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Automobile Club of America

{{Short description|First car club in America (1899–1932)}}

The Automobile Club of America (ACA) was the first automobile club formed in America in 1899.{{cite news |title=WHY AUTO BREAK CAME {{!}} CLUB EXPLAINS ACTION. {{!}} Need for International Race the Chief Reason |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4708527/automobile-club-of-america-1899-history/ |access-date=20 October 2021 |work=New-York Tribune |date=12 July 1908 |pages=9}} The club was dissolved in 1932 following the Great Depression and declining membership.

History

= Early history =

On June 7, 1899, a group of gentlemen auto racers met at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan and founded the Automobile Club of America.{{cite news | newspaper=The New York Times | title=Automobile Club Formed | date=17 October 1899 | url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/10/17/117931914.pdf }} The Automobile Club of America was officially incorporated on August 15, 1899, in order to "maintain a social club devoted to the sport of automobilism and to its development throughout the country".{{cite news |title=Automobile Club of America. |url=https://archive.org/details/NYTimes-Aug-Sep-1899/page/n274 |at=p 3 col 2 |access-date=5 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=16 August 1899 |via=Internet Archive Digital Library}} The original directors of the club were: Frank C. Hollister, Charles R. Flint, George Moore Smith, Winslow E. Busby, Whitney Lyon, George F. Chamberlain, Homer W. Hedge, and William Henry Hall of New York City and V. Everit Macy of Scarborough-on-Hudson. While it was called the Automobile Club of America, it was really a local organization.{{cite news |last1=Gray |first1=Christopher |author1-link=Christopher Gray (architectural historian) |title=Oil for My Car, a Cocktail for Me |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/realestate/04scapesready.html |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=1 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613011550/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/realestate/04scapesready.html?_r=3 |archive-date=13 June 2018 |url-status=deviated}}{{cbignore}} It was a founding member of the American Automobile Association (AAA) in 1902.{{Citation |title=IMRRC Symposium 2023 - Don Capps, 1908 and American Motor Sport | date=6 November 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwVs_Vl_CtA |access-date=2023-11-14 |language=en}}

In 1907, the organization built its clubhouse, which was essentially a garage at 247 West 54th Street with a terra-cotta exterior. Architect Ernest Flagg "designed a sophisticated factorylike building with great banks of metal windows, set in a rich screen of glazed terra cotta, particularly fulsome on the second floor. There, a double-height assembly hall, modeled on one at Château de Cheverny in the Loire Valley, ran 100 feet across the building’s front, adjacent to a grill room on the same scale at the back."

= Feud with AAA =

File:Savannah's American Grand Prize race trophy.jpg]]

In 1908, the AAA increased their membership dues, leading to a falling out with the ACA. The Automobile Club of America (ACA) created the American Grand Prize, the first traces of Grand Prix style racing in the U.S. along, and in competition with, the then established Vanderbilt Cup – sanctioned by the AAA's Racing Board. This race escalated the feud between the ACA and the AAA. Later in 1908 it was decided that AAA would sanction all big time racing nationally and the ACA would sanction all international events held on American soil. On December 2, 1908, AAA dissolved the Racing Board and created the Contest Board soon after. Though the rationale for this decision has been lost with time, the move was most likely done to allow AAA to oversee all automobile events and not just racing contests.

= Post-1908 =

In 1909, after the number of members looking for garage space doubled, the club built an addition on West 55th Street. By 1910, membership in the club was up to 1,000. In 1923, however, the club sold the complex and the original buildings were converted to other uses before being torn down in 2008.

