Down Town Association

The Down Town Association in the City of New York, usually referred to as the Down Town Association or the DTA, for short, is a private club in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It has the following mission statement filed with the US Internal Revenue Service: “The association was created to furnish its members engaged in commercial and professional pursuits in the city of New York, facilities for social intercourse, and such accommodations as required during the intervals of business while at a distance from their residences, also the advancement of literature and art by establishing and maintaining a library, reading room, and gallery of art.”

Located at 60 Pine Street, between William and Pearl Streets, it is both the fifth oldest private club in New York and the first private club formed in lower Manhattan (1859). The Club has EIN 13-5035020 and the tax status "501(c)(7) Social and Recreation Clubs." In 2023 it claimed total revenue of $6,914,068 and total assets of $38,842,208.

Its third location and current club house (dedicated in 1887) holds the distinction of being the first purposely built private club house in New York City at a time when most clubs were still renting space inside former townhouses and mansions.

The organizational meeting which resulted in the formation of the Association was held at the Astor House on December 23, 1859. The first general meeting of the Association was held on February 14, 1860, and a charter was granted by an act of the legislature of the State of New York on April 17, 1860.

The clubhouse opened on May 23, 1887. Land, building and furnishings cost $306,669.25. In 1902, a major renovation converted the original Victorian interiors to Edwardian and a partial sixth floor containing a laundry and other staff quarters was added to the original five story structure. In 1910, Charles Wetmore of the firm of Warren & Wetmore, a member of the Association, was engaged to plan an addition which was completed on March 16, 1911, at a cost of $175,556.76. The addition, in an exterior style sympathetic to the original, added several private dining rooms as well as the magnificent Jacobean-style paneled reading room on a new mezzanine level.

Until 1995, the DTA was solely a luncheon club. The DTA is now one of a few remaining private clubs in Lower Manhattan, with dinner and events on many evenings, a new gym on the top floor and full staffing throughout the day from early breakfast to evening drinks. Membership was originally restricted to men but women have been accepted as members since 1985.^{[citation needed]}

The Romanesque Revival Clubhouse, a New York City landmark since 1997, was designed by Charles C. Haight, a member of the Association. The clubhouse is the oldest clubhouse in New York built for and still occupied by its members, and is the third such oldest in the United States, behind the Union League of Philadelphia and the Hope Club of Providence.

The clubhouse entry on Pine Street gives onto a marble accented lobby with a mosaic tiled floor and fireplace. A cast iron staircase, unique among New York clubs, rises four floors from the rear of the lobby. A large bar and lounging room, paneled in white oak, is reached a few steps down past the staircase. The first floor rear is a large and elegant main bar and gathering area for members.