Formation | September 25, 1865 |
---|---|
Dissolved | 1979 |
Type | Social club |
Legal status | Incorporated 1877 |
Headquarters | Jerome Mansion |
Location |
|
Key people | John Van Buren, founding president and son of U.S. President Martin Van Buren Samuel J. Tilden August Belmont Augustus Schell Henry Hilton Manton Marble Frederic R. Coudert |
The Manhattan Club was a social club in Manhattan, New York founded in 1865 and dissolved around 1979. The club was founded by Attorney General John Van Buren, son of U.S. President Martin Van Buren.
Designed to be the Democratic answer to the Union Club, its prominent members included Samuel J. Tilden, August Belmont, Grover Cleveland, Alfred E. Smith, Herbert H. Lehman, Jimmy Walker and Robert F. Wagner [1] Other prominent members included writer Edgar Saltus, Augustus Schell, Dean Richmond and John T. Hoffman. [2] In 1885 it was listed as the residence of Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, the uncle of Theodore Roosevelt. [3] The Manhattan Club was organized on September 25, 1865 at Delmonico's on 14th Street at Fifth Avenue. Its first home was the Benkard House at 96 Fifth Avenue near the corner of 15th Street (called "Old 96" by members), followed by the A.T. Stewart Mansion on 34th Street at Fifth Avenue. [4] From 1899 to 1966, it occupied the Jerome Mansion, at which time the building was sold to a developer and subsequently was torn down. [5] The Manhattan Club then moved to a suite of rooms at the Barclay Hotel previously occupied by the Cornell Club [6] and thereafter functioned mainly as a luncheon club. [7] Around 1979, its suites were converted into conference rooms and the Manhattan Club was closed. [8]
Despite having been conceived as a Democratic Party bastion during the U.S. Civil War, in its later days, the members of the Manhattan Club were often decidedly Republican in sympathies. In 1954, a survey of the men's social clubs of Manhattan noted that the club had become "ninety percent Republican." [9] A half-century earlier, the significant majority of members supported Republican William McKinley's bid for President of the United States, triggering letters of resignation from members who wanted it to be a Democratic Club. [10]
A popular history suggests that the Manhattan cocktail originated at the club in the early 1870s, where it was invented by Dr. Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome (Lady Randolph Churchill, Winston's mother) in honor of presidential candidate Samuel J. Tilden. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable, later prompting several people to request the drink by referring to the name of the club where it originated—"the Manhattan cocktail". [11]
The exterior of the club was featured in an 1891 painting by Childe Hassam when it was at the Stewart Mansion.
On June 26, 1906, Stanford White was shot dead by Harry K. Thaw, the eccentric millionaire, after leaving the Manhattan Club. The murder took place three blocks south in what was then Madison Square Garden. [1]
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred with ice then strained into a chilled cocktail glass and garnished traditionally with a maraschino cherry. A Manhattan may also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.
The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876. Incumbent Republican president Ulysses S. Grant declined to run for a third term, so the party chose Rutherford B. Hayes, the governor of Ohio, as its nominee. The Democratic Party nominated New York governor Samuel J. Tilden as their nominee. It was one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of 1877, and on March 2, 1877, the counting of electoral votes by the House and Senate occurred, confirming Hayes as president. It was the second of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote. This is the first time it happened since 1824, and the first time that a candidate won an overall majority in the popular vote but did not win the presidency.
Samuel Jones Tilden was an American politician who served as the 25th governor of New York and was the Democratic nominee in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election.
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The Roosevelt family is an American political family from New York whose members have included two United States presidents, a First Lady, and various merchants, bankers, politicians, inventors, clergymen, artists, and socialites. The progeny of a mid-17th century Dutch immigrant to New Amsterdam, many members of the family became nationally prominent in New York State and City politics and business and intermarried with prominent colonial families. Two distantly related branches of the family from Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York, rose to global political prominence with the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909) and his fifth cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945), whose wife, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, was Theodore's niece. The Roosevelt family is one of four families to have produced two presidents of the United States by the same surname; the others were the Adams, Bush, and Harrison families.
The University Club of New York is a private social club at 1 West 54th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Founded to celebrate the union of social duty and intellectual life, the club was chartered in 1865 for the "promotion of literature and art". The club is not affiliated with any other University Club or college alumni clubs. The club has been considered one of the most prestigious in New York City.
John Van Buren was an American lawyer, official and politician. In addition to serving as a key advisor to his father, President Martin Van Buren, he was also Attorney General of New York from 1845 to 1847.
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The Union League Club is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1863 in affiliation with the Union League. Its fourth and current clubhouse is located at 38 East 37th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan. It was designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris and opened on February 2, 1931. The building was designated a New York City landmark on October 25, 2011. The club is considered one of the most prestigious in New York City.
The Roosevelt Hotel is a former hotel at 45 East 45th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Named in honor of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, the hotel was developed by the New York Central Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad and opened in 1924. The 19-story structure was designed by George B. Post & Son with an Italian Renaissance Revival-style facade, as well as interiors that resembled historical American buildings. The Roosevelt Hotel is one of several large hotels developed around Grand Central Terminal as part of Terminal City.
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Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings was an American industrialist tycoon, philanthropist, art collector, and a noted horseman and horse breeder. Billings invested much of his time and money promoting the sport of trotting, also known as "harness racing" or "matinee racing".
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The C. Ledyard Blair House was a mansion on 2 East 70th Street, at the corner with Fifth Avenue, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed for banker C. Ledyard Blair and designed by Carrère & Hastings. The house was constructed from 1914 to 1917 and contained almost 7,300 square feet (680 m2). It was sold and demolished in 1927 to make way for an apartment house.
The Jerome Mansion was a mansion on the corner of East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, across from Madison Square Park, in the modern NoMad neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was the home of financier Leonard Jerome, one of the city's richest and most influential men in the middle- to late-19th century. It was built from 1859 to 1865 and demolished in 1967.
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