What Is The Harvard Club of New York City?

A Harvard education comes with many perks, including access to exclusive professional opportunities, access to a network of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world, and access to a group of exclusive alumni clubs throughout the world. The crown jewel of these alumni clubs is the Harvard Club of NYC found in Midtown, Manhattan. Harvard alumni, faculty, and board members are exclusively eligible for membership. Located in an 1894 neo-Georgian style club house on one of the most bustling streets in the City, “club row,” the Harvard Club of NYC calls many other elite university alumni clubs neighbors, including the Yale Club, the Penn Club, and the Cornell Club.

A Brief History of the Harvard Club of NYC

Even though NYC-based Harvard alumni congregated in 1865 in what is considered the first inaugural meeting of the Harvard Club of NYC, it wouldn’t be until 1887 that they found a clubhouse to rent in lower Manhattan. As interest in the club grew, famous society architect Charles Follen McKim was commissioned to build the new Midtown clubhouse at 27 W. 44th Street in 1894 to accommodate the growing membership. In the subsequent decades, the clubhouse would expand to include such lavish amenities as a pool room, a hotel, a rooftop bar, a ballroom, and athletic facilities.

The club was initially all-male, but after a series of gender discrimination lawsuits filed by female graduate school alumni, the club fully integrated in 1973 (shortly before Harvard itself would begin its merger with the all-female Radcliffe College). Today, the Harvard Club welcomes all alumni of any of Harvard’s schools, and club members enjoy reciprocal membership benefits at all other Harvard alumni clubs across the world. Dues are calculated using a sliding scale that takes into account a member’s proximity to the club and years since graduation from Harvard.

Why Membership at the Harvard Club of NYC is a Flex

Entering into the Harvard Club of NYC is like entering into a more old-fashioned world where the rich and powerful still dress in the country club preppy style, still eat decadent meat and potatoes fare, and still go on exotic hunting trips. We’re not kidding — the Harvard Club boasts such problematic treasures as real taxidermied elephant, rhinoceros, and lion heads. The new members who explore the winding hallways and historic nooks and crannies of the sprawling facility will come across an impressive collection of historical paraphernalia and art.

The amenities and uses of the Harvard Club mimic the amenities and uses of many of the most exclusive clubs on campus proper. New York City has one thing in common with Cambridge, MA: space is at an all-time premium, and one’s access to it is a symbol of prestige. Members go to the club to dine, exercise, sleep, and attend conferences and classes. Occasionally, lavish events and fundraisers are housed in the club’s opulent ballroom, which draw some of the biggest and richest names in the Harvard alumni dockets. 

On an average day at the Harvard Club, you might come across a group of esteemed faculty discussing the next frontier of research at one of the bars, a family with legacy status enjoying a meal together, a group of recent alumni awed by the imposing architecture, and a printmaking class showing off the final projects they have tried to perfect each week in a club conference room. In one of the many libraries or reading rooms, you might come across students or workers taking advantage of the peace and quiet to get some work done. 

Perhaps the biggest flex for members is their ability to use the Harvard Club as a sanctuary away from home. The bustle of New York is left at the door, but members get to look on from the floor-to-ceiling windows and feel superior to the rabble walking along the street. If this sounds elitist, it is! The Harvard Club is the physical embodiment of the access and privilege with which Harvard alumni move through the world.