Now over a century old, the Columbia University Club dates back to 1901 when a group of two hundred young graduates met at Sherry’s Restaurant to form a club. The Club grew quickly and by 1910 had more than one thousand members and a large clubhouse at the corner of Irving Place and Gramercy Park South. The Gramercy Park clubhouse was a social center for many young graduates and many alumni events took place there in the early years of the twentieth century. Columbia College Dean J. Howard Van Amringe ‘60 was an important force in organizing the Club and served as its first president.
By 1915, the Columbia University Club had outgrown its quarters on Gramercy Park and was looking for a larger clubhouse in Midtown, where many other clubs were settling. The Club purchased the old Renaissance Hotel at 4 West 43rd Street and made extensive renovations to transform it into a fine clubhouse. The Club’s new quarters included an impressive dining room, a bar and grill, lounges, a library, a billiards room, a gym, squash courts and almost seventy-five bedrooms.
For many years, the clubhouse at 4 West 43rd Street was the center of Columbia alumni activities in New York and many class and athletics banquets and other events were regularly held there. The dining room, squash courts and bedrooms were constantly full and the Club played an important role in the lives of its members. During the 1920s, Club members were active squash players and won many championships, including the 1927 National Class A Squash Tennis Championship. By the end of the 1920s, the Club’s membership had reached almost three thousand. After that, the Club’s membership declined somewhat to hover in the low two thousand range.
The organizers of the Columbia University Club intended that it would be a source of support for the University, in addition to its role as a social center for alumni. Over the years, the Club has carried out this mission in many ways, including serving as an advocate for athletics and organizing the Columbia University Club scholarships. These scholarships, organized in 1926, have sent several hundred students to Columbia, including Jack Kerouac, the famous beat poet. In addition, beginning in the 1950s, the Club was home to the offices of official Columbia University fundraising efforts.
Many famous Columbia graduates have been members of the Club over the years, including William Barclay Parsons 1879 (chief engineer of the New York City Subway and Chairman of the Columbia Trustees), Frank Hogan ’24 (District Attorney of New York County and a Columbia Trustee), and Edmund Prentis ’06 (founder of the international engineering firm Spencer, White and Prentis). Columbia University presidents, from Nicholas Murray Butler and Dwight D. Eisenhower to George Rupp have been members of the Club as well.
The Columbia University Club began to struggle in the 1960s, an era of diminished alumni involvement, student unrest and deep problems for New York City. By 1973, the Club was no longer considered a viable institution and the clubhouse at 4 West 43rd Street was sold to the World Unification Church.
However, interest in a Columbia alumni club in New York City did not altogether disappear and began to increase in the 1980s. During this time, the Club was reconstituted and found shelter at the National Women’s Republican Club, the Williams Club and then, beginning in 1998, at the Princeton Club, just across the street from its old home. Now, in 2005, there is a renewed interest among both young and old alumni in a strong and vibrant alumni club for Columbia in New York City.
