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A HANDS-ON APPROACH TO PHILANTHROPY BY ELAINE LEMBO

In 1897, Commodore J. Pierpont Morgan’s surprise solo act of buying, then giving, a property to the 53-year-old kick-started a spirit of philanthropy that endures today as a bulwark of Club preservation efforts. Those were robust times: Flush with ’s Cup victories, the growing, financially well-off membership of more than a thousand, with a fleet of hundreds of steam and sailing yachts, desired a meeting place with amenities such as dining, billiards playing, a library, a model and collections rooms, and overnight accommodations.

At the Club's Annual Meeting in October 1898, Commodore J.P. Morgan announced he would purchase a three-lot site on West 44th Street on which the Club could build a permanent clubhouse. That spirit of philantrophy lives on today. NYYC ARCHIVES NYYC

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Morgan’s philanthropy was also a challenge: His offer was GET IT DONE contingent on members paying for the construction and Morgan’s $150,000 land purchase, worth about $4.7 million today, furnishing of their Clubhouse. This led to the doubling of annual was followed over the years by other ad hoc campaigns to acquire Club dues from $25 to $50 per member. Adjusted for inflation, and ensure the structures in New York and in Newport could in 2020, that’s about $1,500. And then there was the matter of endure into perpetuity to serve member activities and collections. constructing a building. “A member, or small group of members, would step forward with This donation of land by Morgan for what became the site of a substantial financial commitment to initiate a project,” says Club the landmark 44th Street Clubhouse required further member historian and author . “This would stimulate a support. It was estimated that the cost of the Warren & Wetmore- quiet challenge to other members to help out.” designed building and furnishings would be nearly $400,000, according to the Club history by John Parkinson Jr. The significance of the support of individual members to the Club’s overall success can’t be forgotten. “Throughout its history, “Ninety thousand dollars had been raised by voluntary subscriptions, the Club has depended on not just a few heroic solo donors but $20,000 was expected from budget surplus, and it was voted to raise on well-led and well-organized appeals to the membership as a $240,000 by mortgage. According to the final report of the New whole,” says Rousmaniere. “Even Commodore Morgan couldn’t do Clubhouse Committee, in 1901 the land and building represented it on his own.” a $540,000 asset with a $240,000 mortgage, indicating the house and furnishings cost $392,000 of which the members seem to have Key examples of this enthusiastic support and call to action subscribed $122,000. Similar to a great museum, the irreplaceable include renovations at 44th Street, the acquisition of Harbour contents of the Clubhouse today are beyond appraisal.” Court and the construction of the Sailing Center.

WAR YEARS, HARBOUR COURT Global conflict in the 1940s was hard on everyone everywhere; the Clubhouse and its Manhattan neighborhood were no exception. The 44th Street facility was actively used by NYYC members in the U.S. Navy, which was building war ships at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and commissioning them in ceremonies in the Model Room. By the post-war years, many Club rooms suffered from benign neglect, with the Model Room ceiling black from cigar smoke.

Enter John Nicholas Brown, Commodore from 1952 to 1954, who began his last year as Commodore needing $46,000 for repairs to the clubhouse. To address this, he asked the membership to voluntarily donate $3 a month for two years. According to the Parkinson history, “The response was excellent and the repairs were effected, current expenses being covered in the interim period by borrowing from other Club funds.” By October 1955, the funds from regular members had grown to $50,000, with another $6,600 from Navy members.

