Salmagundi Club, 47 Fifth Avenue
The last remaining fully intact brownstone on this stretch of Fifth Avenue and the only one south of Harlem, 47 Fifth Avenue was built for Irad Hawley, a prosperous coal merchant. In its use of brownstone cladding, generous proportions, high stoop, bold cornice and simple but vigorous details it is practically a textbook example of the style – New York’s first unique architectural type.
Since 1917, 47 Fifth has housed the Salmagundi Club, one of the nation’s oldest artists’ clubs. Founded in 1870, the club’s roster has counted Louis Comfort Tiffany, architect Stanford White, sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens, painter Childe Hassim and illustrator N.C. Wyeth among its members. The basement bar features a unique Black Forest Gothic motif; otherwise the interiors are chiefly original to the elegant 1847 design.
The Salmagundi Club is open periodically to the public for shows of work by current members.