The City Club, known also as the William Culbert House, is a historic ruin at the corner of Grand and 2nd Streets in Newburgh, New York. Designed in the early 1850s by Calvert Vaux and Andrew Jackson Downing, the house survived Urban Renewal efforts but succumbed to fire in 1981. Plans have been made since its destruction to reconstruct the interior, a project often paired with restoration of the nearby Dutch Reformed Church, but none have ever been executed. The house appears in Vaux's most celebrated work, Villas and Cottages (1857) as Design No. 22. It is one of the earliest Second Empire houses in the United States, designed just after Detlef Lienau's now lost Hart M. Shiff House (1850) and the earlier Edward Deacon House in Boston's South End. For a brief time in the late 1970s, the former City Club housed the offices of restorer Brian Thompson. Due to its centralized location, it has become a symbol of the restoration movement in Newburgh, also representing the city's decay.
History
Culbert
Dr. William A. M. Culbert (1822 — 1890) was born in New York City to a merchant family, newly arrived there following the Revolution.Nutt, 86 He attended the University of the City of New York, graduating from the Academic and Medical Departments with a BA, and pursuing homeopathy. Culbert studied under Professor of Surgery at the university, Dr. Valentine Mott, who at the time was deemed one of world's most esteemed surgeons. In the fall of 1847, Culbert arrived in Newburgh to begin his practice.Nutt, 86-87
On October 12, 1852, he married Henrietta Powell (1832 — 1908), granddaughter of Thomas Powell (1769 —1856),Local History Room, 1 an upstanding Newburgh citizen and merchant. Powell helped establish Newburgh as a shipping center, adding docks to village's bustling port for his freighting business.McTamaney, 1 Originally from Hempstead, Powell came to the Hudson Valley with his mother and brother after the death of their father, Henry.Van Kleek, 72 Beginning in 1823, Thomas continued the mildly lucrative mercantile business he had begun with his brother, eventually amassing a fortune and ordering the construction of a steamboat fleet.Van Kleek, 73-74 One of the ships was named for his wife, affectionately known as the Mary Powell. Thomas and Mary had one son, Robert Ludlow Powell (1805 — 1833), who married Louisa A. Orso (1806 — 1896), the parents of Henrietta and several daughters. Due to Henrietta's status, it became necessary for Culbert to earn the village's respect.
Sometime before the wedding, Culbert commissioned Downing & Vaux to build him a house and office on Grand Street. The exact date of erection is unknown, but city historian Helen VerNooy Gearn first estimated 1852 or earlier in conjunction with the wedding.Gearn, 6B "Ups and Downs" Gearn also recognized that this may have been one of the last collaborations between Downing & Vaux, as Downing perished in a steamboat accident on July 28, 1852.Proctor, 253 In Villas and Cottages, the mark "D&V" indicates Design No. 22 is the firm's work.Vaux, 252 The house's corner lot inherently made planning its street-facing side crucial, as it needed to be congruous with the slope and also keen to the eye.Vaux, 253 Due to the success of the architects at this task, the building is sometimes pictured from its 2nd Street side to capture its length. They anticipated Grand Street would become the main promenade of Newburgh;Vaux, 255 the house had to be impressive from every angle, suiting the occupiers.
Of Culbert's medical career, John J. Nutt remarked that he was:"Carefully educated, possessed of an unusually clear and logical mind, fully alive to every advance in his profession and allowing no one dogma to fetter his judgment — he was a physician in the broadest sense of the term. Ever true to the interests of his patients, Dr. Culbert soon won and maintained to the time of his death the reputation of an accurate diagnostician, an independent thinker and an unusually practical and successful prescriber."William A. M. Culbert died on November 10, 1890, leaving Henrietta and their son, Francis Ramsdell Culbert, named for the one of Newburgh's most notable families at the time, the Ramsdells. After the Culberts, one of the founders of Sweet, Orr & Co., Clayton E. Sweet, purchased the house.Silverman, 2 The Sweet Brothers, Clayton E. and Clinton W., entered business with their uncle, James A. Orr, in 1871, establishing an East Coast base for the overall business in Wappingers Falls.Hasbrouck, 772 By 1880, expansion of the company's operations prompted a relocation to Newburgh.Hasbrouck, 773 Clayton E. Sweet and his wife Charity sold the house on March 1, 1904 Evening News, 1 "Arson" to be used as a headquarters for the City Club.
City Club Usage The City Club, a gentleman's social organization, formed in 1891. As membership and status within the club began to decline in the 1960s, the house became shared by tenants. One upstairs office, serving as chambers for the justice of the State Supreme Court, Ninth Judicial District, underwent a remodeling to hold a law library. This library was originally to serve the purpose of the Newburgh Bar Association as a private, non-profit organization, but soon after came under state control, which assumed costs of operation.Ahearn, 6A
With the surge of Urban Renewal demolition projects below Grand Street in 1970, the Newburgh URA finished the year by razing the Club's neighbor, the defunct Palatine Hotel. After the collapse of inner-city hotels during the 1940s, and failed attempts to revive the original splendor of the establishment, the hotel closed in 1957 following a bankruptcy filing.Gearn, 15A "Palatial" It sat abandoned for a decade. In the period between its shutdown and demolition, the hotel and club both suffered periodic vandalism and neglect.
