Inside NYC's exclusive world of private social clubs (2024)

New York City has always been a city of closely guarded doors from its velvet roped nightclubs to its impenetrable restaurants, discerning doormen and the elite gates of private schools.

But the toughest doors of all belong to the city's private clubs that have been a bastion of high society since the early years of American aristocracy. These wood-paneled, old-moneyed sanctums cost thousands of dollars to join, and yet net worth alone doesn't guarantee admission. It's about lineage, legacy, and social standing.

Member lists are kept tightly sealed like a state secret; as are the committees that review applications and the arcane requirements for approval. In some places, membership is still granted on an invite-only basis.

Many of the original clubs that were established at the end of the nineteenth century still exist throughout New New York City today.Inspired by the coffee houses in London, these private salons were created for genteel men of 'high-breeding' looking to network with pals from their old Ivy outfits in Gilded Age splendor.

Association meant gravitas and social cachet. Old-world institutions like the Metropolitan Club, founded in 1891 by J.P Morgan; and the ladies-only Colony have held fast to their blue-blooded constituents.

But they are also a vestige of a bygone world when social mandarins like Caroline Astor, Alva Vanderbilt, and then (much later), Jackie Kennedy were considered the vanguard of American aristocracy.

They come with impossible standards. Those inside would call them traditions; everybody else might regard them as pretensions.

Today, these exclusive domains of the' jacket and necktie' set continue to play a reduced rolein the business and social life of the city; and a new crop of private clubs caters to a different breed of affluent New Yorkers where bloodlines don'tmatter as much as bank accounts.

Although some of them can come with hefty $100,000initiation fees, they are albeit, 'more democratic' than their old guard counterparts. Nonetheless, the high-toned boltholes with cossetted clientele continue to intrigue.Most of them seem mysterious, even forbidden to passers-by. What happens inside, after all, is supposed to be kept inside

The Union Club: 'Someplace between Skull and Bones and Dow Jones'

In terms of status, no club was more powerful than the city's first: The Union Club.

To this day, women are strictly persona non grata and notable members have includedDwight Eisenhower, Ulysses S. Grant, William Randolph Hearst, John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Dominick Dunne.

Established in 1836, the Union Club is the fifth oldest private club in the county and has beenheralded as the 'cynosure of men's organizations in New York.' It was the first of its kind in the city to inspire many that followed.

They offered admission to an initial 250-person cohort of New York's finest 'gentlemen of social distinction.'They hailed from families who didn't need to strive professionally or economically. Or – as Fortune Magazine aptly put it in 1932 – for 'men who are, rather than who do.'

Fast interest ballooned into a two year waitlist, even as the club expanded its membership to 400, (which became a standard cap for other exclusive fraternities that followed).

The Union clubhouse moved several locations before it finally settled on a permanent location in 1933: a stunning limestone edifice located in the heart of Manhattan's millionaire colony: Park Avenue and 69th Street.

The landmark building known for its opulence and details includes five dining rooms, multiple bedrooms, a humidor with 100,000 cigars, a game room, library, lounge, and squash courts.

From the very beginning, the club was known for its strongly conservative principles; which led to a protest at the height of the Civil War when it continued to show support forits members in the Confederacy.

This policy and a belief that the Union's admission standards had fallen, or for others had become too exclusive, led some members to leave and form other private clubs.

One dissatisfied member was the banking tycoon, J.P. Morgan, who founded the Metropolitan Club in 1898 when his friends were denied entry into the elite organization.

Lifestyle changes and a trend to the suburbs saw a dramatic decline in membership after the 1950s. And though the nature of the club's role has changed in the day to day lives of its members - the Union's reputation remains stratospherically snobbish.

By 1969, the New York Times even seemed slightly surprised that the old-world institution prevailed through modern times with a headline that read: 'Union Club Still There-- Someplace Between Skull and Bones and Dow Jones.' In it the president at the time, was quoted as saying: 'We want no salesmen here, nobody who pushes himself and barges in,' adding, 'The Yale Club can absorb that kind, I suppose.'

Today the club has roughly 1,500 members. As of 2020, annual were $7,680 with an initiation fee of $14,000.

Cell phones are strictly forbidden and the club enforces a firm dress code, guests are required to wear jackets and ties at all times. White clothing and collared shirts are required on the squash courts, but those arriving for a game must enter through the service entrance. (Perish the thought anyone should be caught in a state of undress!)

