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The Lotos Club
Lieutenant Robert E. Peary, about to attempt to reach the North Pole, was honored at the Club on January 28, 1893. And the Polish pianist and statesman Ignacy J. Paderewski was the guest at a dinner on April 8.
In 1892, the Club purchased the property at 556-558 Fifth Avenue, on the west side of the avenue south of Forty-sixth Street—the rst home owned by the Club. The rst formal dinner in the new clubhouse was held on November 11, 1893, and the guest of honor was Samuel L. Clemens. President Lawrence said, “It is a happy augury for the future that our fellow member whom we assemble to greet should be the bearer of a most distinguished name in the world of letters: for the Lotos Club is ever at its best when paying homage to genius in literature or art.”
In 1895, the New York Daily Tribune stated, “To be a guest of this organization [The Lotos Club] is recognized as an added honor by any man who is fortunate enough to receive the coveted invitation.”
At a State Dinner in his honor in 1906, St. Clair McKelway, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, tried to capture the essence of The Lotos Club when he said, “The Lotos, as I remember, was formed by men in the professions or in the arts, for ner purposes than conventional clubs could
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