Penn Club of New York

The Penn Club of New York (usually referred to as Penn Club) is an American 501(c)7 not-for-profit, private social club located on Clubhouse Row in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The club's 14-story building, which is a designated landmark, is located at 30 West 44th Street and initially was occupied by The Yale Club of New York City.

For 2023-2024, the Penn Club was named to the list of the Top 50 City Clubs and was rank the second-best city club in New York City by Platinum Clubs of America.

History
In November 1886, the first local group of University of Pennsylvania alumni outside of Philadelphia was formed in New York over dinner at Delmonico's Restaurant. At the alumni group's annual banquet at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in January 1900, they presented a plan to secure "a convenient suite of rooms in the middle of the city, adjacent to a cafe."

Royalton Hotel (W. 44th Street)
On October 6, 1900, the Penn Club of New York opened in four groundfloor rooms in the Royalton Hotel, just 200 ft next door to today's clubhouse. It soon had more than 150 members at a time when only 400 alumni lived in the New York area, and received its charter from the New York Legislature in 1901.

Hotel Stanley (W. 47th Street)
In 1905, the Club moved to "new and commodious quarters" in Hotel Stanley at 124 West 47th Street, where it remained until 1910. Between 1911 and 1922 (during World War I), the club temporarily did away with a clubhouse, instead focusing on their annual banquet.

Townhouses (E. 50th Street)
In 1922, after a three-year search, the club's directors leased two townhouses on East 50th Street, next to today's New York Palace Hotel. Throughout the 1920s, the Penn Club on East 50th Street was active and successful. Its dining and guest rooms were regularly filled and its dinners and programs were highly attended. During the Great Depression in 1935, it vacated its townhouses.

Cornell Club, Phi Gamma Delta Club, and Biltmore Hotel (E. 38th-W. 56th Streets)
Thereafter, it shared space in the Cornell Club formerly on East 38th Street, moved to two other clubs, and landed in the Phi Gamma Delta Club on West 56th Street, where it remained until 1961, when it moved to the Biltmore Hotel. The Club stayed in the Biltmore Hotel until the hotel was gutted and made an office tower in 1981 by Paul Milstein.

Former Yale Club at 30 West 44th Street
The Penn Club's next clubhouse was at 30 West 44th Street, developed for the Yale Club of New York City and opened on May 1, 1901. The Yale Club occupied the clubhouse until 1915. The building was next occupied by the newly-organized Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Army and Navy Club of America, the federal government of the United States, the Organized Reserve Corps of the Army, the Army Reserve School, and Touro College.

In 1989, university trustees bought the then-11 story building at 30 West 44th Street for $15 million. After raising an additional $25 million from 50 alumni (including $150,000+ donations each from Estee Lauder heirs Leonard Lauder and Ronald Lauder, billionaire Saul Steinberg, Milken Institute founder Michael Milken, and Ronald Perelman ) to commission David P. Helpern Architects for two years of renovation including a three-level addition for its current 14-story building, the Penn Club Of New York moved to its current location on West 44th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, opening its owned-doors to annual dues-paying members in 1994. Penn alumni Bennett Weinstock and Judie Weinstock imported numerous furniture pieces for the clubhouse, including brass chandeliers, walnut tables, and vases.

30 West 44th Street was the first university clubhouse in New York City to be designed as a high-rise structure. All prior, multi-story clubhouses (i.e. the University Club of New York) were designed as low-rise buildings. Designed by Tracy and Swartwout in the Beaux-Arts style, the ornately decorated facade is made of brick, Indiana limestone, and architectural terracotta by the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Company. The first two stories are clad with rusticated limestone blocks, while the upper stories are largely clad with brick and terracotta. Above the base, the facade is split into a six-story midsection, a three-story mansard roof, and a three-story setback penthouse.

