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General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York

1785 establishments in New York (state)Education in ManhattanHistory of education in the United StatesLibraries in ManhattanLibraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
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The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, was founded on November 17, 1785, by 22 men who gathered in Walter Heyer's public-house at No. 75 King Street (now Pine Street), one block from Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan. The aims of the General Society were to provide cultural, educational and social services to families of skilled craftsmen. The General Society during this early period celebrated the mutuality and centrality of the craft community. Besides its charitable activities, the society played a prominent part in the festivities that marked patriotic holidays, carrying banners emblazoned with its slogan 'By hammer and hand all arts do stand', echoing the motto of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. The city of New York and the Society both benefited from the decision to make New York the seat of the Federal Government. In 1789, legislators and their assistants and families began to pour into the city. Business prospects brightened considerably. In 1792, the Society attained a membership of 413, and received a charter of incorporation. Old documents reveal that the Society was quite active in the last years of the 18th century, corresponding with other business related associations, and petitioning the state legislature in the interests of industrial progress.

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General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York
West 44th Street, New York Manhattan

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N 40.7551 ° E -73.9813 °
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West 44th Street 20
10036 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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W 44 St Apr 2022 01
W 44 St Apr 2022 01
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Mansfield Hotel
Mansfield Hotel

The Mansfield Hotel is a residential hotel at 12 West 44th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style by the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen, the 12-story building was completed in 1902 as an apartment hotel. The Mansfield was developed by onetime Vermont governor John G. McCullough and lawyer Frederick B. Jennings. The building is a New York City designated landmark. The brick-and-stone facade is arranged in an "H" shape and is divided vertically into three bays. The first two stories of the Mansfield's facade are clad with rusticated limestone blocks, while the upper stories are clad with red brick; the top two floors are placed within a mansard roof. The hotel contains a large lobby with coffered ceiling, as well as a room with a skylight that formerly served as a library. The Mansfield contained 129 or 131 rooms on its upper stories by the late 1990s; these rooms were converted to co-living spaces in 2021. McCullough and Jennings filed plans with the New York City Department of Buildings in June 1901, and the hotel opened the next year; the men continued to own the hotel until 1940. The Mansfield became popular among theatrical and artistic personalities, as well as businesspeople, during the early 20th century. The hotel was renovated in 1935, when a nightclub was added next to the lobby, and again in the 1960s. Bernard Goldberg, who acquired the hotel in 1995, renovated it extensively. The Mansfield was then resold to Credit Suisse First Boston in 1998, then to Brad Reiss and John Yoon in 2004. Canadian firm Harrington Housing acquired the Mansfield Hotel in 2021 and renovated the rooms into co-living spaces.

30 West 44th Street
30 West 44th Street

30 West 44th Street (formerly the Yale Club of New York City Building, United States Maritime Building, and Army Reserves Building; also the Penn Club of New York Building) is the clubhouse of the Penn Club of New York in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by architecture firm Tracy and Swartwout in the Beaux-Arts style, the building opened in 1901 as the Yale Club of New York City's clubhouse. The building is part of Clubhouse Row, a concentration of clubhouses on 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, and is a New York City designated landmark. The structure was originally 11 stories tall, but it was expanded to 14 stories in the early 1990s. The ornately decorated facade on 44th Street is made of brick, Indiana limestone, and terracotta; the first two stories are clad with rusticated limestone blocks, while the upper stories are largely clad with brick and terracotta. The mansard roof on the 11th story is topped by a three-story brick-and-limestone penthouse. When the building served as the Yale Club's clubhouse, it had club rooms on the lower floors, bedrooms in the intermediate stories, and dining rooms on the highest stories. The interiors have been modified significantly over the years. The modern clubhouse contains club rooms, bedrooms, and dining rooms for the Penn Club. The Yale Club was founded in 1897 and, following rapid increases in its membership, acquired the 44th Street site in early 1900. The Yale Club Building officially opened on May 1, 1901, but it became overcrowded within a decade, prompting the club to relocate to 50 Vanderbilt Avenue in 1915. The building was next occupied by Delta Kappa Epsilon from 1917 to 1925 and by Army & Navy Club of America from 1925 to 1933. After standing vacant for a decade, the building was acquired by the federal government of the United States in 1943. The building contained offices for the United States Maritime Service during World War II, and it housed the Organized Reserve after 1948. The federal government sold 30 West 44th Street in 1971 to Touro College, which sold the building to the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. Penn hired David P. Helpern to renovate the building and add three stories for the Penn Club, and the building reopened in June 1994. The Columbia University Club of New York also uses the clubhouse under a reciprocity agreement with the Penn Club.

