Inside the Anglers’ Club of New York
I had the good luck to be able to attend a small benefit dinner at the exclusive Anglers’ Club here in New York City a few weeks back. Well, it’s probably more accurate to say I snuck in on a technicality and managed to be pleasant enough that I wasn’t ejected.
The 106-year-old club, on Broad Street in the financial district, is crammed with history on the sport, counting as members some of its most prolific chroniclers and enthusiasts. It’s also very subdued in its operation. It doesn’t have a website. It doesn’t accept applications for membership (you have to be recommended, apparently). It doesn’t accept women.
The latest info I could find about the place is in this story about the club applying for a liquor license (see a PDF of the community board meeting minutes approving the license here) and a few words with the club’s director, Chris Matteson.
I’d love to see the club open up a bit and share some of its treasure trove with the wider world. If it had a blog delving into various items of its history, it’d be a hell of an interesting thing.
There’s one very special piece of Anglers’ Club-related history I saw that deserves its own post; here it is.