Four floors up from the throng of people pushing their way towards the train they are invariably late for lies one of Manhattan's best-kept sporting secrets. The island, with its vertically inclined private life, is naturally stuffed to the brim with curiousities available only if you know where to look and who to ask. I know that none of you asked me directly how to find the most unusually placed tennis court in the city, but I felt the call to answer anyway.
Vanderbilt tennis club's single full size court is available for private sessions and classes every day of the week for feudal lord-exclusive prices ranging from $90 to $365 per session. While I won't be renting out the court any time soon, as my forays into tennis have been entirely unathletic, just skimming essays and watching Monty Python, mostly, it's thrilling to know that a few stories up from the commuter central is a court of preternatural green.
Vanderbilt Tennis Club is the latest stage in this space's long and peculiar history. Originally an art gallery, and then a CBS recording studio, it was taken over in 1966 by a Hungarian immigrant who installed a 65-foot ski slope made of astroturf and two tennis courts.
vanderbilttennisclub.com
The facilities were briefly owned by Trump as a private tennis court before changing over to its current setup, privately operated but open to the public.
