The 1925 The Brook Club - 111 East 54th Street

photograph by Transpoman

On April 2, 1903, The New York Times reported, "Some of the most prominent clubmen in this city have launched a new club, like no other in New York."  Each of the founders, said the article, belonged to the Union, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, "or other well-known clubs," but they intended to enjoy amenities in their new club "that can be had nowhere else."

Two of the innovations were the absence of by-laws (a member told The Sun they need no laws to "see that we behave ourselves like gentlemen.  We think we can do that.") and its 24-hour service.  The front door would never be locked.  The New York Times explained, "Having in mind the lines from Tennyson--'Men may come and men may go, / But I go on forever,' the founders, men who stand foremost in New York society, have named their new organization the Brook Club."

Among the organizers were William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., Oliver H. P. Belmont, Louis Stuyvesant Chanler, Robert Livingston Beekman, Stanford White, Frederic Gebbard, and Thomas B. Clarke.  Not surprisingly, McKim, Mead and White was hired to renovate the four-story-and-basement brownstone at 7 East 40th Street for its clubhouse.  White took the reins in the remodeling.

Stanford White transformed an upscale rowhouse to an American basement clubhouse.  photo by McKim, Mead & White from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Two decades later, on May 9, 1924, the New York Evening Post reported that the Brook Club, "has bought as the site for its new headquarters the two dwellings at 111-113 East Fifty-fourth street."  The following month, on June 6, the newspaper announced that Vincent Astor had purchased the East 40th Street clubhouse property for development.

Once again, the Brook turned to a member to design its new home.  William Adams Delano was a partner of Delano & Aldrich and, as the firm had done for its 1915 Knickerbocker Club building, he turned to the dignified neo-Federal style.   

Completed the following year, the Brook Club could easily have passed as a private mansion.  Delano centered the entrance within the rusticated base.  Engaged columns upheld the entablature and faux balcony at the second floor.  A subtle, vitruvian wave of dolphins ran along the top of the ground floor.   The upper three floors were faced in Flemish bond red brick.  Three carved reliefs decorated the two-floor midsection, and the brick parapet atop the cornice was relieved with sections of stone balusters.

from the collection of the Delano & Aldrich Collection of the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

Alfred Lord Tennyson, the grandson and namesake of the renowned poet, was a member of England's championship cricket team.  He arrived in New York "for a brief visit," according to the New York Evening Post, on February 18, 1931.  He stopped by the Brook Club, the name of which (as had been pointed out by The New York Times nearly three decades earlier) came from his grandfather's poem, "The Brook."  The newspaper noted, "He recently presented the club with one of his grandfather's original manuscripts."

The club had another well-known guest later that year.  On November 17, the Standard Union reported that Dino Grandi, Foreign Minister of Italy, would arrive in New York three days later.  Grandi was one of the 35 Fascists who made up Benito Mussolini's Chamber of Deputies in 1921.

Mayor Jimmy Walker, "feeling certain that there will be no hostile demonstration to fear," according to the article, had planned welcoming ceremonies.  Listed on the Fascist's busy schedule was, "Wednesday, Nov. 25--Luncheon at the Brook Club, 111 East Fifty-fourth street."

Two weeks earlier, a tragedy had occurred here.  The upper floors held bedrooms for out-of-town members and local members whose townhouses were closed for the summer season.   Although Samuel Adams Clark lived in town, at 655 Park Avenue, he stayed here on the night of November 7, 1931 in preparation of a meeting the following day.

Clark was described by The New York Times as "an architect widely known outside his profession for his interest in sports, particularly racing."  A member of the architectural firm Warren & Clark, he was married to the former Gertrude Jerome Alexandre.

Wealthy gentlemen traveled with their valets and, in the case of Clark at least, even for a single night.  He and Harry Wishkin arrived at the club on Saturday afternoon.  Clark "conversed with his friends," while Wishkin unpacked and arranged Clark's things.  At 11:00 that night, Clark had a "light supper" in his fourth-floor room.

At around noon the following day, Wishkin entered Clark's room to find him dead on the floor.  The New York Times reported, "From the position of the body it was believed that Mr. Clark had entered the closet in search of a bathrobe or other article of clothing, and had suffered a stroke as he reached for it."

Shortly after 10:30 on the night of April 20, "Three gunmen in evening dress sauntered into the Brook Club," as reported by the Daily Star.  The New York Times recounted, "The robbers, all young and apparently quite at their ease, entered the club hallway, only two doors off Park Avenue, and displaying pistols rounded up Roy Wilson, the cashier; William Ingram, the telephone switchboard operator, and the club doorman."

One gunman guarded the trio and another stood watch by the door.  The third emptied the cash drawer and the safe, the door of which was open.  Wall Street broker William Walter Phelps arrived in a cab in the meantime, unaware of what was taking place.  Because he had only two $100 bills in his wallet, he approached the desk for change.  He was ordered behind the counter with the other prisoners and relieved of his cash.  The New York Times reported, "One of the hold-up men obligingly stepped outside and paid the taxicab driver, presumably to prevent the latter from becoming suspicious."

The crooks then herded their prisoners into the elevator, sent it upward, and fled.  They made off with $1,500 of the club's money and Phelps's $200 (about $37,900 in total in 2025).

As it turned out, the mastermind of the heist was a former doorman, Frank Mackey.  He had worked in the club for several years, but was fired in 1927 for insubordination.  On January 20, 1933, another robbery took place here.  The New York Times reported, "three Negroes forced their way past the doorman, bound other employes [sic] and got $375."  

Mackey was planning a third and bigger caper five months later.  The scheme "to strip valuable oil paintings and framed signatures of the Presidents of the United States from the walls of the Brook Club," as described by The Times, was foiled when an apparently homeless man, "accidentally overheard some men discussing previous robberies of the club."  The clever eavesdropper, "said to be in need," according to The New York Times, pretended to want to get in on the robbery.  After getting details, he went to the club and warned the secretary.  Mackey and his cronies were rounded up and the nameless informant, "got a job and some new clothes as reward."

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services

The building was updated in 1963.  Little changed with the  functioning of the layout.  The cellar now holds locker rooms, a billiard room and a dining room, the ground floor has the visitors' room and coat room, and the second floor holds a dining room, lounge and sitting room.  On the third floor are the card room, bar and another dining room.  The upper floors, as before, hold bedrooms and valets' rooms.

Michael R. Bloomberg was a member until 2001, when he embarked on his candidacy for mayor.  Unlike almost all other male-only social clubs, like the Union League Club, which were pressured to admit women in the 1980s, the Brook stood steadfast.  Bloomberg resigned from this and three others.  He told a reporter, "Those clubs have a right to do what they want, but if I can't change them, and I choose to resign, then I have chosen to go elsewheres [sic]."

Normally avoiding publicity, the exclusive club was recently thrust into the news when a 32-year-old worker who was working in the dumbwaiter shaft was crushed on March 25, 2025.   The Daily News reported that the dumbwaiter had fallen three floors onto the workman.  A number of firefighters had to secure the device while others broke into the wall to free him.  The injured man was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Among the celebrated members of the Brook Club over the years include Henry Kissinger, President John F. Kennedy, explorer and Congressman William A. Chanler, and Admiral James L. Holloway.

many thanks to reader Felix Bronstein for suggesting this post