Inside the Women’s National Republican Club in NYC

On Monday, The New York Adventure Club took members inside the Women’s National Republican Club, a gorgeous clubhouse built on the site of the former home of Andrew Carnegie at 3 West 51st Street at Rockefeller Center. The club was founded by New York suffragists in 1921, but they did not move into their current building until 1934 after the land was purchased from Carnegie. While it may give off the off-limits vibe of many Gilded Age clubs in New York City, the pub/restaurant is actually open to the public, with proper attire.

View of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Rockefeller Center elevated gardes from the balcony

Though the architecture around the Rockefeller Center area had a tendency towards Art Deco and Modernism, the Women’s National Republican Club followed the design tastes akin to the private clubs of the era. Architect Frederic Rhinelander King designed the building in the neo-Georgian style both on the exterior and the interior.

According to the National Register of Historic Places, founder and first president Henrietta Wells Livermore “imagined the club as a major force in educating newly enfranchised women voters. From the beginning, the club offered lectures and seminars, and a School of Politics.” But in a testament to its open mission, the club didn’t have a president for the first 15 years and was run by a collection of women.

Today, several different organizations also share the building including a physics club, and affiliate clubs including the Lambs Club, Squadron A Club, the Netherland Club and the Bond Club. Some other lesser known tidbits: there are affordable and spacious hotel rooms for the public for about $250/night. Mrs. Calvin Coolidge also personally donated the library, which is still called the Calvin Coolidge Library. And every Republican President of the United States has visited this building since it opened!

More photographs:

Check out more tours of exclusive locations on both Untapped Cities Tours and the New York Adventure Club. All photographs by Corey William Schneider of the New York Adventure Club.