Level Club | |
 The Level Club, November 2008 | |
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| Location | 253 W. 73rd St.,New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°46′49″N73°59′0″W / 40.78028°N 73.98333°W /40.78028; -73.98333 |
| Area | 0.3 acres (0.12 ha) |
| Built | 1925 |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP reference No. | 84002784[1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 9, 1984 |
The Level Club is a residential building at 253 West73rd Street on theUpper West Side ofManhattan inNew York City. It was built as a men's club by a group ofFreemasons in 1927; it served this original function for just about three years. Afterwards, the building was used, in turn, as a hotel and a drug re-hab center. It has now been remodeled as a condominium.
The building was erected in 1927.[2]
The bank foreclosed on the club's mortgage in 1931.[3] It became a hotel for men that rented rooms by the week in the 1930s, and a kosher hotel in the 1940s and 1950s, and a single-room-occupancy hotel in the 1960s. From 1936, it was known as The Hotel Riverside Plaza.[4] At the height of the urban decay of the 1970s it was purchased by the nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organizationPhoenix House.[5] It was turned into an upscale condominium in 1984.[3] TheNew York Daily News describes it as the city's "most mystical and intriguing condominium."[5]The Capitol Records artist Stan Kenton recorded the album Cuban Fire in this building in 1956 .
TheNeo-Romanesque building was designed by the New York architectural firmClinton Russell Wells George and Holton.[3]
The facade was designed as an homage toFreemasonry, particularly by incorporating aspects of biblical descriptions of theTemple of Solomon,[6] a significant building in Masonic tradition.[7] The facade also features many carvings of symbols adopted by the Masons, such as theall-seeing eye, the hourglass, the level, thehexagram, the beehive and the Bible. The door is framed by two large pillars representingBoaz and Jachin, the pillars that stood at the entrance to King Solomon's Temple.[5] The figures at the base of the pillars represent two figures of Masonic significanceHiram Abiff andKing Solomon.[8] According to Bruno Bertuccioli, author ofThe Level Club: A New York City Story of the Twenties: Splendor, Decadence and Resurgence of a Monument to Human Ambition, the building was built as aReplica of the Jewish Temple. Bertuccioli describes the building as "the only true-to-size rendering of King Solomon's Temple that exists in the world today."[5][6]
The building's original grand lobby, featuring a two-story atrium with balcony and grand staircases is intact.[9] The building originally included "a swimming pool, bowling alley, 4,000-seat auditorium, dining halls, gymnasium, racquetball courts, a club floor, billiards room and rooftop gardens."[5] It did not include lodge meeting rooms. While none of these survive, the facade is "perfectly preserved."[5] The building was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1984.[1][5]
