April 25, 1907…”
- 1907
The Engineers' Club dedicates its clubhouse with Mark Twain speaking
Andrew Carnegie guaranteed half the $900,000 cost of the young firm Whitfield & King's design, chosen over established competitors including Clinton & Russell and Carrère & Hastings. The twelve-story clubhouse was completed in 1906, and the Engineers' Club held its formal dedication there in December 1907, with Mark Twain as the featured speaker.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1938
The American Institute of Steel Construction honors the Golden Gate Bridge at an Engineers' Club dinner
On June 24, 1938, the American Institute of Steel Construction held a dinner at the Engineers' Club for its annual awards. A jury of engineers and architects named the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco the winner of that year's top prize. The clubhouse regularly hosted meetings, lectures and testimonial dinners for engineering groups.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1971
Club member Mario Sereni is shot and killed during a robbery at the Engineers' Club
In July 1971 gunmen took $1,000 from the club's lobby cash register, and on November 6 another robbery went wrong. Two policemen, Ralph Hayes and Joseph Nuovo, had stepped into the men's room just before two armed men held up the bellman. A chase followed into the street, and member Mario Sereni, who was leaving for home, was shot several times in the chest and died on the site. The suspects and their getaway driver were arrested later.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1977
The Engineers' Club declares bankruptcy and puts its clubhouse and three neighboring buildings up for sale
By the mid-1970s the Engineers' Club was in serious financial trouble, and in 1972 it was already the only club left on West 40th Street. It declared bankruptcy in 1977. Among the assets it was forced to sell were the clubhouse at 32 West 40th Street and its three associated buildings, two more on West 40th Street (nos. 28 and 36) and one at 23 West 39th Street.
“…the club declaring bankruptcy in 1977. Among the assets the club was forced to put up for sale were the Engineers' Club building…”
- 1979
Apartment ads claim Edison and Nobel lived at the old Engineers' Club, confusing two different Nobels
After the developer turned the clubhouse into apartments called The Columns in 1979, advertisements in the New York Times boasted of its famous past, saying Carnegie built it and that Edison and Nobel had lived there. A Landmarks Preservation Commission footnote observes that the scientist Alfred Nobel, namesake of the prize, died in 1896. It says the ad confused him, either by mistake or deliberately, with a similarly named man who was a prominent club member in the 1900s.
“The advertisement claiming that "Nobel" lived in this building either erroneously, or deceptively, confused this Nobel with a similarly named person…”
- 1979
A developer converts the vacated Engineers' Club clubhouse into apartments
The Engineers' Club gave up its clubhouse for good about eight years after a 1971 robbery there and sold the property to developer David Eshagin. Eshagin hired architect Seymour Churgin to convert the building into apartments called The Columns, which residents reorganized as a housing cooperative in 1983.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2011
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the Engineers' Club Building
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Engineers' Club Building a city landmark on March 22, 2011, after a November 2010 hearing at which a Historic Districts Council representative spoke in favor and no one opposed. The report notes that the club, founded in 1888, was the first purely social organization in the United States for engineers. Its members included Carnegie, Hoover, Edison, Lindbergh, Westinghouse and Tesla.
“…the Engineers' Club was the first purely social organization founded in the United States for engineers or those connected to the field…”
Further reading
- Engineers' Club BuildingWikipedia
- The 1906 Engineers' Club Building - 32-34 West 40th Street Daytonian in Manhattan
- A pretty girl’s mysterious morphine overdoseEphemeral New York
Nearby
- American Radiator Building40 West 40th Street | 14 entries
- Engineering Societies' Building25 West 39th Street | 4 entries
- The Bryant16 West 40th Street | 2 entries
- Haskins & Sells Building35 West 39th Street | 3 entries
- Knox Building452 5th Avenue | 10 entries
- Bryant Park Studios80 West 40th Street | 4 entries