CHAPTER THE SECOND

The First Club-house-Early Presidents of the Club

"Prince John" Van Buren

HE three leading clubs in New York City, when the Manhattan Club began to be considered and discussed, were the "Union," then on Bond Street, dating back to 1836; the "Century," then on Broome Street, founded in 1846, "for the cultivation of letters as well as social life, and to entertain and introduce strangers"; and the "Union League," organized in 1863 by New York Republicans, with its club-house on Madison Square.

The Manhattan aimed from its inception to take rank with these, and for forty years the four continued to be the most important organizations in the club life of New York.

It was on October 12, 1865, that the first businesslike steps were taken towards securing a suitable club-house, Mr. George T. Curtis, Judge Henry Hilton, and Mr. William F. Allen on that date being appointed a committee "to inquire and report in what mode this Club can be organized as a voluntary association until it can be organized as a corporation, and to present a plan for that purpose."

Ten days later, this committee, through Mr. Curtis, re

ported that, in its opinion, the new Club could not conveniently be organized under the law of the last legislature for incorporating similar institutions, as the law then stood, and it therefore recommended that, in addition to the organization already provided for by the Constitution, three trustees should be chosen to hold the titles of all real or personal property which might be acquired by the Club, these trustees, described as joint tenants, to give a declaration of trust to the Governing Committee that they held the property in trust for the use and occupation of the members of the Manhattan Club, or of those who might become members, in pursuance of its Constitution and By-Laws.

This Declaration of Trust was to be recorded in the minutes of the Governing Committee, the original copy to be held by the Secretary. Should a trustee resign or die, his remaining colleagues were to appoint his successor, a new conveyance to the Board of Trustees, as it then stood, being made by the surveyors and a new Declaration of Trust being given. All club property of a personal nature, except provisions and food stores, was to be held in this manner likewise, the trustees to convey all property thus held to any corporation into which the Club later might be organized.

This report being satisfactory, Judge Hilton was commissioned to conclude the purchase of the Benkard house, upon the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth Street, at a price not exceeding $110,000, Mr. Curtis at the same time being empowered to draw up a Declaration of Trust along the lines of the report of his committee.

Judge Hilton, John Van Buren, and William Butler Duncan were named as the three trustees, and Augustus Schell, treasurer pro tem., was instructed to send out notice to such Democrats as had accepted membership, announcing the taking of a club-house and requesting their checks for $200 to cover the initiation fee of $150 and the annual dues of $50. The first member to subscribe towards the purchase of

this club-house was Mr. August Belmont, who offered the sum of $10,000. Almost $55,000 was at once pledged as a consequence of Mr. Belmont's confidence in the future of the Club.

At the same time, the House Committee was named and asked to prepare a set of By-Laws for the use of the Club, which, presented and amended, on January 5 were, with the House Rules and Regulations, adopted.

The Rules of Order, adopted on December 11, were presented by Mr. Manton Marble, acting as secretary pro tem. Later, Mr. Marble, remembered as the one-time owner and editor of the New York "World," who made his home for many years at the old University Club, became president of the Manhattan Club, succeeding Judge Aaron J. Vanderpoel and serving from 1886 to 1888. Previous to that he acted as first secretary of the Club (1865-1876). Unfortunately, he was never what was termed "a regular" at the Club, but appeared only when some special occasion required. In the old days at "No. 96," as the new club-house came to be called, Mr. Marble, with William Henry Hurlbert, also of the "World," William C. Prime, Ben Wood, and James Brooks, represented the Press.

It was a current joke that the political trio, August Belmont, S. L. M. Barlow, and Samuel J. Tilden, with Manton Marble, edited the "World."

At the meeting of October 12 an appropriation had been made for the purchase of furnishings and other necessities, and so well did Judge Hilton and the House Committee do their work that, on November 7, the Managing Committee was able to hold its meeting in the dining-room of the new club-house. There were present Messrs. John Van Buren, William Butler Duncan, Augustus Schell, Manton Marble, Edward L. Corliss, Andrew H. Green, John T. Hoffman, George W. McLean, William F. Allen, Douglas Taylor, S. L. M. Barlow, with Mr. Hiram Cranston by invitation.

The Benkard house, from 1865 to 1890 the home of the Manhattan Club, is remembered by old New-Yorkers as a very handsome building with a fifty-foot frontage on Fifth Avenue and a large garden to the rear on Fifteenth Street. When arranged for club use, the first floor boasted a fine, spacious reading-room with windows commanding both the avenue and the street, a smaller apartment serving as a reception-room. In later years an innovation was made by enlarging the balcony to the rear on this floor, and summer visitors to New York in the late eighties can well remember Club members enjoying refreshments at the twenty or more tables of this delightful open-air dining-room.

Mr. Julius J. Lyons, in recalling the early years of the Club, tells us that there was then more sociability among the members than there is to-day; and if this be true, as it must be admitted to be, it implies that the early members were mainly personal friends, and that New York was very much smaller then than now.

The officers, once the Manhattan had its home, were authorized to procure a special act of incorporation for the Club, or such an amendment of the general act as would permit the same to be done. This, however, was not brought about until February, 1877.

The Manhattan, which had been organized in support of the new Chief Magistrate of the Nation, on March 12, 1866, elected Andrew Johnson an honorary member, and appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. John Van Buren, August Belmont, and Augustus Schell, to engage an artist to paint the President's portrait, it being the "earnest desire of the Club to adorn their walls with the representation of the form and lineaments of a statesman and patriot whose efforts to restore the peace and union of our distracted country and whose just and fearless rebukes of disunionists command and secure their unanimous, cordial, and enthusiastic approbation."