Association of the Bar of the City of New York | |
44th Street facade (2024) | |
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| Location | 42 West 44th Street, New York City, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°45′20″N73°58′56″W / 40.75556°N 73.98222°W /40.75556; -73.98222 |
| Built | 1896 |
| Architect | Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| NRHP reference No. | 80002666[1] |
| NYSRHP No. | 06101.000405 |
| NYCL No. | 0256 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | January 3, 1980 |
| Designated NYSRHP | June 23, 1980 |
| Designated NYCL | June 7, 1966 |
TheHouse of the New York City Bar Association, located at 42 West 44th Street inManhattan,New York, is aNew York City Landmark building that has housed theNew York City Bar Association since its construction in 1896.

After the New York City Bar Association was founded in 1870, it housed itself in a series of buildings inLower Manhattan. By the 1890s, membership of the Association had grown to the point where its leadership began looking for a new House farther uptown. On December 11, 1894 the membership approved the acquisition of a large site between West 43rd and West 44th Streets for the construction of a new, larger building. The street, already home to theHarvard Club of New York City and theCentury Association, was considered by the members “specially adapted to our purposes” because of the other prominent clubs and societies in its vicinity.[2]
The architectCyrus L.W. Eidlitz, son New York City architectLeopold Eidlitz, was commissioned to design the building. Eidlitz had designed a number of landmark buildings throughout the country, includingDearborn Station in Chicago,Buffalo & Erie County Public Library,St. Peter's Church in theBronx, andBell Laboratories Building in Manhattan.
Construction was begun in early 1895 and completed 18 months later at a total cost of $584,700. The House was built in theneoclassical style, fromIndiana limestone. Thefaçade included elements of theDoric order on the bottom three floors,Ionic columns framing the fourth floor windows, andCorinthianpilasters on the fifth floor, creating ahistoricist “composite” ofclassical architecture.
The new House was considerably larger and grander than its precursors: it stood six stories tall; included a meeting hall with a seating capacity of 1,500; a reception hall with a standing capacity of 1,500; a library of over 50,000 volumes, and three additional floors of offices. The entrance hall and first floor stairways were constructed ofmarble, and the second floor hallway, reception hall, and meeting hall ofgranite, marble, andmahogany.
The Association opened the doors of its new House on October 8, 1896, with a gala of several thousand guests.The New York Times described it as “one of the most interesting and successful works of recent architecture…a work having the classical qualities of simplicity, purity, and serenity in a high degree.”[3]
The House was named aNew York City Landmark in 1966, and named to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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