Upper West Side Women's Club Recommended For Historic Recognition

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A pioneering residential arts club for women is primed for historic recognition.

The Upper West Side building that once housed the Three Arts Club was named by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week as one of the more than a dozen spots across the state she'll seek to add to the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

For over two decades, the building at 340 West 85th St., between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, was home to the Three Arts Club.

Emily Vanderbilt Sloane served as the club's president for 43 years, according to her obituary.

"The club," reads a New York Times article covering its 1927 opening at the West 85th Street building, "which has private rooms for 153 students, and a long waiting list of applicants, was organized to provide a home and club for young women studying music, drama and the fine arts."

It also served as a major community hub for hundreds of non-resident members and included a ground-floor auditorium, a rooftop painting studio, a cafeteria and a "richly paneled" library donated by Frederick Vanderbilt, according to the New York Times.

“New York is defined by its diverse culture and history, and we are continuing efforts to preserve and protect our state's inspiring stories,” Hochul said. “During Women’s History Month, several of the sites we’re recommending for our historic registers highlight the contributions women have made to New York State – from the Three Arts Club in New York City to the former house of children’s book illustrator Eloise Wilkin."

Hochul added that she hopes the addition of the sites will encourage "the public to learn more about our past."

In addition to the historic designations, the listing makes the sites eligible for various public preservation programs, including matching state grants and federal and state historic rehabilitation tax grants.

The eight-story building was designed by architect George Bruno de Gersdorff and was organized to house the artists in a single-room occupancy model.

Over two decades earlier in 1902, the Three Arts Club was founded in New York City by Jane Harris Hall, a deaconess of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was inspired by a women's club in Paris called the American Girls' Club, according to the New York Times archive. It was first located on Lexington Avenue and East 63rd Street.

The club later moved to West 56th Street, housing six women total, then to several Upper West Side addresses, like 536 and, later, 338 and 340 West End Ave.

At some point between 1909 and 1912, the club moved to the previous building at 340 West 85th Street until it began planning for the present eight-story elevator building in 1926.

In 1912, former president Theodore Roosevelt attended a reception at the old club building on West 85th Street as an honored guest, according to the New York Times. It was written that during his attendance, "nearly all of the guests, numbering about 300, had shaken hands with him."

In November 1927, the new building — the one that stands today — was officially opened.

The club formally closed in 1952 after 48 years of giving refuge to women artists, citing financial difficulties.

For 60 years afterwards, the building was a women-only single-room-occupancy called the Brandon Residence for Women, according to the West Side Rag.

The building was sold in 2017 to the West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing and is slated to be redeveloped as senior affordable housing.