Law Library
In the 1960s, the law library became a valuable resource for local lawyers and judges, open to the public on weekdays from 9 am to 5 pm.Evening News, 8A "Help!"
Following the December 1970 demolition of the Palatine, preservationists and the general public resented the Newburgh URA for its apathy. In January 1971, the Orange County Legislature, realizing the situation in Newburgh, petitioned to move the Ninth Judicial Law Library to the new county office building in Goshen. Recognizing this as a possible collusion meant to clear out the City Club for demolition, many were immediately skeptical. Daniel F. Ahearn of the Newburgh Bar Association stood up against the underlying scorn the county had acquired for the city.Poche, 11A
Though the City Club itself was not keen on letting the building fall, they only attested a dwindling roster – about 85 men. Club President John S. Steegmuller announced plans for a building renovation, which crumbed by 1973 after facing scrutiny from the URA. In 1975, a member of the club claimed that "Half of the members belong just for the sake of their obituaries – they never come in here." In the first decades of the club's existence, most of the members lived within the city limits, but white flight meant most men had to travel from Balmville or further in the Town of Newburgh into the city, which had become undesirable.
First Removal Plans (1971) On February 11, 1971, the legislature set a vote to remove the library, a measure sponsored by George R. Bartlett, Jr., R-Walden, chairman of the County Protective Educational Services Committee.Walsh, 1BEvening News, 1B "Lose Law Library" County Executive Louis V. Mills had announced on January 8 that the county contributed $8,000 annually to the library, dispelling local claims that it was an autonomous institution. Bartlett wanted Orange County judges to have more convenient access to the materials, and all operations had been centralized in Goshen by October 1970. Ahearn contested the county, additionally because court terms at the City Courthouse had been absent in 1970; the undersheriff office in the city also closed. As no terms had yet been scheduled for 1971, his claim had grounds, and the association's attorney, Bernard Loth, encouraged Ahearn to fight for more terms. The progress of Courthouse Square, the only semi-successful Urban Renewal project in the city, was expected to protect the law library. Due to the county being tied with the developers of the project, Loth also feared tension with the county would induce removal of the City Club.
Sketches for Courthouse Square, or "Plaza" depicted the building intact beside a large public plaza on the site of the Palatine Hotel.Vick, 1 Architectural firm Marvel, Whitfield and Remick, based in Newburgh, were responsible for the tentative plans, commissioned originally for $16,000 by Mills.Lown, 1B County involvement was for the sake of possible additions to the 1841 Thornton Niven-designed City Courthouse,Nutt, 157 which served the eastern part of the county. These new additions would replace an older one, known colloquially as the "Law Building" but called by lawyers the Brewster BuildingNutt, 157, 161 after Eugene Augustus Brewster. They would also hold the law library in addition to various social services, now held in the New York State Armory on Broadway.
One of the project's successes was the completion of a Brutalist building to house the Newburgh Free Library and Board of Education, placed on the plaza; it originally had been placed on the site of the current parking lot.
At the February convening of the legislature, Ahearn arrived with a bargain, claiming that Newburgh mayor George McKneally would be able to convince the city council to pay $5,000 rent to keep the law library where it was.Evening News, 1B "Delayed" Backed by a state-appointed board of trustees, the library agreed to donate federal reports to the separate, county-operated library. Bartlett postponed action on his resolution to March as Ahearn and the Bar Association sorted matters out. In March, after the legislature's difficulty in legally removing the library from the City Club, they called upon the State Legislature for assistance.Evening News, 1D, "Action" Bartlett, not swayed by Ahearn's offer, reminded the legislature that the county could not afford two libraries. A 4-5 vote caused indecision within the library board of trustees, and the situation lost its forward movement.
By involving the Board of Education, the City Club's inclusion in the plans for Courthouse Square ultimately saved it for the time being. As plans for the new building underwent consideration, Ahearn even proposed that the library be partly contained within the Newburgh Free Library, serving as one complete library for public use. Others believed that the legal literature would be too difficult to access removed from its reach of the law librarians.
Eviction and Preservation (1972 - 1976) Out of the URA's hands, the Board of Education undertook responsibility for the City Club, perceived as the monitor for all Courthouse Square dealings. Just as the Bar Association had faith in the Board of Education, it took four years for them to decide on a definite fate for the building. They chose demolition, as it "offended the eye." In its place, they wanted an unobstructed view of the library, and planned to landscape the 45" x 122" land with taxpayer dollars, in addition to the $30,000 demolition cost.