City Athletic Club records, undated, 1908-2002

The City Athletic Club was founded in August 1908 during a meeting held by 48 men at which Ralph Wolf acted as presiding officer. The original minutes state: '...It being our intention to promote among members both physical culture and social intercourse. For the first of these it will provide a clubhouse fitted with facilities for athletic and physical development; for the second it will present a membership, harmonious and select, with congenial and comfortable surroundings in which to fraternize...'" They opened in December 1909 at 48-50 West 54th Street. In terms of historical context, established clubs at the time in New York City rarely admitted Jews. The City Athletic Club was founded to address this, and was indeed a site for physical culture and social intercourse until 2002 when it closed.Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); City Athletic Club Records; I-533; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.The City Athletic Club was founded in August 1908 during a meeting held by forty-eight men at the Hotel Brevoort in Manhattan. Ralph Wolf acted as presiding officer, overseeing the formation of committees for Admissions, Constitution, By-laws, Building and Finance. They met again at the Hotel Astor (also in Manhattan) in November, where Edwin C. Vogel, Chairman of the Membership Committee, presented a list of 500 charter members. It was at this meeting that they "formally incorporated the club under the laws of the State of New York, adopted a permanent constiution and by-laws, elected the first Board of Governors, and ratified unanimously its seletion of 48-50 West 54th Street as its permanent home."Processing note: This collection was originally processed into 177 manuscript boxes by Rachel Tutera and then consolidated into bankers' boxes. Specifically manuscript boxes 70 through 177 have been consoldiated, which means Boxes 70-74 are all in one bankers' box, Boxes 75-78 are also also in one bankers' box, and so on. Generally speaking, 4-5 manuscript boxes fit in each bankers' box. Please note that the first 69 manuscript boxes of this collection were consolidated into 62 boxes; therefore manuscript boxes 63-69 no longer exist.Finding Aid available in Reading Room and on Internet.Michael Gyurefar031