Penn of New York City Building (Former Yale Club of New York)

History and architecture

The former Yale Club of New York City Building is located along “clubhouse row,” West 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, its neighbors including the Harvard Club, New York Yacht Club, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and former City Club. This Beaux-Arts style building, constructed in 1900-01 by builder Marc Eidlitz & Son, was designed by [Evarts] Tracy & [Egerton] Swartwout, both Yale University graduates, Yale Club members, and former employees of McKim, Mead & White.

It was one of the first high-rise clubhouse buildings in the city, with over half the floors devoted to bachelor apartments, during the era when bachelor apartment hotels were a necessity in the vicinity. The original 11-story, 50-foot-wide front façade features a double-story rusticated limestone base and red brick cladding laid in Flemish bond (with glazed headers) above, balconies, a profusion of terra-cotta ornament (manufactured by the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Co.), and an oversized arch surmounted by a cartouche above the widely-projecting bracketed copper cornice. Its tripartite composition reflected the original internal organization: club rooms on the lower stories, bachelor apartments in the middle section, and upper club dining rooms and service area.

Organized in 1897, the Yale Club of New York City remained here until 1915, when it moved to a larger facility two blocks east. This structure was next owned (1916-25) by Delta Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity founded at Yale, and used as a club and headquarters. The Army & Navy Club of America was located here from 1925 until its bankruptcy in 1933. The building remained vacant until it was acquired by the U. S. Government in 1943; it served as the Maritime Service Center during World War II, and after 1948 as headquarters of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps. It was donated as “surplus property” to Touro College in 1971. Acquired by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, this has been the home since 1994 of the Penn Club of New York, which added three upper stories by [David P.] Helpern Architects.

The 50-foot-wide, Beaux-Arts style Yale Club of New York City Building (1900-01) was originally 11 stories; three upper stories were added in 1992-94 by [David P.] Helpern Architects.