File:William L Harkness house 12 east 53rd st.jpg

The club relocated to the former Fisk-Harkness townhouse at 12 East 53rd Street and separately negotiated blocks of space in garages around Manhattan.{{cite news |date=December 11, 1923 |title=Automobiles Club Gets Former Harkness Home |page=22 |work=New-York Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1237317117}}}}{{cite news |date=December 16, 1923 |title=East Side Home for Automobile Club: Commercial Growth on Broadway and Eighth Avenue Below Columbus Circle Has Made Property Now Occupied Too Valuable for Garage Uses |page=RE2 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|103159612}}}} The Fisk–Harkness House had {{Convert|28000|ft2}}, which represented an increase of {{Convert|8000|ft2}} over the club's existing space in the automobile district south of Columbus Circle.{{Cite news |date=December 16, 1923 |title=A.C.A's New Home For Club Purposes Only |pages=20 |work=The Standard Union |via=newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/79570968/acas-new-home-for-club-purposes-only/|access-date=June 14, 2021}} Furthermore, 12 East 53rd Street was close to several other clubhouses along Fifth Avenue, including those of the University Club, Union Club, Calumet Club, Knickerbocker Club, and Metropolitan Club.{{Cite news |date=April 26, 1925 |title=Auto Club to Open New 6-story Home; Pioneer Motor Organization to Move on Tuesday to Fifth Avenue Club Centre |language=en-US |page=E1 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/04/26/107057507.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{harvnb|Landmarks Preservation Commission|2011|ps=.|p=9}} The Club received a $190,000 mortgage on the new building in early 1924.{{cite news |date=February 9, 1924 |title=Private Dwelling Houses Taken Over by Operators and Investors |page=18 |work=New-York Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1222060580}}}} After undergoing $100,000 worth of renovations,{{cite news |date=January 22, 1932 |title=Automobile Club Is to Disband; Formed in 1899: Liquidation of Oldest Motorist Group in Country Due to Loss of Members A. A. A. Will Occupy Home Sponsored First Road Races, Shows and Traffic Rules |page=32 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1221264385}}}}{{cite news |date=January 23, 1932 |title=Motor Clubs |quote=... the Automobile Club of America has decided to ... close its doors forever, [demonstrating] the change that has taken place during the past twenty years ...|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1932-01-23/ed-1/seq-6/ |access-date=8 May 2022 |work=Washington Evening Star |at=p A-6 col 2}} the clubhouse was dedicated in April 1925.{{cite news |date=April 29, 1925 |title=Reception in New Home Of Automobile Club: Governors Welcome Friends at 12 East Fifty-third Street |page=15 |work=The New York Herald, New York Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1112797059}}}}{{Cite news |date=April 29, 1925 |title=Automobile Club Opens New Home; President Woods Welcomes Members in Former Harkness Residence, 12 East 53d St. |language=en-US |page=21 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/04/29/104172467.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} The clubhouse was among the locations where New York license plates were distributed.{{Cite news |date=November 21, 1926 |title=1927 License Plates for Autos Tomorrow; Motor Vehicle Bureau Announces Places in City Where They May Be Obtained. |language=en-US |page=13 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/11/21/100010083.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news |date=November 24, 1929 |title=Issue to Begin Tomorrow of 1930 Car Tags: Plates for New Year May Be Attached to Automobiles on December 16 Many Stations in City Commissioner Harnett Seeks to Avoid Final Congestion |page=B12 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1111984994}}}} Events hosted at the house included a luncheon with a League of Nations Non-Partisan Association official,{{Cite news |date=February 25, 1928 |title=World Court Step by Us Is Advocated; Adoption by Senate of Gillett Resolution Urged by League Association at Luncheon. |language=en-US |page=6 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/25/109855308.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} an annual session of the National Highway Traffic Administration,{{Cite news |date=May 1, 1926 |title=Highway Men Fight Road Advertising; Traffic Association Opposes a Bill Allowing Business Signs on Danger Markers |language=en-US |page=10 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/05/01/100071252.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} as well as bridge games and tea dances.{{Cite news |date=January 6, 1928 |title=Automobile Club Plans Tea-Dances. |language=en-US |page=S18 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/01/06/118335240.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news |date=December 3, 1927 |title=Bridge, Dance, for Union Hospital |page=15 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1133111935}}}} In the 1920s, the ACA quietly rejoined the AAA.

= Decline and demise =

The club had a peak membership of 6,000, but following the Great Depression in the United States, several thousand members left the club. As a result, in January 1932, the Automobile Club's governors voted to dissolve the club. The East 53rd Street building was placed for sale at a foreclosure auction that August,{{cite news |date=August 30, 1932 |title=Many Auction Sales Planned |page=30 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1221639783}}}} and it was sold to the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York for $50,000.{{Cite news |date=August 31, 1932 |title=Benenson Holdings Bid in at Auction; Four Downtown Buildings Go to City Bank Farmers Trust for $1,500,000 |language=en-US |page=31 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/08/31/100800999.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}} The building was later renovated into the showroom of art dealer Symons Galleries in 1938.{{Cite news |date=May 1, 1938 |title=Art Firm Moves; Symons Galleries Will Occupy New Home in 53d Street |language=en-US |page=181 |work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/05/01/99542034.pdf|access-date=June 14, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}

Prominent members

Among the prominent members of the Club were:

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References

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=Sources=

  • {{cite web |date=June 28, 2011 |title=Fisk–Harkness House |url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2406.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date= |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |ref={{harvid|Landmarks Preservation Commission|2011}}}}

See also

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Automobile Club of America}}

Category:Automobile associations in the United States

Category:Defunct clubs and societies in New York (state)

Category:Organizations established in 1899

Category:Organizations disestablished in 1932

Category:1899 establishments in the United States

Category:1932 disestablishments in the United States

Category:Car culture