The History of The Clubhouse

The new home of the Friars Club at 57 East 55th Street, New York City, was known from the time of its construction in 1909 to its sale in 1937 as the Martin Erdmann Residence. It is a five-storied English Renaissance house, which was considered by contemporary critics a capable, daring, and clever work of architecture.

The decade in which it was erected was one of tremendous building activity on the part of wealthy merchants, manufacturers, and bankers, such as Andrew Carnegie, William Payne Whitney, the Astor's, O. H. Havemeyer, Edward S. Harkness, F. W. Woolworth, and many others, all of whom built palatial residences. Occasionally the result was "a noble monument to the derivative genius of some American architect trained in Europe and given freedom to create."

The late Mr. Martin Erdmann, a partner in the dissolved Speyer Corporation, international investment bankers, a bachelor, and a collector of English mezzotints, engaged the architectural firm of Taylor and Levi in 1908 to build a home for himself with his valuable art collection.' Erdmann had purchased two plots of ground on East 55th Street each having a frontage of sixteen and one-half feet and occupied by 'Xinctccn of the mezzotints from the Erdmann Collection were acquired by the British Museum in 1937.

A four-story brownstone house which was torn down to make room for the new structure. The location was in a fine residential section which had been guaranteed a dignified development by the inclusion of restrictive clauses in all the property deeds, forbidding the establishing of such nuisances as livery stables, breweries, tanneries, forge or blacksmith shops, glue factories, ink or vitriol manufactories, and others of equally noisome character. These restrictions still remain in the deed acquired by the Friars Club.

The floor plan of the house was conditioned by the needs of a bachelor client rather than by the needs of a family and hence it differed somewhat from the conventional residence. After the plan had been approved, the architects made sketches for the facade in several styles including the Georgian, the Colonial, the Elizabethan, and the English Renaissance. The client chose the English Renaissance and the work of designing the interior in that style was begun. The architects were commissioned to design everything which was to go into the house including not only the paneling, the designs for the carving of the balustrades, moldings, cornices, doors and doorframes, the chandeliers, and iron work, but also the interior furnishings and draperies. As Mr. Levi, one of the architects, puts it, "We designed everything but the mezzotints and the oriental rugs." Three years passed from the time of the drawing of the first sketch to the completion of the furnishing.' All together, the sketches, designs, and working drawings filled eighty-five bulging port-folios. Everything in the house Is real and genuine; neither Mr. Erdmann nor the architect’s worlds tolerate any shams or imitations.
The house is spacious, well built, and well preserved. It contains a wealth of beautiful architectural detail worthy of study, from the vaulted ceiling of its dignified marble entrance hall to the minutest detail of wood carving in the wall panels or in the magnificent railing.

'As a matter of record, a complete list of the builders is given here. The General Contractor was Mark Eidlitz and Son, well-known in New York as builder of fine houses. The following special contractors were employed: Heating, Johnson and Morris; Plumbing, James F. Gross & Company; Electric Installation, Western Electric Company; Elevator, Otis Elevator Company; Limestone for facade, from B. A. and G. M. Williams; Marble work, Traitel Marble Company; Leaded Glass, Harry Knox Smith; Lighting Fixtures (fixtures were executed from the architect's drawings), Sterling Bronze Company; Plaster (plaster forms made from molded designs created by the architects), Klee Thompson; Hardware, Russell and Irwin, Fritaine Cie., Paris, Krassner, Boston; Metal Sash, imported by Wragge from Draper in England; Cabinet work, A. J. Crawford; Floors, G. W. Koch and Son; Tile, William H. Jackson.

The library of Martin Erdmann. Furnishing and art objects were sold by the Estate at Mr. Erdmann's death leading from the second to the third floors. The decoration is never "fussy," overdone, nor effeminate. With a preponderance of oak paneling of simple design, and with restraint in the use of decorative pattern, the house is truly masculine in character. It gives promise of enduring a long time with a minimum of attention.

Two farsighted provisions of the original owner will benefit the Friars Club. One is the care which was taken to make the building completely fireproof. According to the architects, it is "the most fireproof residence in Manhattan" and incidentally gave the banker-client the lowest possible fire insurance rate. The other was the provision not only of a complete furnace system but also all the necessary arrangement for the utilization of steam heat supplied by the New York Steam Company.

Staircase leading from second to third floors.

The latter provision, which was not at all usual at the time the house was built, will eliminate the handling of fuel and ashes on the premises.
After Mr. Erdmann's death, his estate, in 1937, sold the house to Mr. Frederick Brown, 3 a prominent New York real estate broker, who bought it as an investment and who held it until the American Institute of Physics purchased it in August, 1943. Mr. Paul S. Dixon, broker of the Equity Conservation Corporation, located the house along with three or four others.

'Mr. Brown has very kindly loaned to the Friar's Club several fine photographs of the house as it was when occupied by Mr. Erdmann.

The new home of the Friars is situated in what is known to real estate brokers as a protected area. All around it are developments which preclude the possibility of the neighborhood's becoming a blighted area for some time. Close by are Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue, Grand Central Station, Park Avenue, and Central Park, all guarantees of high land values in that section. All these developments have risen within the past one hundred years. Fifth Avenue which a century ago was called Middle Road above Forty-Second Street, has changed from country land, to fashionable residential street, to fashionable business avenue. Park Avenue which covers a double-deck railroad yard to a point near Fifty-Ninth Street did not become synonymous with luxury until after the First World War, when it was discovered that tall apartment buildings could be made free from vibration of railroads by anchoring them to the rocks far below the tracks. Rockefeller Center, begun in 1930 as an example of urban planning for the future, necessitated the tearing down of two hundred-odd buildings on its site. Grand Central Terminal was opened in 1871 in its present location, and Central Park has lent prestige to the north-central section of Manhattan since its construction in 1857. The house at 57 East 55th Street located close to the center of this favored area benefits by the proximity of these great investments.

That section of Manhattan has been described as a quarter of old mansions, air-conditioned apartments, exclusive clubs, luxurious hotels, fabulous penthouses; of great churches and museums; of art galleries, antique shops and specialty stores; of high priced cafes, cocktail lounges, night clubs.

The Erdmann Residence, formally opened as the Friars Club House during November, 1957, assumes a new and important role. With its distinguished past and promising future, it should remain an interesting and prominent landmark for many decades.

In 2004 - The City of New York named the South East Corner of 55th Street " Friars Way"