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| Established | 1897; 128 years ago (1897) |
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| Type | Private club for Yale alumni and faculty |
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| Coordinates | 40°45′14″N73°58′39″W / 40.75389°N 73.97750°W /40.75389; -73.97750 |
| Website | www |
The Yale Club of New York City, commonly called The Yale Club, is aprivate club inMidtownManhattan,New York City. Its membership is restricted almost entirely to alumni and faculty ofYale University. The Yale Club has a worldwide membership of over 11,000. The 22-story clubhouse at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue, opened in 1915, was the world's largest clubhouse upon its completion and is still the largest college clubhouse ever built.[1]
The club is located at 50Vanderbilt Avenue, at the intersection of East 44th Street,[2] across Vanderbilt Avenue fromGrand Central Terminal and theMetLife Building.
After thePenn Club of New York (est. 1901) became the first alumni clubhouse to join Clubhouse Row for inter-club events at30 West 44th Street[3] afterHarvard Club of New York City (est. 1888) at 27 West 44th, thenNew York Yacht Club (est. 1899) at37 West 44th, and Yale Club of New York City (est. 1915) on East 44th (and Vanderbilt) andCornell Club of New York (est. 1989) at 6 East 44th on the same block, withPrinceton Club of New York joining in 1963 at 15 West 43rd (the only alumni clubhouse who wasn't on 44th Street, whose members, part of the staff, and in-residence club,Williams College Club of New York, were absorbed into Penn Club following a previous visiting reciprocity agreement between the Princeton-Penn Clubs, before Princeton's went out of business during COVID).[4][5] Despite being in New York City,Columbia University Club of New York (est. 1901) left Princeton after residence agreement issues[6][7] to become in-residence at The Penn Club, while Dartmouth shares the Yale Club, and Brown shares the Cornell Club.
The Yale Club shares its facility with the similar Dartmouth andUniversity of Virginia club (Columbia University shares a clubhouse with the Penn Club, while Brown shares the Cornell Club).[8] The neighborhood is also home to theUniversity Club of New York,[8] and the flagship stores ofJ. Press andPaul Stuart, which traditionally catered to the club set.[9] The building is aNew York City-designated landmark.[10]
The 22-story clubhouse contains three dining spaces (the "Tap Room," the "Grill Room," and the Roof Dining Room and Terrace), four bars (in the Tap Room, Grill Room, Main Lounge, and on the Roof Terrace), banquet rooms for up to 500 people (including the 20th-floor Grand Ballroom), 138 guest rooms, a library, a fitness andsquash center with three international squash courts and a swimming pool, and a barber shop, among other amenities. The heart of the clubhouse is the main lounge, a large room with a high, ornate ceiling and large columns and walls lined with fireplaces and portraits of the five Yale-educated United Statespresidents, all of whom are or were members of the Yale Club:William Howard Taft,Gerald R. Ford,George H. W. Bush,Bill Clinton, andGeorge W. Bush.[11] Outside the lounge above the main staircase hangs a posthumous portrait ofElihu Yale byFrancis Edwin Elwell and a portrait of Supreme Court JusticeSonia Sotomayor.
The Yale Club was created in 1897 by the Old Yale Alumni Association of New York, a 29-year-old organization that wanted a permanent clubhouse. One of the incorporators wasSenatorChauncey Depew, whose 1890 portrait by the Swiss-born American artistAdolfo Müller-Ury hangs in the building. The first president of the Yale Club was attorneyThomas Thacher, founder ofSimpson Thacher & Bartlett. The first clubhouse was a rentedbrownstone at 17 East 26th Street. In 1901, the club built a 12-story clubhouse at30 West 44th Street, which today is home to the Penn Club of New York.[8]
The current clubhouse opened in June 1915. Designed by architect and Yale alumnusJames Gamble Rogers in conjunction with theconstruction of Grand Central Terminal,[2] it was largely paid for by money raised or contributed by President George C. Ide of Brooklyn (whose portrait byGeorge Burroughs Torrey hangs in the building). Its location was chosen because it was believed to be where Yale alumnusNathan Hale was hanged by theBritish Army forespionage during theAmerican Revolution,[12] although the site of Hale's execution has more recently been disputed.[12]
TheKen Burns documentaryProhibition said the Yale Club stocked sufficient liquor to see the club through the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.
In July 1999, the Yale Club became the first of New York'sIvy League university clubs to change its dress code tobusiness casual, a move that upset some members and was received with polite scorn from other clubs.[13] Today, the dress code remains business casual, except in the athletic facilities. In the fall of 2012, the club began to allowdenim to be worn in the library, the Grill Room, and on the rooftop terrace during the summer, but nowhere else, as long as it is "neat, clean, and in good repair."[14]
Following theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, theHeisman Trophy, traditionally presented at theDowntown Athletic Club, was presented at the Yale Club in 2002 and 2003.[15][16] The 2002 winner was quarterbackCarson Palmer of theUSCTrojans, and the 2003 winner was quarterbackJason White of theUniversity of OklahomaSooners. Before the two Heisman Trophy ceremonies, the un-awarded trophy itself was displayed in the Yale Club's lobby, flanked by portraits of Yale's two Heisman winners,endLarry Kelley (1936) andhalfbackClint Frank (1937).
In June 2007, formerU.S. Solicitor General and onetimeSupreme Court nomineeRobert Bork sued the club infederal court. Bork alleged that, while trying to reach thedais to speak at an event forThe New Criterion magazine, he fell because the club negligently failed to provide steps or a handrail between the floor and the dais.[17] Bork claimed that his injuries required surgery, immobilized him for months, forced him to use a cane, and left him with a limp. He sought judgment for $1 million in damages plus punitive damages and attorney's fees.[18] In May 2008, Bork and the club reached a confidential,out-of-court settlement.[19]
To be eligible for membership, a candidate must be an alumnus/alumna, faculty member, full-time graduate student of Yale University, or a child of one. The club sends a monthly newsletter to members.
Yale College did not allow women to become members until 1969.[20] Wives of members had to enter the club through a separate entrance (today the service entrance), and were not allowed to have access to much of the clubhouse.[21] Once Yale opened to women, however, the club quickly followed suit on July 30, 1969,[21] although the club did not open its bar, dining room, or athletic facilities to women until 1974[22] and did not open its swimming pool (known as "the plunge") to women until 1987.[23] Now, women constitute a large percentage of the club's membership.
Three other, smaller clubs also are in residence at the Yale Club: theDartmouth, theVirginia, and theDelta Kappa Epsilon Clubs. Members of these other clubs have the same access to the clubhouse and its facilities as members of the Yale Club itself.
According to a book published for the club's 1997 centennial, members at that time includedGeorge H. W. Bush,Hillary Clinton,Bill Clinton,Gerald Ford,John Kerry andGeorge Pataki. Among others were architectCesar Pelli and authorDavid McCullough. Today, the Yale Club has over 11,000 members worldwide.
In 1972,Frank Mankiewicz famously describedJohn Lindsay as "the only populist in history who playssquash at the Yale Club."[24]
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