{"nrhp_refnum":"80002706","name":"Old Colony Club","other_names":["American Academy of Dramatic Arts"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"120 Madison Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.74551410000004,"lon":-73.98462647399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-04-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A five-story Georgian Revival clubhouse at 120 Madison Avenue near East 30th Street in Manhattan, designed in 1904 by Kendall and Baldwin of McKim, Mead & White and built 1905-08 for the Colony Club, a women's club.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an outstanding example of Georgian Revival architecture by a renowned firm, with delicate details and unusual all-header brickwork devised by Stanford White. It was the first clubhouse built by a women's organization in New York City. Its interiors were the first commission of Elsie de Wolfe, regarded as America's first interior decorator.","narrative":"Built between 1905 and 1908 on Madison Avenue near East 30th Street, this five-story brick clubhouse was designed for the Colony Club, a private women's club founded by prominent social and civic leaders. Kendall and Baldwin of McKim, Mead & White designed it under Stanford White's supervision, adapting domestic Georgian architecture to a larger institutional building. Its brick is laid with only headers, and the facade carries a carved stone balustrade, French doors and a fanlighted entrance. The club offered a swimming pool, gymnasium, restaurants, bedrooms and a roof garden, and it was the first New York women's organization to build its own clubhouse. Elsie de Wolfe decorated the interiors, her first commission. The Colony Club later moved to Park Avenue. In 1963 the American Academy of Dramatic Arts bought the building, restored the exterior, remodeled the interior and made it a school and theater. Few original interior features remain apart from the front main-floor rooms.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"McKim, Mead & White (Kendall & Baldwin)","architectural_style":"Georgian Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in educational use as the home and school of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; exterior restored and interior largely remodeled in 1963; condition listed as excellent.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.023904-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002706.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002706/dc4e66d301-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002706/dc4e66d301-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Beyond My Ken","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AADA_Colony_Club.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Beyond My Ken</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AADA_Colony_Club.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319800","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Club","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q964460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/old-colony-club-80002706/"}