The Brook

The Brook, also called the Brook Club, is a private gentlemen's club located at 111 East 54th Street in Manhattan (New York City).

It was founded in 1903 by a group of prominent men who belonged to other New York City private clubs, such as the Knickerbocker Club, Union Club, and Metropolitan Club. [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9400E4D91E30E733A25751C0A9629C946297D6CF New Club is Launched] , "The New York Times", April 2, 1903] The name is derived from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem "The Brook", whose lines "For men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever," were consistent with the intention that the club would provide 24-hour service and would never close its doors. In 1992, Anthony Lejeune wrote that the name was "supposed to mean that the club is always open and the conversation flows on forever," but that "neither is strictly true." [ [http://www.city-journal.org/article02.php?aid=1571 A Tour of New York's Clubland] , by Anthony Lejeune, "City Journal", Winter 1992]

When the club was formed, it was announced that membership was only by private invitation and would be limited to 100 men. New York City residents who were not club members would not be admitted as guests. In 1954 the membership was 400 men.

The club's building, erected in 1925, was designed by the architecture firm of Delano & Aldrich. [ [http://www.nyc-architecture.com/ARCH/ARCH-Delano-Aldrich.htm Streetscapes/The Architecture of Delano & Aldrich; How an Upper-Class Firm Tweaked Classical Norms] by Christopher Gray, April 27, 2003]

Presidents

*Center Hitchcock 1903 - 1908
*Robert R. Perkins 1908 - 1919
*Percy R. Paine 2nd 1919 - 1935
*George Eustis Paine 1935 - 1945
*Charles H. Marshall 1945 - 1952
*James Bruce 1952 - 1961
*Augustus G. Paine 1961 - 1971
*Richard T. Frick, Jr. 1971 -

Notable members

*Winthrop W. Aldrich
*Fred Astaire - He wore a Brook Club hatband in the 1953 film "The Band Wagon" [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1954/1/1954_1_28.shtml The Great Club Revolution] , by Cleveland Amory, "American Heritage Magazine", December 1954, Volume 6, Issue 1]
*Vincent Astor
*Charles Auchincloss
*Oliver Belmont
*Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands
*Michael R. Bloomberg - He resigned his membership before becoming a candidate for Mayor of New York. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E2D61F3AF936A15754C0A9679C8B63 Bloomberg Quietly Left Four Mostly White Clubs] , by Dean E. Murphy, "The New York Times", July 25, 2001]
*Sir Eric Bowater
*Arleigh A. Burke
*Harry Cushing IV
*Sir Patrick Dean
*Biddle Drexel
*William DuPont
*Angier Biddle Duke
*Marshall Field, Jr.
*Harvey Firestone, Jr.
*Henry Clay Frick
*J. Borden Harriman
*William Randolph Hearst, Jr.
*Henry Heinz II
*Admiral James L. Holloway III [http://www.history.navy.mil/bios/holloway_j.htm]
*John F. Kennedy
*William Ketcham, Jr.
*Alfred Lee Loomis, Jr.
*Forrest Mars
*Ogden Mills
*J Pierpont Morgan
*J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr.
*David Naylor-Leyland
*Robert Montgomery
*Lester B. Pearson
*Claiborne Pell
*George Plimpton
*Laurence Rockefeller
*Benno Schmidt
*Sir David Stirling
*Eugene V. R. Thayer
*Oakleigh Thorne
*Martin Van Beuren
*Cornelius Vanderbilt
*Harold S. Vanderbilt
*William K. Vanderbilt II [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9905E3DF1539E733A25751C2A96F9C946897D6CF W.K. Vanderbilt, Jr., and Wife Parted?] , "The New York Times", September 22, 1909]
*Rodman Wanamaker II
*Harry Payne Whitney
*George Widener

ee also

* List of American gentlemen's clubs

References