Forgotten Gem: The Cloud Club

The Cloud Club was originally the viewing gallery for the Chrysler Building. But since it opened during the Great Depression and subsequently saw little foot traffic, it was converted into this exclusive club, occupying the 66th, 67th and 68th floor.

The original membership numbered 300 people, and included the celebrities and tycoons of the day such as Edward F. Hutton, Condé Nast and the boxer Gene Tunney. The Cloud Club was created mostly with the backing of the Texas Company, which later became known as oil giant Texaco. They wanted to lease 14 floors of the Chrysler Building, and also desired a fine restaurant and club for their executives.

An interesting aspect of the Cloud Club was that it was a mixture of styles—the Art Deco aspirations of building architect William van Alen and Walter Chrysler’s baronial and faux medieval design, which van Alen modernized into a Tudor-style lounge on the 66th floor, with mortise-and-tenon oak paneling. The Grill Room, which was one of two eating areas, was created in a classic old English style, with pegged plank floors, large wood beams, wrought-iron chandeliers and even leaded glass doors.

The primary dining room, located on the 67th floor, was connected to the Grill Room by an impressive bronze and marble Renaissance-style staircase with polished granite columns and etched glass scones. There was also a private Texaco dining room, and one exclusively for Walter Chrysler himself.

The murals in the Club were astounding, and recently restored. In the main dining room, there was a huge cloud mural that wrapped around to a scene of Manhattan on the north wall, giving the illusion of eating in the sky. A gigantic mural of a refinery flanked the private Texaco dining room, which was rumored to be the grandest place to dine in all of New York.

The club also housed a stock-ticker room, a humidor, a barbershop and locker room complete with hidden cabinets to store alcohol during Prohibition. For decades, it was a men’s only club, and was not open in the evenings. After Texaco moved out of the building, and the newer Sky and Pinnacle Clubs opened nearby, the Cloud Club fell on hard times. It was finally closed for good in 1979.

Tishman Speyer, which now owns the Chrysler Building as of 1998, has painstakingly refurbished the Cloud Club, leasing the top two floors to new tenants. The first floor of the club, which was the most impressive, is still waiting for the right person whose dreams soar as high as clouds.