Marble Fragment

• Phanerozoic
  • Cenozoic
    • Quaternary
      • Holocene
        • 19th century
          • 1890s
            • 1894

• Historic Materials
  • Stone
    • Metamorphic
      • Granular
        • Marble

The Metropolitan Club, which moved into its building at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and East 60th Street 95 years ago, is cleaning the exterior of the landmarked property, which was designed by Stanford White. More than $1 million is being spent to dissolve as many as five layers of paint on the marble exterior, and then slather it with a chemical poultice to remove stains caused by the reaction between air pollutants and impurities in the stone.

Frank Matero, director of Columbia University's Center for Preservation Research, who is supervising the cleaning, described the poultice as a sort of cosmetic mudpack, containing ammonium citrate, which has only recently come into use.

The first phase of the project involves cleaning paint from the marble facade along the courtyard and annex on 60th Street; the exterior of the main building, which overlooks Grand Army Plaza and the south end of Central Park, will be cleaned next spring.

Two years ago the club sought to build a 37-story apartment tower above the clubhouse to, among other things, provide funds to renovate the original building. The proposal was rejected by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission. The club, which was founded in 1891, has a worldwide membership of 2,600 business and political leaders.