By Carter B. Horsley

With its very tall lantern top, dome, arched windows, columns, pediments and handsome proportions, this red-brick, Georgian-style church is one of the highlights of Park Avenue at the southern end of the Upper East Side.

It was completed in 1924 to designs by Delano & Aldrich, the architectural firm which also designed the nearby Colony Club at 564 Park Avenue at 62nd Street, completed in 1916 (see The City Review article) and the Knickerbocker Club, completed in 1913 at 2 East 62nd Street at Fifth Avenue (see The City Review article). All three handsome structures are in the same basic style, although this building is perhaps the best of the lot because of its distinctive form.

In his fine book, "Touring The Upper East Side, Walks in Five Historic Districts" (published by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, 1995), Andrew S. Dolkart offers the following commentary about the club and its architects:

"Delano & Aldrich's designis a free adaptation of 18th Century American Colonial design. Conveying an image of historic America, this was an appropriate stylistic choice for a group with roots in New England."

At the north end of this Park Avenue block is the Central Presbyterian Church, originally the Park Avenue Baptist Church that was completed in 1922 to designs by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens. According to Mr. Dolkart, John D. Rockefeller Jr. taught bible classes in the basement until 1928 when the congregation moved to the Riverside Church on the Upper West Side.