{"nrhp_refnum":"80002707","name":"Old Grolier Club","other_names":["Kiamie,Gilbert,House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"29 E. 32nd St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.746396435000065,"lon":-73.98354702499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-04-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Literature","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A three-story Romanesque Revival clubhouse at 29 East 32nd Street in midtown Manhattan, built in 1890 of Roman brick and stone and designed by architect Charles W. Romeyn.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an exceptionally fine small clubhouse in a highly original version of the Romanesque Revival style. It solves the restrictive 25-foot lot with inventive window grouping, bold arches and restrained ornament. It was also the home of the Grolier Club, a literary society devoted to the book arts, and was Romeyn's only clubhouse design in New York City.","narrative":"Built in 1890 at 29 East 32nd Street, this three-story clubhouse in Manhattan was designed by Charles W. Romeyn for the Grolier Club, a literary society founded in 1884 to study and promote the book arts. Romeyn worked within a conventional twenty-five-foot lot, using Roman brick and stone as the main ornament. Two linked arches mark the ground story, a central arched window with flanking narrow windows animates the second floor, and a terra-cotta cornice crowns the top. Theodore DeVinne, a printer, chaired the building committee, and a salamander relief, symbol of François I, decorates the ground-floor arches. Inside were a lecture and exhibition hall, social and reading rooms, and a library. The club left in 1917 for East Sixtieth Street. The building keeps its original first-floor plan, fireplace, stairway and moldings. It is valued as a small, inventive example of Romanesque Revival design and as Romeyn's only New York clubhouse.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Charles W. Romeyn","architectural_style":"Romanesque Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in commercial use as a photography studio; upper floors were being renovated for living and office space, and the interior retains many original features.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.345984-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002707.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002707/00230eede1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002707/00230eede1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"This photo was taken by participant/team Sheila as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project on April 4, 2008. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 truetrue","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WTM_sheila_0067.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">This photo was taken by participant/team Sheila as part of the Commons:Wikipedia Takes Manhattan project on April 4, 2008. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. You are free: to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work to remix – to adapt the work Under the following conditions: attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0CC BY-SA 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 truetrue</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WTM_sheila_0067.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319802","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/29_East_32nd_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2879677"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/old-grolier-club-80002707/"}