Dues-based
All dues-paying members have access to the high-rise, 14-story clubhouse, including its Benjamin Franklin Room (named after the university's founder), featuring a 24/7 private library for book loans, piano, fireplace, and paintings of former Penn leaders such as Franklin and Amy Gutmann on oak-paneled walls. The business center has coworking spaces, while the Palestra Fitness Center and yoga studio (costing a gym membership fee until 2020) has a city-view to the 13th floor-terrace. Penn Club has a members-only website and app directory, with committees for member networking. These areas are inclusive as they are unstaffed.

Charge account-based
Other services charged to member accounts include meeting room rentals, bars on event room floors, and two restaurants: the two-story, fine dining room (which requires a jacket for men) featuring a dancing foyer and balcony for musicians; and themed Grill Room, accessed by a spiral marble staircase beneath the foyer, featuring a mahogany bar, recreation of the Old King Cole mural, Penn memorabilia, other furnishings, and a sushi chef. Both can be rented out for events.

Hotel rooms
Members and their sponsored guests can also rent 39 guestrooms on five floors, each themed to different alumni accomplishments.

Social networking on Clubhouse Row and worldwide
The club offers cross-registration for All-Ivy events hosted by neighboring clubs, while holding annual events including the All-Ivy New Year's Eve Party and members-only celebrations on all major holidays managed by staff, with regular social networking events in professional and personal subjects managed by member committees. All events are ticketed.

The Penn Club is located on Clubhouse Row along with the Harvard Club of New York City (est. 1888) at 27 West 44th, the New York Yacht Club (est. 1899) at 37 West 44th, the Yale Club of New York City (est. 1915) on East 44th, and the Cornell Club of New York (est. 1989) at 6 East 44th.

Under a reciprocity agreement, members have access to Yale Club squash courts (featured and referenced for its exclusivity in Billions S2E8, "The Kingmaker") and 150+ reciprocal private clubs worldwide, including the Harvard Club of Boston, Union League Club of Chicago, yacht clubs, country clubs, and golf clubs.

On the same block, the New York City Bar Association Building and Royalton Hotel are to the west, while the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Building, the Century Association Clubhouse, and Hotel Mansfield are to the east. Other buildings on the street include the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Sofitel New York hotels to the northwest, and Aeolian Building, Salmon Tower Building, 500 Fifth Avenue, and 510 Fifth Avenue on the block immediately to the south. A Penn Club spokesperson said 30 West 44th Street was selected for its proximity to Manhattan's Theater District, Grand Central Terminal, and other alumni clubhouses.

Membership
Penn Club membership requires applications, initiation fees, annual dues, and charge accounts, and are restricted to alumni, faculty, and students of drinking age of the University of Pennsylvania, with a shortlist of schools able to share club access as affiliate members, including Princeton University and Columbia University (in effect causing the building to house three of the eight Ivies), along with some other U.S. News & World Report-high ranked schools: MIT, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt University, Emory University, New York University, Williams College, Villanova University, and Fordham University.

The Princeton Club of New York (est. 1963) formerly at 15 West 43rd whose members and part of the staff were absorbed and now belong to the Penn Club as in-residence, following a previous visiting reciprocity agreement between the Princeton-Penn Clubs before Princeton's went out of business during COVID. A Princeton Club donor-turned-Penn Club member stated, "If the club were to somehow rise from the dead and reopen, I would not rejoin on a dare." The club offers legacy membership admissions to spouses, adult children, and adult grandchildren of Penn-affiliated members for the same financial requirements.

With more than 5,000 members around the world, The Penn Club is controlled by its annual due-paying members and professionally managed by staff, although the University of Pennsylvania owns the clubhouse building and leases it to the club, a 501(c)7 not-for-profit entity. Penn's development and alumni relations department maintains a regional office in the clubhouse.

Notable members

 * Donald Trump (Wharton '68, transferred after two years at Fordham)—donated $100,000 to the Penn Club of New York in 1996 (the same year Don Jr. '00 gained Penn admission), 45th U.S. President

In popular culture

 * In the first episode of Season 5 of The Apprentice, the winning team was rewarded with lunch with Donald Trump at the Penn Club.