Colony Club
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Old Colony Club
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The original Colony Club building in 2010
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| Location | 120 Madison Ave., New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°44′44″N 73°59′5.6″W / 40.74556°N 73.984889°WCoordinates: 40°44′44″N 73°59′5.6″W / 40.74556°N 73.984889°W |
| Built | 1904 |
| Architect | McKim,Mead & White; Kendall & Baldwin |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival, Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 80002706 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 23, 1980 |
| Designated NYCL | May 17, 1966 |
The Colony Club is a women-only private social club in New York City. Founded in 1903 by Florence Jaffray Harriman, wife of J. Borden Harriman, as the first social club established in New York City by and for women, it was modeled on similar clubs for men. Today, men are admitted as guests.
The club and the street in front of it were often the site of large suffrage rallies sponsored by the Equal Franchise Society to which many members of the Club belonged.
With other wealthy women, including Anne Tracy Morgan (a daughter of J.P. Morgan), Harriman raised $500,000, and commissioned Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White to build the original clubhouse, later known as the "Old Colony Club". This building – at 120 Madison Avenue, between East 30th and East 31st Streets on the west side of Madison – was built between 1904 and 1908 and was modelled on eighteenth-century houses in Annapolis, Maryland.
The interiors, which exist largely unchanged and have been accorded the landmark status, were created by Elsie de Wolfe – later to become Lady Mendl – a former actress who had recently opened an interior-design business, and whose companion, the theatrical agent Elisabeth Marbury, was one of the club's founders. Stanford White was slain by Harry K. Thaw months before construction of the Colony Club was completed. The building was designed in the Federal Revival style, and has unusual brickwork done in a diaper pattern as a notable feature of its facade.
The Old Colony Club was sold after the club moved to its new location in 1916. Today, the building houses the East Coast headquarters of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. It was awarded landmark status by the City of New York in 1966.
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