Open House New York: Salmagundi Club

The last intact brownstone on Fifth Avenue contains the Salmagundi Club, an art club founded in 1871 in Greenwich Village. It was one of the sites we visited for Open House New York (in addition to the Green-Wood mausoleums which I previously blogged about.) It’s a really beautiful space and has some of that 19th century elegance that has vanished from much of New York. Our tour took us through many of the rooms of the club. Here are some photographic highlights:

The salon area downstairs had rotating selections from the club’s permanent collection and beautiful marble fireplaces.

Here is a closer look at one of the two fireplaces in the salon.

The library not only had an amazing collection of art books, but also artist palettes that could be studied for technique.

A meeting room had gorgeous, incredibly well-preserved Delft tiles from the 16th century.

Here is another view of the Delft tiles, because they are incredible enough for another look. Or many looks. I could have lingered for a while, but the tour was continuing…

To the bar in the basement! This gargoyle was already imbibing.

At an earlier time in the club’s history, artists could consume unlimited beer at the bar out of their personal steins, which were hanging from the rafters to be unhooked for drinking. Too bad they don’t have something like that for writers. Actually, it’s probably best that there isn’t.