The Knickerbocker: A clubhouse shrouded in secrecy with no website

When it comes to prestige and exclusivity, no club is more rarified than The Knickerbocker – informally known as 'The Knick' – which was established in 1871 by several dissenting members of the Union Club, who thought its admission policy had become too lenient.

The term 'Knickerbocker,' was inspired by the writer, Washington Irving's penname, 'Diedrich Knickerbocker' which eventually became used as a byword to describeNew York's elite families (similar to the Boston Brahmins).

Notable members include Hollywood movie star, Douglas Fairbanks, John Jacob Astor (scion of the famous dynasty who died in the Titanic), President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the financier J.P. Morgan.

In 1913, the Knickerbocker, then located on 32nd Street and Fifth Avenue, hired Delano & Aldrich - both whom hailed from 'knickerbocker' families, to build a new clubhouse at 62nd Street and Fifth Avenue where it remains to this day.

With no website, no women, and a reported code of secrecy, the club remains one of the city's most exclusive institutions today.

The Metropolitan Club: Nicknamed 'the Millionaire's Club, founded by J.P. Morgan

In the same way the Knickerbocker was created as an offshoot to the Union Club's 'lax' membership policy— the Metropolitan Club was organized by the banking tycoon, J.P. Morgan as a direct answer to its exclusivity in 1891.

The Union had refused admission to several well-connected members of society, insulting both potential members and their sponsors.

Morgan was especially offended when his pal,the President of the Erie Railroad, was declined for committing the blasphemous faux pas of 'eating with his knife.' Likewise, Frederick Vanderbilt was piqued when his brother-in-law was black-balled from the Union over a disagreement with a member that had occurred years earlier in college.

Morgan's band of disgruntled scions bound together to form a new organization which was christened the 'Millionaire's Club' by the press, since its founding fathers all hailed from 'new money.'

Each founding member —which included Vanderbilts, Roosevelts and Whitneys— contributed $5,000 to purchase the plot of land on Fifth Avenue where the club still stands today in its marble-clad grandeur, designed by the best known architect in the country, Stanford White.

Morgan reportedly told White to 'build a club fit for a gentleman and damn the cost.'

The plot of land was purchased from the duch*ess of Marlborough who signed the bill of sale at the American Consulate in London, with Cornelius Vanderbilt acting on behalf of the club.

Upon completion in 1892, the New York Times claimed it was 'a clubhouse the equal of which does not exist in this country or in any other.' And jibedthat it would be 'difficult to imagine this interior restful and companionable.'

Indeed the magnificent interiors which remain untouched today are finished with red velvet curtains, mahogany and velvet paneled walls, frescoes, chandeliers, a grand marble staircase and stained glass windows.

It contains 22 overnight suites, a bowling alley, wine rooms, two card rooms, a billiards room, a palatial library, a breakfast room, smoking room and three large dining rooms.In all, the total project cost $1.7 million to complete (roughly $58 million in today's money).

Until the 1940s, visiting females had their own 'ladies' annex'— and later the club became the first in the city to admit females as full members, though they still represent a minority today.

Among the club's most distinguished constituents over the years have been Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Salman Rushdie.

Formal dress, jackets and ties, are required for entry. Annual fees are undisclosed to the general public.

The River Club: The ultra-secretive co-op that once turned away Richard Nixon, Joan Crawford and Gloria Vanderbilt

Since its completion in 1931, the art deco building on the banks of the East River has become notorious for housing and entertaining the cream of Manhattan society.

The elegant five story private club is housed in the bottom floors of 'River House'— an ultra-secretive, 26-story residential co-op so discreet, that it forbids the use of its name in advertisem*nts, and listings.

It is, essentially,a select enclave within a select enclave where 'snobbishness' is part of the appeal. The New York Times described it as 'Studio 54 for the ascot set.'

Guarded by aprivate gated motor court, River Houseis the type of building where its old money residents abide by the single belief that one's name ought to appear in the newspaper only three times: at birth, in marriage and in death.

Among those prospective tenants who have been turned away from knocking on its esteemed doors is: President Richard Nixon, Diane Keaton, Joan Crawford and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Joan Crawford (who was married to the President of Pepsi Cola at the time) was apparently so miffed that she had the company's famous neon red Pepsi sign erected across the river in Queens to permanently mar the building's view. The sign is a landmark today.

Accordingly, access to the River Club is equally restrictive. Those deemed acceptable enough to live upstairs at River House then must win a second approval to join the organization.

The first president of the board was Kermit Roosevelt, better known as the second son of Theodore Roosevelt. The club boasted a slew of conventional recreational facilities such as tennis courts, a pool, squash, dining, overnight rooms and most enticing to early tycoons:an enormous private marina for members' to park their yachts.

