The architecture of gentlemen's clubs in New York city: a study of gender and class in America, 1879-1909

Thesis

This thesis is about America’s most famous architects and, frankly speaking, some of their least famous buildings. It is a study of the firm of McKim, Mead & White and the gentlemen’s clubhouses it built in New York City around the turn of the twentieth century. Though obscure, I argue, these buildings were of equal if not greater significance—architecturally as well as socially—than many of the firm’s more noted projects. While McKim, Mead & White’s pavilions at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Madison Square Garden, and Pennsylvania Station have all been demolished, the great majority of the firm’s clubhouses are still extant, occupied by the same organisations that commissioned them more than a century ago. My aim here is to explore how McKim, Mead & White designed these places, what social function they served for their clients, and where they fit within the larger story of this fabled architectural firm.

Authors: Joyce, HH

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-bp25jpmja
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford