Richmond Hill Republican Club
86-15 Lefferts Boulevard | also 86-13 Lefferts Boulevard | Richmond Hill | built 1908
Open on the map4 entries
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.
- 1908
Henry E. Haugaard's Colonial Revival clubhouse rises with a post office beside it
Club members, through their stock company Club House Realty Co., contracted in January 1908 for a clubhouse with an adjoining post office, budgeted at $27,000. Local architect Henry E. Haugaard drew the Roman brick and wood building; construction started in May and was finished by summer. A planned second-floor auditorium was never built, but the cellar held bowling alleys.
- 1918
Republicans turn their clubhouse into a Soldiers' and Sailors' Club for World War I troops
After the post office moved out in 1918, members voted to make the building the Soldiers' and Sailors' Club of Richmond Hill under the War Camp Community Service. The old post office space was made into a dormitory, and the club threw dances on Tuesday and Saturday nights. A 1919 Richmond Hill Record article ranked it among the best clubhouses the service operated anywhere in the country, with six bowling alleys downstairs.
- 1980
Ronald Reagan gives a campaign speech at the Republican Club, as he had in 1976
The club stayed a political and social force in Queens into the 1980s. Over the years its speakers included Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan made campaign speeches here in both 1976 and 1980. The building went vacant in the mid-1980s.
“As late and 1976 and 1980, Ronald Reagan delivered campaign speeches at the building.”
- 2002
The vacant Republican Club is designated a New York City landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the clubhouse on December 17, 2002, after a hearing where twenty witnesses spoke in favor, including Council members Melinda Katz and Dennis Gallagher, and none opposed. The building had stood empty since the mid-1980s. The commission called it an intact example of a club built for a neighborhood's social, political and recreational life.
Nearby
- RKO Keith's Theater117-09 Hillside Avenue | 3 entries
- Church of the Resurrection85-09 118th Street | 4 entries
- Richmond Hill High School89-30 114th Street | 4 entries
- Daniel and Abbie B. Eldridge House87-61 111th Street | 4 entries
- Ralph Bunche House115-24 Grosvenor Road | 5 entries
- Kitty Genovese Residence82-70 Austin Street | 3 entries