Union Club of the City of New York

Private social club in New York City

The Union Club of the City of New York (commonly known as the Union Club) is a private social club in New York City that was founded in 1836. The clubhouse is located at 101 East 69th Street on the corner of Park Avenue, in a landmark building designed by Delano & Aldrich that opened on August 28, 1933. The Union Club is a private club in New York City. It is the second oldest "city club" in the United States, after the Philadelphia Club, and is the fifth oldest "private club" in the United States, after the South River Club in Annapolis, Maryland (between 1700 and 1732), the Schuylkill Fishing Company in Andalusia, Pennsylvania (1732), the Old Colony Club in Plymouth, Massachusetts (1769), and the Philadelphia Club in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1834). The Union Club is considered one of the most prestigious clubs in New York City.

The current building is the club's sixth clubhouse and the third built specifically for the members. The prior two clubhouses were at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street, occupied from 1855 to 1903; and on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 51st Street, a limestone clubhouse occupied from 1903 to 1933. In 1927, club members voted to move uptown, to a quieter and less crowded location. They hired architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich—who had previously designed buildings for the Knickerbocker Club, the Brook Club, and the Colony Club—to design their new clubhouse. The Union Club has been referred to as the "Mother of Clubs" because it was from the Union Club and its membership that many other private clubs in New York and elsewhere have sprung. From the beginning, the Union Club was known for its strongly conservative principles. During the Civil War, the club refused to expel its Confederate members, despite taking a strong line on suppressing anti draft riots. This policy led some members of the Union to leave and form the Union League Club of New York. In 1891, the Metropolitan Club was founded by J. P. Morgan as a direct answer to the Union Club, after many of Morgan's friends were denied entry to the Union Club. In 1903, The Brook was founded by some prominent members of the Union Club (as well as some members of other New York City private clubs, such as the Knickerbocker Club and Metropolitan Club). In 1918, the Union began using women waitresses to free male employees for service related to World War I.

In the 1988 film Working Girl, Tess (Melanie Griffith) and Jack (Harrison Ford) gatecrash the wedding of Oren Trask's (Philip Bosco) daughter at the Union Club, where they pitch their plan to Trask. In Season 3, Episode 8 (2012) of HBO's series Boardwalk Empire, titled "The Pony", Nucky Thompson poses as a member of the Kansas City Club to gain access to the Union Club via "a reciprocal agreement" between the two clubs. He then proposes a partnership to Andrew Mellon against Harry Daugherty.

More than 300 members of the Union Club joined the U. S. military services during World War II. In 1947, the club published Union Club World War II Records 1940 1947, recording the military accomplishments of those members who served during the War and who chose to participate in the project.