By the 1960s and ’70s, with the phasing out of the last of the 11 cruising stations in 1948, sentiment started to run toward finding a dedicated waterfront facility. And, in 1987, with the loss of the America’s Cup after 132 years of stewardship, talk suddenly turned While Commodore Morgan's generous gift provided to the purchase of Harbour Court, the former summer estate of the land for the Clubhouse, paying for the construction the late Commodore Brown and his wife, Anne Kinsolving Brown, and furnishing of the property fell to the membership at on Brenton Cove in Newport. large. More than a quarter of the $400,000 cost of the Clubhouse was raised via voluntary subscription from Designed by Boston-based Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, the the membership. A mortgage covered the remainder. Renaissance Norman-style mansion had been completed in 1906—just five years after 44th Street—with grounds designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers. NYYC ARCHIVES NYYC

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Thanks to the cooperation of the Brown family, members again June 1988: rose to the occasion. The result was a unique, two-pronged Be a donor; be a sport philanthropic effort that transformed the property into the Let’s all give for Harbour Court. magnificent, internationally recognized Clubhouse and sailing Call our member Peter Dott center it is today. You don’t have to own a yacht. Help make happy our Commodore Snyder, Specifically, the plan involved 13 members known as the A Group Open your checkbooks a little wider. each contributing $100,000 to purchase Harbour Court from the When you see our yachts are docked, Browns; a loan for the remaining cost of the $4 million purchase We’ll no longer be landlocked. was arranged. Easements signed by Angela Brown Fischer with the Onward, upward, take a stance Rhode Island Preservation Commission protected the property Let’s not miss this golden chance. and allowed for adaptive reuse of the private residence as a yacht club. The Newport acquisition also gave members the opportunity to apply elbow grease. Rose Dana, wife of Commodore Charles A. With that done in July of 1987, the next step of soliciting financial Dana, sewed curtains. George Isdale bought a discarded flagpole support from the members for the Club to buy the estate from the from the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. In A Group resulted in a $4 million fundraising campaign. According February 1988, it was shipped to member Ted Hood’s boatyard in to Harbour Court: The Untold Story by member Lauretta Bruno, the Portsmouth, R.I., where it was surveyed, scraped, painted and re- 45 members of the fundraising committee contacted each Club rigged in time for the June 10, 1988, commissioning ceremony. member and asked for contributions. Perhaps it’s the words of members for whom Harbour Court holds By March 8, 1988, pledges totaled $2,774,025, with 60 percent intimate meaning that give the acquisition context: of the membership participating. By June, pledges topped $5.5 million. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard Club members, who “My parents would have been thrilled to death with the Club, numbered 390, contributed $250,000 to the total, resulting in a which is doing a very good job keeping it looking like a home. It’s room at Harbour Court named after them. The Brown family also changed every year, and the changes make sense,” says Angela donated $150,000 worth of the estate’s furnishings to the effort. Brown Fisher.

With the funding goal reached, the A Group offered Harbour Adds her brother, Captain Nicholas Brown, “I think it is absolutely Court, as well as its entire contribution, to the Club in October terrific today with the physical changes, like extending the pier, 1988. converting the kitchen and grill room and making the garage area into the sailing center.” A POETIC PLEA The campaign gave rise to more than the purchase of Harbour COMMODORE ROBERT G. STONE JR. SAILING CENTER Court: It coincided with the founding of this newsletter, a vehicle In 2006, Commodore George Hinman Jr. declared that for spreading the word about the campaign as well as other committee construction of a sailing center at Harbour Court was in line with happenings, 44th Street events, regattas, and general Club news. the Club mission to “bring together a dedicated group of members to share their interests in yachting and .” It Little wonder that the four-page debut issue published in March would be named for late Commodore Robert G. Stone Jr., who, 1988 was single themed with stories such as “Why Harbour among other memorable achievements, deftly handled the turning Court?” and “How Much Will It Cost?” along with a list of major over of the America’s Cup to the Australian winners in 1983. contributors to date. An invitation to members to attend the open house April 9 ran on page four. The overall project, budgeted at $3.5 million, included expanded parking and construction of two new maintenance buildings. Along with fundraising, the Harbour Court campaign drew out The Sailing Center, a $2 million effort that involved converting literary creativity from member Joe Jackson, who attended the the carriage house and garage into office space, creating open house. The result was published in the second newsletter, in meeting rooms, dining area and showers, and adding a floor for accommodations, would be funded through member appeals.

Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a “We put together a large committee of 18 people,” recalls Joseph charitable contribution and to learn more about C. Hoopes Jr., who co-chaired the campaign with former the historic buildings of the New York Yacht Commodore Dana. “We sat in the afterguard room at 44th Street Club. Your support is crucial in preserving our and went through the Club book and people volunteered to start past and safeguarding our future.

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THE CONVERSION OF HARBOUR COURT'S carriage house into the Commodore Robert G. Stone Jr. Sailing Center was funded by donations from the membership and celebrated with a dedication ceremony on May 9, 2008. Former crew on Stone's Arcadia gathered for a photo in the eponymous banquet space.

calling members. It was a broad-based effort, including a general the New York Yacht Club Foundation in 2007 as a public charity fundraising appeal and an initiative by the Young Members was the answer, providing members for the first time with a means Committee. to make tax-deductible donations.

More than $4.7 million was raised. The compass rose plaque in “The Foundation formalized the giving process, turning it into an the Center courtyard lists names of those who each gave $25,000 ongoing effort as opposed to an effort for singular projects,” says to the project. A chair rail in the Arcadia Room includes names Commodore David Elwell. of those who gave more than $10,000. Neckties and scarves were given to those who gave $5,000 or more. Some 280 guests, with In line with the Foundation’s mission of historic preservation, 215 of them staying on for dinner, attended the Sailing Center projects eligible for funding include the two clubhouses, historic dedication ceremony on Friday, May 9, 2008. building facades and structures on the Harbour Court grounds, as well as publicly viewed interior rooms of historical significance, THE FOUNDATION ERA such as the Model Room. With the addition of the Harbour Court property, members gained renewed understanding of the pressing need to maintain The Foundation has to date provided more than $5.14 million and preserve both Club sites. toward capital restoration and preservation work. Some of its accomplishments over the last 13 years include, at Harbour Court, Further renovation of 44th Street started concurrently with the four-part restoration of the facade, restoration of the ice house, effort to acquire Harbour Court and finished in 1988 at a cost of $7 hennery, fish pond, Sailors and Formal terraces, and formal garden million. An assessment of $300 per member per year for five years structures; and at 44th Street, the Model Room floor, the essential — precursor of the current annual capital charge — was necessary HVAC restoration and upgrade, and the engineering study for the to cover the costs of adding air conditioning, rebuilding the kitchen window replacement project. and elevator, and installing fire alarm and security systems. Looking ahead to the next several years, there is more to be An inexhaustible stream of generosity on the part of members also done to ensure both clubhouse properties are preserved and helped accomplish another goal: construction of an extended pier function well. One of the largest efforts will be the work to restore at Harbour Court before the July 1994 Sesquicentennial Regatta. and replace—only where necessary—all Clubhouse windows, The appeal exceeded its target of $250,000, pulling in $460,000. including the famed monumental and ships windows at 44th The excess was used to buy Navette, the Club’s first launch, which Street. was put in service in spring 1994. A major three-phase, three-year effort, the windows project is the Yet by the early years of the 21st century, it was clear that focus of the 2020 fall appeal; work is expected to start in 2021. As fundraising for historic maintenance and preservation required before, each and every contribution is vital to the Club’s success. consistency on a par with the hands-on work itself. Creation of “To appreciate the Foundation mandate is to also acknowledge what keeps it going – a long-standing culture of supportive, Visit www.nyycfoundation.org to make a enthusiastic member involvement,” says Foundation Chair Matt charitable contribution, and to learn more Brooks. “What we cherish most is in our members’ DNA, a well of about the historic buildings of the New York goodwill and a sense of duty to the people and places that bring us Yacht Club. Your support is crucial in preserving joy and comfort. The spirit of philanthropy is alive and well at the our past and safeguarding our future. New York Yacht Club.” DAN NERNEY DAN

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