Harmony Hall
544 Cathedral Parkway | also 548 Cathedral Parkway | Manhattan Valley | built 1929
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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.
- 1928
The Explorers Club lays the cornerstone of its new clubhouse on Cathedral Parkway
About forty of the club's 495 members gathered on June 16, 1928, to watch the cornerstone laid for a $500,000 clubhouse at 544 Cathedral Parkway. Club president George G. Heye sealed the stone. The nine-story building was planned to include a lecture hall, display space for trophies, and the club's library of $100,000 worth of books.
Source: waltergrutchfield.net
- 1928
Architect Charles E. Birge, known for Hearst and Schrafft's commissions, designs the Explorers Club
Charles E. Birge (1871-1942) trained at MIT and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After early work in Chicago he kept a New York practice until he retired in 1937, and he is best known for commissions from William Randolph Hearst and for the Schrafft's candy shops. The report also credits him with the Clarendon on Riverside Drive and the Selkirk at 308 West 82nd Street.
- 1929
The Explorers Club opens its clubhouse with an auditorium and the James B. Ford Library
The clubhouse was opened to members and friends in April 1929, on a lot 50 by 70 feet. Gifts from Commodore James B. Ford and William E. Harmon paid for it. Inside were an auditorium with a stage and motion-picture equipment, two lounges with fireplaces, sixty guest rooms, and the James B. Ford Library, billed as the world's largest collection of books on exploration.
Source: waltergrutchfield.net
- 1932
The Explorers Club leaves for the Majestic Apartments and the unprofitable building is foreclosed
In June 1932 the club moved to the Majestic Apartments at Central Park West and 72nd Street after four years on Cathedral Parkway, and the New York Times noted that the building had proved unprofitable. It was sold in a foreclosure that October to the Liberdar Holding Corporation and then ran for a time as the Union Residence Club.
Source: waltergrutchfield.net
- 1935
The building is leased to hotelier Jack Skydell and becomes the Hotel Harmony
In January 1935 the owners leased the building for ten years to hotel operator Jack Skydell, and the architects Thompson, Holmes & Converse prepared plans to convert the auditorium and lower floors into more rooms and club space. Phone directories list it as the Hotel Harmony from 1935. It remained a hotel until the mid-1960s, and Skydell's estate sold the 100-room hotel in May 1964.
Source: waltergrutchfield.net
- 2017
The Landmarks Preservation Commission includes the former clubhouse in the Morningside Heights Historic District
On February 21, 2017, the Commission designated the district and listed Birge's Federal Revival building as a contributing structure. The report describes a limestone base with an entrance framed by a classical surround and a round window, Flemish-bond brickwork, and arched windows, and notes that the building has served as Columbia's Harmony Hall dormitory since the 1960s. The remains of a painted Hotel Harmony sign are still visible on the west wall above the lower neighbor.
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