Its 1932 inaugural roster echoed the names of the great American families of that era: Astors, Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Morgans, and du Ponts.

As longtime member and former president Tom McCarterrecalls, it was unabashedly select. 'When I first joined the board, all the governors knew each other and came from families who knew each other.'

Among the residents of River House who lent their names over the years were Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Marshall Field III, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, former ambassador Donald Blinken and the actress Uma Thurman.

After decades of turning away residents and members without the right pedigree, the club has found a followingamong the society set today. Most recently Aerin Lauder is a member, as was the late David Koch and his wife Julia.

The Colony Club: New York’s oldest female-only club where male guests were once relegated to a 'stranger's room'

The Colony Club was founded in 1907 by the society doyenne, Florence Harriman, as the first social club established exclusively for women.

At the time, it was indecent for a lady of stature to check into a hotel alone, and Harriman came up with the idea for the Colony when she needed a place to stay while her townhouse was undergoing construction.

She persuaded her well-heeled lady friends, which included J.P. Morgan's three daughters, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, and Mrs. Payne Whitney to make contributions for the construction of a clubhouse that would feature 'all the same comforts of the Union Club.'

The founding members established an initiation fee of $150 and annual dues at $100, which put the Colony Club on the level of the most expensive men's club. They also set exclusive admission standards.

Stanford White was commissioned to design the first clubhouse, which was located on Madison Avenue and East 31st Street. They hired Elsie de Wolfe, the actress turned interior designer who spent two years collecting furnishings, and art objects from Europe, finishing the inside with chintz prints and delicate fixtures rather than the heavy mahogany pieces in vogue at the time.

Elsie's work at the Colony launched her designing career overnight in high society, with a cossetted clientele that included eventually Morgans, Vanderbilts and the Duke and duch*ess of Windsor.

Despite some detractors, the Colony proved to be a resounding success, and within a few years it had outgrown its first clubhouse and began construction on a new one on Park Avenue and 62nd Street.

The beautifully appointed interior included lounges, dining rooms, a pet kennel, bedrooms and a two-story ballroom. Special attention as paid toward the fully equipped gymnasium that included a track, squash courts, a swimming pool and mud and sulfur baths.

One room, known as 'the strangers room' was set apart for husbands and escorts. Today, men are admitted as guests but not as members.

In 1973, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger celebrated his birthday party at the Colony Club, and among his guests were four couples he had ordered to be wiretapped.

Among its notable members over the years, have been the actress Ethel Barrymore (grandmother to Drew Barrymore). First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and socialites Brooke Astor and Nan Kemper.

The University Club: A club so stiff on rules that it once kicked out First Lady Hillary Clinton

Located in the heart of Manhattan's 'gold coast' on Fifth Avenue, the stunning six-story granite University Club remains the most imposing of the city's social clubs.

Designed by the famed architect Charles McKim and completed 1899, the University Club took over two plots of land among the half-dozen Vanderbilt mansions that cropped up during a time when the center of gravity began moving uptown.

The club was originally founded in 1861 by a group of recent Yale, Harvard and Columbia graduates who hoped to fortify their collegial ties.Despite what the name implies, it is not affiliated with any specific university.

The organization was conceived with the emphasis on intellectual pursuitsand the 'promotion of literature and art.' And thus it contains one of the most spectacular libraries in the world.

Designed to mimic the Borgia apartments of the Vatican, the library contains over 100,000 volumes and features multiple tiny staircases that lead to a micro mezzanine levels stuffed with books, all beneath a sparkling series of ceiling frescoes and embossed decorations.

In addition, there are boarding rooms, squash courts, a swimming pool, and a 'reasonably priced' wine cellar.

Long gone are the Gilded Age mansions that once neighbored the clubhouse; today the University Club sits at the epicenter of New York's luxury shopping district: Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Cartier, Harry Winston, Gucci and so on.

In the midst of this modern hustle and bustle, the club's stolid existence is almost jarring.Entry is strictly forbidden though impossible to ignore by passers-by on Fifth Avenue—where—(if luck permitting) the uninitiated can glimpse into the hermetic world of hidebound tradition, swathed in velvet draperies, gilded ceilings.

Scarce information is available on this old money vanguard. Membership dues are not available to the public, but a limited website provides brief insight into the grueling application process is like for potential candidates. One must be backed by two current members and provide three additional letters of recommendation from current club patrons, and five if the candidate is over the age of 33.

