Fire In Upper East Side's Union Club Causes 'Serious' Damage

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A fire caused "serious" damage at an exclusive private social club building in the Upper East Side, the venue's president said.

Eric Widing, of the Union Club of the City Of New York, told guests in an email that quick actions from fire-trained staff and a speedy response from firefighters on Sunday helped prevent the flames from spreading.

Fire officials said they received a call just after midnight that there was a fire on the fifth floor of that address and that the blaze was contained around 1 a.m. One firefighter suffered a minor injury and declined to receive medical attention. Information on what kind of injury the firefighter suffered wasn't immediately available.

Guests staying at the club were forced to evacuate, Widing told members, but later returned to their rooms.

The club will close on Monday for President's Day and will reopen — except for the fifth floor — on Tuesday, he said.

The building is on East 69th Street near Park Avenue. The club was organized in 1836 and is considered the oldest men’s social club in New York City.

The building opened in August 1933 and was designed by William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich, who previously designed the Knickerbocker, the Brook and the Colony clubhouses.

The building is "chunky with rusticated limestone and a huge angled mansard roof so big it looks like a Fifth Avenue mansion gone wild," the New York Times reported.

The main hall features a "spectacular coffered dome" in the form of a Greek cross. Also inside the building is an ornate card room, a backgammon room, library, lounge and squash courts.

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