4. The Downtown Association
The Down Town Association at 60 Pine Street is a member-owned social club started in 1859. Its clubhouse was designed by member and architect Charles C. Haight and completed in 1887. Another member/architect was commissioned to create an addition in 1911, Charles Wetmore, one of the designers of Grand Central Terminal. The Romanesque Revival building is the second oldest purpose-built club building in the United States.
Famous members hail mostly from the legal and financial professions. Franklin D. Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland, Thomas E. Dewey, and a handful of Attorneys General, one Secretary of Defense, two Secretaries of War, and ambassadors to foreign lands have all held memberships.