Collectors Club

In yesterday's New York Times, writer Michael Pollak had the following Q & A in his F.Y.I column

Q. Can you tell me about the Collectors Club on East 35th Street and the wonderful building that houses it?

A. If you can identify a Z-grill or an Inverted Jenny, examples of which were involved in a big swap this month, you have probably heard of the Collectors Club. It's an organization of stamp collectors, and many of the biggest figures in philately - collectors, exhibitors and authors - have been members.

Founded in 1896, the club has an outstanding philatelic library of about 150,000 volumes, and provides space for philatelic study groups. The library is open to the public, and lectures are held there.

Its 1902 building, at 22 East 35th Street in Murray Hill, near Madison Avenue, was originally the Thomas B. Clarke house - he was a prominent art collector - and was designed by McKim, Mead & White as a neo-Georgian town house, with small-paned bay windows. The five-story brownstone became the club's permanent home in 1938 and was designated a landmark in 1979.

To visit the Collectors Club Web site, click here.