The Cloud Club was a lunch club that occupied the 66th, 67th, and 68th floors of the

Chrysler Building The Chrysler Building is a , Art Deco skyscraper in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. Located at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, it is the tallest brick building in the world wit ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. At one time it was the highest lunch club in the world. It opened in 1930 and closed in 1979.

History

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Independ ...

, a prospective tenant, had asked the management of the

to create a restaurant for executives. The Cloud Club opened in July 1930. At the time of its opening it had 300 members. As a result of the club opening, Texaco leased fourteen floors. The club was open during daylight hours and was closed in the evening. Many famous executives based in the tower had lunch in the club. The club was only for men for several decades. In the 1950s and 1960s newer clubs opened, causing the attendance at the Cloud Club to decrease. In 1971 180 corporations supplied 300 members of the club. The club declined more as competition from other clubs increased and as companies moved offices to suburban areas. Texaco moved its employees to

Westchester, New York Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous coun ...

in 1977, and the club closed in 1979.

Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...

, which took over the Chrysler Building in 1998 and refurbished it, leased the top two floors of the Cloud Club space to tenants.

Design

William Van Alen and

Walter Chrysler Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, automotive industry executive, and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler, Chrysler Corporation. Childhood Chrysler ...

had differing ideas of what the Cloud Club should be. The former had preferences for the modernist style while Chrysler had a preference for faux medieval and baronial styles. Charles McGrath of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote that the final design "reflected a somewhat uneasy compromise" between the men. Christopher Gray of ''The New York Times'' stated that the "Cloud Club was a curious mix of historic and modern."

Composition

McGrath stated that the space overall "seems almost preposterously small by today's standards" and because of all of the facilities inside it, its "backstage" areas "must have felt like a submarine - or, rather, like a very cramped airship." The 66th floor was the point of entry into the club. Cloud motifs were used in the entry area. The pilasters and friezes were in a neo-Classical style. The bathrooms and elevator surrounds used an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style. The flooring was made of pegged planks. This floor had a bar and grill room, done in an "olde English" style, which used leaded glass doors, wood beams, chandeliers of wrought-iron, and floors in pegged planks. It also had a Tudor-style lounge decorated in oak paneling in a mortise-and-tenon style. The main dining room, on the 67th floor, was located on the club's south side and had a capacity of 30 people. The north wall had a mural of Manhattan. The room was decorated with etched glass sconces and granite columns. The room had a view of New York City. The vaulted ceiling, in a Cathedral style, had a cloud mural. McGrath described it as having "a futuristic,

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

sort of look". A Renaissance-style staircase in marble and bronze connected the dining room with the 66th floor. The private dining room for

was located on the 67th floor. It used black etched paneling, and included an etched frieze of automobile workers. This room had a view of

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

. There was another private dining room that was for

. It included a mural of an oil refinery, the Texaco logo, and a truck. It "was reputed to be the grandest men's room in all of New York" according to McGrath. The facility also had a

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room. The service areas included a barber shop, a humidor, kitchens, and a locker room. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

alcohol was stored in cabinets in the locker room.

Food

The fruit served included "No. 18" pink grapefruits, larger than supermarket grapefruits, and melons that were produced in a farm in

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

owned by a club member. The most well-known dishes were bread-and-butter pudding, black bean soup, and Dover sole.

In fiction

*The Cloud Club is featured in

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

's '' Cremaster 3''. *The Cloud Club is mentioned in the ''

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'' episode " The Voice". *It is mentioned in the song " The Story Of The Eggs" by the New York City band

Wheatus Wheatus is an American rock band from Northport, New York, formed in 1995. They are known principally for their 2000 single, "Teenage Dirtbag". They also experienced success with their 2001 cover version of Erasure (duo), Erasure's "A Little ...

. It is from their second seasonal EP '' Pop, Songs & Death Vol.2: The Jupiter EP''.

Members

* Walter P. Chrysler * Edward Francis Hutton *

Condé Montrose Nast Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to t ...

Juan Trippe Juan Terry Trippe (June 27, 1899 – April 3, 1981) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, entrepreneur and the founder of Pan American World Airways, one of the iconic airlines of the 20th century. He was involved in the introduction of t ...

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923 ...

Jack Frye William John Frye (March 18, 1904 – February 3, 1959) was an American aviation pioneer in the airline industry. He founded Standard Air Lines which eventually took him into a merger with Trans World Airlines (TWA). He is credited for turning ...

References

External links

The Cloud Club Gallery
at Decopix - The Art Deco Architecture Site
Pictures by Randy Juster at the Cloud Club's end
{{Restaurants in Manhattan, state=collapsed 1979 disestablishments in New York (state) Clubs and societies in the United States Defunct restaurants in Manhattan Restaurants established in 1930 Texaco 1930 establishments in New York City Restaurants disestablished in 1979