Racquet and Tennis Club

This building was actually designed by WS Richardson since by 1917 Charles McKim and Stanford White had died and William Mead had retired. Twice as high as Park Avenue was wide and adorned by a frieze of racquets, this was one of New York`s great gilded age clubhouses. Naturally, the Club only admitted gentlemen of a certain social pedigree who smoked cigars, swum naked in its pool, and snoozed in the oversize furniture in the baronial fourth floor after a challenging game of racquets or court tennis. It still has the distinction of never admitting women.

According to the NY Times, “in the late 1970s the club was the scene of another contest, perhaps the biggest game of real estate ''chicken'' ever played in New York. The Fisher Brothers acquired the midblock site behind the Racquet Club for a new office building, Park Avenue Plaza. The developers approached the club about a possible entrance through its building, but no deal was consummated. “The Racquet Club retaliated by planning to construct a 38 story hotel over its building effectively blocking the views from the office building. It ended when the air rights were sold for $5 million to the Fisher Brothers.