Though these clubs are by and large, a hub for networking, business discussion is strictly prohibited—which also includes no taking out of papers or using cell phones.

Failure to follow the rules will have someone summarily removed. First Lady Hillary Clinton learned this the hard way when she was kicked out of the club for taking a picture with New York Post gossipeuse, Cindy Adams. Clinton had just givena speech at the club before a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising luncheon.

The Harvard Club: 'The clubbiest club in New York'

A wave of university clubsdedicated to their Ivy League alumni spread across the city in the late 1860s, and many of them remain today.

The finest being the Harvard Club, founded in 1865, by a group of graduates who eventually moved into their permanent clubhouse on East 44th Street and Fifth Avenue in 1893.

At the time, the area was mostly a home for stables and secondary structures.

The corridor eventually became known as 'Clubhouse Row' - as the Penn Club, the Yale Club, the Princeton Club and University Club all took root along the block.

Architecturally, its Bostonian red brick façade it one of the most sacred spaces in New York, having been created by the architectural icon (and Harvard alum) Charles McKim. Upon its completion,The New York Evening Post deemed it 'the clubbiest club in New York.'

'I see it as Harvard asserting its primacy as an early American institution,' Barry Bergdoll, a professor of architectural history at Columbia University, said of the buildings dusky main hall which is decorated with an elephant head, ten walk-in fireplaces, carved wood-paneled walls and leather chesterfield sofas.

This is the members-only NYC home base for the Harvard elite to rub elbows and network. Anyone who has attended the university or worked in the faculty may apply to become a member. According to the club website, 'once you have submitted your application, you are required to Interview with Admissions Committee Members.'

Dues are levied on a sliding scale, based on age and proximity to the club.

As of 2018, membership hovered around 13,000, and is made up mostly of faculty, graduates and their spouses. There is a gym with squash courts and guest rooms decorated with university memorabilia for overnight stays. The average annual dues for New York residents is $2,147, with nonresidents and newer graduates paying less.

The club allowed women to join for the first time in 1973 after four female business school graduates sued for gender discrimination when they were turned away for membership interviews. Despite their efforts, the club still voted to deny access to women in a first vote. It was only after further litigation that the club permitted ladies to join in a second vote.

Famous members past and present include President Franklin Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt, President John F. Kennedy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and film director, James Toback.

The Yale Club: 'An in-person version of LinkedIn but with much stricter credentials

Gotham Magazine referred to the Yale Club's current incarnation as 'an in-person version of LinkedIn' but 'with much stricter credentials.'

Membership at this highly coveted spotis reserved for faculty and alumni of Yale.

In 1915, the Yale Club opened a giant, 22-story facility on Vanderbilt Avenue—making it the largest private club in the world, where it remains today.

The original clubhouse was an 11-story stunner located across the street from the Harvard house, trumping the size of its indelible school rival. It was celebrated at the time as a sign of Yale's dominance, both in the club world and academically.

Within 13 years of opening, the club 'was bursting' with membership and commissioned a new tower across Fifth Avenue.The location was chosen because it was believed to be where Yale alum, Nathan Hale, was hanged by the British Army for espionage during the American Revolution.

It features 138 guest rooms, a library, a fitness center, squash courts, a swimming pool and barber shop. The main lounge is distinguished by high ornate ceilings, large columns, multiple fireplaces and portraits of the five Yale-educated Presidents and members: William Howard Taft, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

The club also keeps a place in popular culture. Fictional members include Nick Carraway from 'The Great Gatsby' and Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho.'

Like its namesake university, the club restricted women until 1969. Wives of members were forced to enter the house through a separate entrance (today the service entrance), and were not allowed to have access to much of the clubhouse.

Finally the bar, dining room and athletic facilities were made open to females in 1974, but the pool was strictly off limits until 1987. Action to desegregate the fifth-floor plunge provoked a counter rebellion among the male constituents in a campaign they called, 'Save the Fifth.'

The Players: A members-only theatre club founded by the brother of Abraham Lincoln's assassin

The Players (often inaccurately called The Players Club), is a private social club dedicated to 'members of the dramatic profession' that was founded by famed Shakespearean actor, Edwin Booth in 1888.

Edwin was the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the man who notoriously shot President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. John's portrait, along with a letter Edwin wrote to the public admonishing his brother's actions are still on display in Edwin's upstairs suite.

Inspired by London's Garrick Club, Booth purchased a mansion on the tree-lined block across from the affluent Gramercy Parkwith the intention of creating a space for entertainers to mingle with wealthy patrons of the arts. He hirednoted architect Stanford White to remodel the home into a clubhouse, maintaining an apartment on the top floor for himself.

