Architectural Style and Significance

The Level Club is representative of the Art Deco building style that predominated New York City in the 1920s. Like its nearby counterparts, its design was characterized by mixed-use occupancies, modern-day engineering and construction techniques, and symbolic adornment serving to relay the building's function to the public. Surely, The Level Club has long been admired for its intrinsic beauty; however, the building is itself an architectural testament to Masonry symbolism at its best.

Most important to note is that The Level Club was designed as a small-scale tribute to the central figure of Masonic symbolism - King Solomon's Temple, one of the ancient world's most important religious structures and architectural wonders. The building's facade is further decorated with a number of Masonic symbols throughout, all of which pay tribute to the fine craftsmanship of the Masonic Fraternity.

The concept behind The Level Club building was for it to be both intriguing and distinguished among its rivals, namely the neighboring Beaux Arts Ansonia Hotel and French Renaissance Chateau-style Schwab mansion. Its architects selected the Neo-Romanesque style, typified by its simplicity and linear design made evident through use of arched windows framed in stone and brick, walls interrupted by simple straight or curved columns, and rounded windows.

The Levelers celebrated this choice and enhanced it with their own touches, adding symbolic ornaments and art deco features to distinguish the building from others. Another theory might be to accredit the Masonry tradition, which traces back to the medieval craftsmen and stone carvers who constructed the most exquisite Romanesque-style buildings in existence.

Originally 17 stores high, The Level Club's austere colored tapestry brick façade with granite trim epitomizes the medieval feel, and is highlighted with arched windows, stone-carved cartouches, window pillars with capitals carved with animal figures, multi-colored shields applied on the bricks and more. The numerous carved symbols on the façade draw attention to the building, yet demand that people reflect on their deeper meaning.