Salmagundi Club
47 5th Avenue | Greenwich Village | built 1853
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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.
- 1853
An Italianate brownstone is built for Irad and Sarah Hawley
The brownstone townhouse at 47 Fifth Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets, was built in 1853 in the Italianate style for Irad and Sarah Hawley. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it a New York City landmark in 1969.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1865
Irad Hawley's body returns from Rome for a funeral at his Fifth Avenue house
Irad Hawley, the president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company who built the house, fell ill in 1862, traveled to Europe and never saw it again. He contracted typhoid fever in Rome and died there on April 28, 1865, less than three weeks after the Civil War ended; upheaval in transatlantic travel made returning his body a problem. Six months later the New York Times announced that funeral services would be held at his residence, 47 Fifth Avenue, on Monday, October 30.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1892
Sarah Hawley's furnishings and art go under the hammer at a two-day auction
A notice in the New York Evening Post on May 28, 1892 announced an auction at the house, called a "Magnificent Dwelling." Sarah Hawley sold nearly everything over two days, including furniture, mirrors, porcelains, bronzes, rugs, paintings, a rosewood piano, a library and Randolph Rogers's marble statue The Sacrifice of Isaac. The house itself was sold at auction the following February.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1893
Steel magnate William Gray Park buys the Hawley mansion
After Sarah Hawley auctions off the furnishings and sells the empty house, William Gray Park, chairman of the Crucible Steel Company of America, purchases the Fifth Avenue mansion for $102,500. Park's wife Elizabeth uses the house for charitable entertainments and debutante balls until his death in 1909, after which the property passes out of the family.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1898
Elizabeth Park hosts a charity sale for the Summer Aid Society in the mansion
Elizabeth Park, wife of William Gray Park, used the Fifth Avenue house for charitable events. On April 2, 1898 she held a sale there in support of the Summer Aid Society, which the New York Press called a charming innovation. Earlier, in January 1894, she gave an entertainment at the house to benefit St. Mary's Free Hospital for children.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1917
The Salmagundi Club buys 47 Fifth Avenue
The Salmagundi Club, founded in 1871 as the New York Sketch Class at sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley's studio, bought the Hawley house from the estate of William G. Park for $75,000 after a three-year search. Members over the years have included Norman Rockwell, Childe Hassam, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Comfort Tiffany and N. C. Wyeth.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1918
More than 500 people attend the club's housewarming
After buying the Hawley house in April 1917, the club added a two-story rear annex costing $20,000 to hold its main art gallery and a billiard room. It held a housewarming on February 5, 1918, which more than 500 people attended. The club had spent three years searching before settling on the old Fifth Avenue mansion.
“A housewarming event on February 5, 1918, was attended by more than 500 persons.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1937
Berenice Abbott photographs the house, capturing details later lost
Photographer Berenice Abbott took a picture of the house on November 24, 1937; the print belongs to the Museum of the City of New York. It shows the window pediments, balcony railings and areaway ironwork still in place, although solid walls had already replaced the stoop railings. Sometime after 1937 the stone balustrades and iron fencing were replaced and the parlor-floor pediments removed.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1965
The Landmarks Commission hears four witnesses back designating the club, with no opposition
The Landmarks Preservation Commission held its public hearing on the proposed designation of the Salmagundi Club on September 21, 1965. Four witnesses spoke in favor, none spoke against, and the Deputy Borough President of Manhattan wrote in support. The commission designated the building a landmark four years later, in September 1969.
- 1969
The city designates the Salmagundi Club building a landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the former Hawley mansion at 47 Fifth Avenue an individual landmark, protecting the brownstone Italianate facade the club had occupied since 1917. The building is added to the National Register of Historic Places six years later, in 1975.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
The Salmagundi Club admits women members
After its first century as a men-only club, Salmagundi began admitting women as members in 1973. The club had accepted work by women artists before then.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1975
The club's building is added to the National Register of Historic Places
In 1975 the Salmagundi Club's house at 47 Fifth Avenue gained a place on the National Register of Historic Places, six years after the city designated it a landmark. The club itself dates to 1871 and has occupied the building since 1917.
“In 1975 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Salmagundi ClubWikipedia
- The Irad Hawley House (Salmagundi Club) - 47 Fifth AvenueDaytonian in Manhattan
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