12. 15 U.S. Presidents were members of the secret Union League Club
The Union League Club is a private social club on East 37th Street that dates back to the Civil War. Pro-Union New Yorkers originally created the club to foster support for the Union in 1863, promoting ideas of citizenship and anti-corruption. Many of these “Union Leagues” opened across the country as part of a political movement, raising money to support Union and anti-slavery causes in cities such as Philadelphia and Chicago. Four members of the United States Sanitary Commission, including Frederick Law Olmsted, founded the New York League, advocating for a central government. Its first meeting was on March 20, 1863, though just five months later it was nearly vandalized during the New York Draft Riots. The club recruited and trained the 20th U.S. Colored Infantry, who were sent to fight in Louisiana. During World War I the club sponsored the Harlem Hellfighters.
The Union League Club did not move to Murray Hill until 1931, after previous locations near Union Square and Madison Square Park. Benjamin Wistar Morris, who also designed the Cunard Building, designed the current building. Before the move to Murray Hill, the club helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Grant’s Tomb, in addition to helping construct the Statue of Liberty. Theodore Roosevelt, Chester A. Arthur, and Herbert Hoover were among the 15 U.S. Presidents who were members. The list of members is lengthy, including J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller, and more recently Sandra Day O’Connor, Neil Armstrong, and Margaret Thatcher.