Century Association
Century Association

The Century Association is a private social, arts, and dining club in New York City, founded in 1847. Its clubhouse is located at 7 West 43rd Street near Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It is primarily a club for men and women with distinction in literature or the arts. The Century Association was founded by members of New York's Sketch Club; preceding clubs also included the National Academy of Design, the Bread and Cheese Club, and the Column. Traditionally a men's club, women first became active in club life in the early 1900s; the organization began admitting women as members in 1988. Named after the first 100 people proposed as members, the first meeting on January 13, 1847, created the club known as the Century; it was incorporated in 1857. It was first housed at 495 Broadway in Lower Manhattan; the club gradually moved uptown, leading to the club's construction of its current location in 1899. During the Civil War, it became headquarters to the U.S. Sanitary Commission. 134 Centurions served in World War I; 110 served in World War II. The clubhouse, a five-story Palazzo style building, was designed by McKim, Mead & White and built from 1889 to 1891. It became a New York City Landmark in 1967 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It was extensively renovated in the early 1990s, with a fifth floor and terrace constructed in 2009. Members of the club have included artists and writers William Cullen Bryant, Frederic Church, Asher B. Durand, John La Farge, Winslow Homer, Paul Manship, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Comfort Tiffany, John Quincy Adams Ward, and J. Alden Weir. Architect members have included Calvert Vaux, Carrère and Hastings, Frederick Law Olmsted, James Renwick Jr., McKim, Mead & White, and York and Sawyer. Members are known for other endeavors, including eight Presidents of the United States, ten US Supreme Court justices, 43 Members of the Cabinet, 29 Nobel Prize laureates, members of the Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Roosevelt, Jay, Schieffelin and Astor families, and noted individuals like Dan Beard, J. P. Morgan, Samuel Morse, and Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York Yacht Club Building
New York Yacht Club Building

The New York Yacht Club Building is a seven-story Beaux-Arts clubhouse at 37 West 44th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Opened in 1901, the building was designed by architect Whitney Warren of Warren and Wetmore as the sixth clubhouse of the New York Yacht Club (NYYC). The clubhouse is part of Clubhouse Row, a concentration of clubhouses on 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The building is a New York City designated landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. The building has an ornately decorated facade on 44th Street; its first four stories are clad with stone and are asymmetrically divided into four bays. The easternmost bay contains the entrance, while the western three bays contain double-height arches, ornamented with bay windows that resemble ships. The upper stories are within a mansard roof that is slightly set back. Inside is a double-height entrance hall, visitors' room, and various other spaces in the basement and at ground level. On the second story is a double-height model room, measuring 45 by 100 feet (14 by 30 m) and containing over a thousand ship models. A private library/chartroom, dining rooms, and offices occupy the fourth story, and there are bedrooms on the remaining floors. Many of the facade and interior decorations carry a maritime theme. The NYYC was founded in 1844 and became known for holding the America's Cup trophy. By the 1890s, overcrowding at the club's previous headquarters prompted the NYYC to consider developing a new clubhouse. J. P. Morgan bought land for the new clubhouse on 44th Street in October 1898, and Warren & Wetmore won an architectural design competition for the building that December. The clubhouse formally opened on January 19, 1901, and has hosted the club's annual meetings and events since then. The clubhouse remained mostly unchanged during the 20th century, although some rooms were converted to different uses. The NYYC renovated the interior in the 1980s and restored the facade in 1992. The interior was renovated again for the clubhouse's centennial in 2001.