The Salmagundi Club is one of the oldest art organizations in the United States, beginning as the New York Sketch Club in 1871. The Club was renamed in 1877 in honor of Washington Irving’s publication ‘The Salmagundi Papers‘ and for the famous ‘Salmagundi Stew’ (reference C 16 3), that was often served in the club’s dining room. Its first location was a rental on West 12th Street, where they prospered until purchasing 47 Fifth Avenue in 1917. Past membership has included Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam.
With the opening of the exhibition ‘Ghosts of Townhouse Past: Charcoal Drawing by Charles S. Chapman‘ at Salmagundi Club this past May, highlighting the last year of the Club’s first townhouse studio on West 12th Street in 1917, we were reminded of the ghosts of townhouse present, at Salmagundi Club’s current location and permanent home, during the massive renovation in 2013.
Continue reading “Behind the Walls of the Historic Salmagundi Club in Greenwich Village”