Withfifteen other incorporators that included Mark Twain and General William Tec*mseh Sherman, the club opened its doors on New Years Eve in 1888. It is reportedly the oldest club in its original clubhouse in New York City.

Since his death in 1893, Booth's bedroom and parlor have been preserved unchanged. Among the many mementos saved is a skull that Booth used in Hamlet's famous soliloquy. It originally belonged to Booth's father (also a famed actor at the time) and it was bequeathed to him upon the death of a rabid fan that he once befriended in the drunk tank.

According to Gothamist, the club is said to be home to the largest private collection of theatrical ephemera, from costumes to stage props. In addition there are multiple priceless portraits of famous members, including one of Joseph Jefferson, the second president of The Players, painted by John Singer Sargent, the famous American portraiture artist.

The club was male only until 1989. Among other bizarre traditions, each member had his own tankard which always hung from an assigned seat in the theater on the main floor. He could take his mug down to the bar room and return it to its proper place when he was finished.

Throughout its storied past, the Players has been considered an oasis for famed actors.Members have included John Barrymore, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Tommy Lee Jones, Gregory Peck, Kevin Spacey, George Kaufman, Angela Lansbury, Liza Minelli, Ethan Hawke, and Daniel Day Lewis.

It's also where Jimmy Fallon holds his annual Christmas party.

The Players is often confused with other rival clubs dedicated to the performing arts, such as the Friars Club and the Lambs Club. Distinguishing the difference between the three, the wit and playwright George S. Kaufman famously said, 'The Players are gentlemen trying to be actors, the Lambs are actors trying to be gentlemen, and the Friars are neither trying to be both.'

The Century Association: 'The most unspeakably respectable club in the US,' according to Mark Twain

The Century Association was founded in 1847 as an upscale refuge for artists and writers.Mark Twain called it 'the most unspeakably respectable club in the United States.' Adding, 'Conversation there is instructive and entertaining, and the brandy punches are good, and so are the lunches. What more could a man want?'

The original charter limited membership to a select 100 luminaries from various artistic circles, far less than the 400-person caps at other clubs, which made the Century the most exclusive enclave in the city.

Today members (who refer to themselves as Centurions) can still honor tradition by taking meals at the long table - an oasis for rum drinks on shaved ice in silver cups. Where the club's website says, 'itsmain activity is conversation.'

It's a hub for creative types and prominent names from media, literary, and advertising worlds. It's also distinguished by its member list that includes 15 US Presidents, ten Supreme Court justices and 23 Nobel Prize laureates.

In 1891, the Association moved into its permanent (and current) location on 43rd Street, flanked between the theatre district and Grand Central Station.

Like so many social clubs of its time, the Century hired McKim, Mead, and White to design their granite Italian Renaissance palazzo, all three architects were also members of the club.

In recent years, members have included Mayor Bloomberg, Tina Brown, Henry Kissinger, William F. Buckley, David Rockefeller, Frank Gehry, Andy Rooney and Arthur Schlesinger Jr..

Among its first female women admitted to the club in 1988 was Jackie Onassis, Toni Morrison and Brooke Astor.

Like so many others of its kind, admission standards and dues are shrouded in secrecy. The website, which reveals very little, claims that its 'main activity is conversation.'

The Harmonie Club: Created as a singing and dining circle for German-Jewish immigrants

Founded in 1852 and New York's second-oldest private social club, Harmonie (originally Gesellschaft Harmonie) was created as a singing and dining circle for German-Jewish immigrants.

Although distinguished, the founding members were reportedly denied admission to the Union Club which had a tacit policy of discrimination to any candidates that weren't on the Social Register.

The club moved from the Lower East Side to its current home on East 60th Street in 1905 and became a gathering spot for successful Jewish industrialists, financiers and businessmen including the Guggenheims, Andrew Saks (founder of Saks Fifth Avenue) and Adolph Ochs (former owner of The New York Times).

Other members include Carl Icahn, several from the Tisch and Nederlander families, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who famously resigned in protest of the club's lack of diversitywhile mounting his 2001 mayoral campaign.

Situated in an eight-story Beaux-Arts building designed by Stanford White, the Harmonie Club offers a handful of luxe amenities for its stratospherically rich guests, including squash courts, a basketball court, a pool, private dining, and a barber shop.

As of 2018, there were just under 1,000 members and full-time membership costs $1,500 to $6,000 annually, depending on a member's age.