Falconwood Club
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| Formation | 1858 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Lewis F. Allen |
| Extinction | c. 1920s (burned down) |
| Headquarters | Grand Island, New York |
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Membership
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Private |
The Falconwood Club was a club and resort in the 1800s for the wealthy families of Buffalo on Grand Island in New York
On June 19, 1858, the Falconwood Club, located near the head of the island, was organized by Lewis F. Allen, uncle to President Grover Cleveland. The club took its name from the eagles and hawks which nested in the surrounding trees. Allen had subdivided the property he owned on Grand Island and built the Club. At the time, it was called the "Allen Mansion," but it emerged as a public resort.
By June 1865, Falconwood was closed to the public as it had become the property of the "Falconwood House Company." The group was called "The Falconwood Club" and two log houses. Falconwood continued to flourish as one of the most popular of the Grand Island clubs of the last quarter of the 19th century. Each member was allowed two weeks at the club every summer under the terms of the membership. For the most part, the week days were stag affairs. Families would spend their summer weekends at the club, with businessmen making the daily run to Buffalo and back on a launch, which would drop them in the center of the city at the foot of Main Street.
Near the turn of the century, Falconwood became the property of George E. Matthews, of the Buffalo Courier-Express (who died in 1911). Under his ownership, the house continued to serve as a private club and estate for his family and friends until it was destroyed by fire in the twenties.
The Falconwood Club clubhouse was built in 1882 and designed by Joseph Lyman Silsbee, a prominent architect of the time who studied at the first school of architecture in the United States, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is purported that the original cost of building and outfitting Falconwood was $13,000 (equivalent to $360,000 in 2016).
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