The Lotos Club is one of the oldest literary and arts clubs in the United States. For more than a century and a half, since its birth on March 15, 1870, it has been a preeminent New York club. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), an early member, called Lotos The Ace of Clubs.
It began in February 1870, when a half dozen young writers, journalists and critics met and decided to form a new club. They wanted to bring together journalists, literary men, artists, members of the musical and dramatic professions, and “such merchants and professional gentlemen of artistic tastes and inclination.” The founders took the Club’s name and unusual spelling from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s popular poem, “The Lotos Eaters,” with the idea that the name conveyed “an idea of rest and harmony.” Two lines of this poem, “In the afternoon they came unto a land / In which it seemed always afternoon,” were selected as the motto of the club.
The Club’s first home was a brownstone building at 2 Irving Place, just off Fourteenth Street and next to the celebrated Academy of Music. Quickly the Club gathered a roll of notable members including Mark Twain; editor and statesman Whitelaw Reid; John Hay, author and secretary to Abraham Lincoln; the actors Edwin Booth and Joseph Jefferson; editor Henry Watterson, and many others.
Very early, the Club laid great emphasis on arranging dinners for distinguished guests, a tradition started in 1872 that lead eventually to these events being called “State Dinners.” Soon, The Lotos Club became famous as an unofficial host of New York City. During its earliest years, among those Lotos welcomed were Henry M. Stanley on his return from finding Dr. Livingstone in Africa; acclaimed British novelist Wilkie Collins, author of The Woman in White; and King Kalakaua of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1876, the Club began a tradition of giving dinners for incoming and outgoing mayors of New York City. Within a half dozen years, the mayors’ dinners at Lotos were regarded as part of the ceremonial process of assuming office.
On May 1, 1877, The Lotos Club moved to the Bradish Johnson mansion at 149 Fifth Avenue at the corner of Twenty-first Street. The building was more spacious and suitable for the Club’s growing membership and its receptions and dinners. In 1879, W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were entertained at the Club during their first American tour, and the following year Count Ferdinand DeLesseps was honored with a dinner for his role in building the Suez Canal and his plans for the Panama Canal.
In 1892, the Club moved to 556-558 Fifth Avenue, on the west side of the avenue south of Forty-sixth Street—the first home owned by the Club. The first formal dinner in the new clubhouse was held in honor of Mark Twain. The Club’s president, Frank Lawrence said, “The Lotos Club is ever at its best when paying homage to genius in literature or art.”
In the new clubhouse, the Art Committee organized monthly exhibitions. The physician and novelist Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle was the Club’s guest on November 18, 1894. The creator of Sherlock Holmes was then only 35 years of age. In 1895, the New York Daily Tribune stated, “To be a guest of this organization is recognized as an added honor by any man who is fortunate enough to receive the coveted invitation.”
In 1909, the Club moved to a new and custom-built home 110 West 57th Street. Andrew Carnegie placed the necessary funds at the Club’s disposal when the Panic of 1907 made proceeding with construction of the building impossible.
On the Club’s fiftieth anniversary in 1920, President Chester S. Lord said, “The Lotos Club has performed a public duty in entertaining any inhabitant of this jolly old world who has done something. When the Club started, its only property was two candles stuffed into empty bottles. The candles were consumed but the empty bottles multiplied, and today we find our membership large, our health normal and our thirst splendid.”
Lotos continued honoring distinguished guests at the 57th Street house, including Andrew Carnegie, William Howard Taft, Enrico Caruso, Booth Tarkington, General John J. Pershing, George M. Cohan, and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. In 1922, Lotos broke with tradition and had its first State Dinner for a woman, opera singer Mary Garden. In the years to follow, actress Laurette Taylor, aviator Amelia Earhart, journalist Dorothy Thompson and other accomplished women were added to the Club’s list of honorees.
In 1947, the Club moved to its present home at Five East Sixty-sixth Street. This five-story mansion is known as one of the finest examples of French Renaissance architecture in America. It was built in 1900 by Margaret Vanderbilt Shepard, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, for her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin. Schieffelin was the heir to a wholesale drug business and the great-grandson of Chief Justice John Jay. Richard Howland Hunt was the architect.
Lotos welcomed many notable State Dinner honorees to its Upper East Side home, including Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Robert Moses, Harry S. Truman, Van Cliburn, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Frost, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Beverly Sills, Benny Goodman, Margaret Mead and Linus Pauling.
Lotos began its second century with a unanimous vote in 1977 to extend membership to women. The Club’s first female members, writer and editor Mary Hemingway and international lawyer Rita Hauser, were elected the following month. During the 1980s, The Lotos Club’s activities rose to a new level of quality and interest. Membership grew steadily as men and women from all the arts and professions joined its fellowship. The Club’s landmark mansion was completely refurbished with elegant dining and meeting facilities and fourteen classic bedrooms for members and their guests.
Lotos greeted the new millennium with its annual Twelfth Night Frolic, a tradition now more than a century old. Each year continues to bring a full schedule of events, as it has for decades. Notable writers, editors and publishers are guests of honor at Literary Evenings. Public Affairs Evenings bring statesmen and policymakers from public life to the Club. Art exhibitions and music recitals are part of the Lotos repertoire. Science and Technology Evenings focus on the issues of the day. Members meet for book discussions, to talk about the “great thinkers,” film, short stories, art, economics, history and experiences in the military. The Club also has each year a number of traditional events for members only, such as Founders’ Dinner, Election Night, the Fall Member Dinner and the New Members’ Dinner.
More men and women than ever are taking part in making the Club stimulating, comfortable and companionable. Its schedule of activities is diverse and challenging (whether in person or virtual); its dining unsurpassed; its clubhouse, handsome and appreciated.
Recent State Dinner honorees have included Saul Bellow, Robert Rauschenberg, Stephen Sondheim, Joe DiMaggio, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Tom Wolfe, John Glenn, Yo-Yo Ma, Tony Bennett, Henry Kissinger, Itzhak Perlman, Carol Burnett, Ken Burns and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Lotos Club has reason to be proud of its past. It has contributed as a group and as individuals to the culture and welfare of its community and its country. It does not forget that its mission was described originally in these words: “To promote and develop art, sculpture, literature, architecture, journalism, music, drama, science, education and the learned professions…”
The Lotos Club faces its future with a sense of excitement and wonder. It continues to enjoy and add to the rich traditions as new generations join its membership and new horizons open before it. Lotos expects to remain a small club, but will continue to strive for quality and to serve as a “clearing house for intellect, conscience and taste.”