Domiciled in New York City, Henry and I now call the Knickerbocker Club our “home”. We sold our apartment in the Financial District 2007 after selling the country house in Litchfield County, Connecticut in 1999. Having rid ourselves of major furnishings, we were able to store our minor household goods, then travel around the world with no concerns about property or possessions. Henry and I were dubbed “Vagabonds de Luxe” by a French guest at Como Shambala in Bali where Henry and I continued to assume our role as explorers of this wide world. We have adventured back “Stateside” only twice: once in 2010 for a wedding in Maine, and this time for the 60th reunion of Henry’s class at St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Massachusetts near Boston. On this first New York City visit in more than four years, we stayed happily at the Knickerbocker Club on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 62nd Street, with a view of the lush greenery of Central Park. Henry has been a member of the club for about 45 years, and I, as his wife, have enjoyed the club’s many social events for at least the past twenty years. The Knickerbocker Club was organized in 1871, and its third home, a beautiful red brick Georgian-styled building, was designed by the architects Delano and Aldrich, completed in 1915.  Always elegant, and comfortably formal, this is the meeting place of many of our dear friends. Though Henry and I decided not to host a cocktail party here during this brief New York visit, we nevertheless saw many people whom we have dearly missed, present here for other gatherings. Being conveniently in mid-town allowed us to walk to our many appointments, errands, shopping forays, and delightful dinners outside the club, walking almost everywhere.

PHOTOS: Top 3: (L-R) View of Fifth Avenue looking south from the corner of 62nd Street & Fifth Avenue. Middle 2: View of the Member’s Only Reading Room. R: View of the red brick Georgian style façade of the Knickerbocker Club building, c. 1915.  Bottom 2: L: Elegant stairway. R: The stairway as viewed from the 3rd floor to the Ground level.

JOURDAN ARPELLE-ZIEGLER                                        BACK TO MAP  PAGE