With other wealthy women, includingAnne Tracy Morgan (a daughter ofJ.P. Morgan), Harriman raised $500,000, and commissionedStanford White ofMcKim, Mead & White to build the original clubhouse, later known as the "Old Colony Club".[4] This building – at 120 Madison Avenue, between East 30th and East 31st Streets on the west side of Madison – was built between 1904 and 1908 and was modelled on eighteenth-century houses inAnnapolis, Maryland.[4]
The interiors, which exist largely unchanged, were created byElsie de Wolfe – later to become Lady Mendl – a former actress who had recently opened an interior-design business, and whose companion, the theatrical agentElisabeth Marbury, was one of the club's founders. Stanford White wasslain byHarry K. Thaw months before construction of the Colony Club was completed. The building was designed in the Federal Revival style, and has unusual brickwork done in adiaper pattern[4] as a notable feature of its facade. The club and the street in front of it were often the site of largesuffrage rallies sponsored by theEqual Franchise Society to which many members of the Club belonged.[5]
The second clubhouse, located at 564 Park Avenue, also known as 51 East 62nd Street, on the northwest corner, was commissioned in 1913[8] and constructed from 1914 to 1916. It was designed byDelano & Aldrich in theNeo-Georgian style, with interiors designed byElsie de Wolfe.[citation needed] The building has a marble base with red-brick and marble trim and columns for the upper floors.[3][7] According toAndrew Dolkart:
This is not one of Delano & Aldrich's more elegant works in the Colonial idiom, perhaps because it was nearly impossible to create a well-proportioned design for a building with the complex spatial requirements of this club. The beautifully appointed interior included the lounges, dining rooms, and bedrooms common to social clubs, but also had a two-story ballroom, a basement swimming pool and spa that connected via an express elevator to a gymnasium on the fifth floor, two squash courts, servants' rooms (in 1925 there were thirteen female servants), and even a kennel where members could leave their pets.[9]
First Colony Club House, New York City, NY
In 1973, Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger's birthday party was held at the Colony Club (among the guests were four couples whom Kissinger had ordered to bewiretapped[citation needed]). In 2007, memorial services forBrooke Astor were held there. The club continues its policy of women-only membership – new members must be recommended by current members.[10]
The Club presently has approximately 2,500 members who have access to discussions, concerts, and wellness and athletic programs. The Clubhouse consists of seven stories, 25 guest bedrooms, three dining rooms, two ballrooms, a lounge, a squash court, an indoor pool, a fitness facility and three personal spa service rooms. Annual gross revenues are more than $10 million.[11]
Eleanor Roosevelt – resigned when the Club refused to consider Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr., wife of the Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, because she was Jewish.[14]
Julia Catlin Park Taufflieb[12] – the first American woman to receive theLégion d'honneur inWorld War I for turning her chateau in northern France into a 300-bed hospital
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