West 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is packed with architectural gems.
It’s kind of a clubhouse and hotel district, with the headquarters of the Harvard Club and General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen there, as well as the old Algonquin and Iroquois Hotels.
Still, I think the six-story headquarters of the New York Yacht Club just might be the most enchanting building of all.
It all comes down to those incredible nautical-themed windows, with their shells, seaweed, and raging dolphins.
Completed in 1900, the “street side of the building is regarded as one of the most expressive examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in the country,” states the NYYC website.
“It draws on a number of classic motifs,” the NYYC website explains.
“But its hallmark is the elaborate bay windows set into sculpted framework depicting the sterns of fancifully carved baroque sailing vessels, with garlands of seaweed and shells hanging from wave-like consoles and dolphins spewing into the overhanging wakes of the departing ships.”
Inside the clubhouse, things look pretty spectacular as well, as these NYYC photos and a virtual tour of one of the rooms reveal.
Ephemeral New York 