The home of the Friars Club–called the Monastery­–located in midtown Manhattan, 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 critics at the time as a capable, daring and a clever work of architecture.

Martin Erdmann, an investment banker, was a bachelor and a collector of English mezzotints who engaged the architectural firm of Taylor and Levi in 1908 to build his home. A four-story brownstone house was torn down to make room for the new structure.

The property deed forbids 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 architects were commissioned to design everything for the house including the paneling, the designs for the carving of the balustrades, moldings, cornices, doors and doorframes, the chandeliers and ironwork, plus the interior furnishings and draperies. As Levi put it, “We designed everything but the mezzotints and the oriental rugs.”

The house is spacious, well built and well preserved. It contains a wealth of beautiful architectural detail 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 of the winding staircases. According to the architects, it is “the most fireproof residence in Manhattan.”

After Mr. Erdmann's death in 1937 the house was sold to Frederick Brown, a prominent New York real estate broker, who held it until the American Institute of Physics purchased it in August 1943.

The Erdmann Residence formally opened as the Friars Club Monastery in November 1957 with their Abbot Joe E. Lewis leading a parade from their former Monastery around the block. They held street performances similar to their early Friars Frolics that included minstrel shows and comedy routines. In a symbolic gesture Lewis flung the keys to the front door into the street the same way that George M. Cohan had done when the Friars moved into a previous Monastery in 1916 to symbolize that the doors would always be open.