The landmark India House was constructed by the builder Richard Carman some time after the fire of 1835, in the style of a Renaissance palazzo, residential palaces of Italian banking families. It was the home of the Hanover Bank who first purchased the property.
The edifice has remained almost unchanged since that date. Extensive restoration work was completed in 2005. The name India House was selected to symbolize the Indies, which were believed to epitomize the rare and exotic. The name also pays homage to the Dutch West India Company, the first colonizers of Manhattan.
After the Hanover Bank moved out, the property became the possession of Robert L. Maitland. His company Maitland and Company were tobacco importers. The property was subsequently used by the New York Cotton Exchange (1870 to 1885), and later by W.R. Grace & Company.
India House, as an organization, came into being in 1914, when a group of business men headed by James A. Farrell, then president of United States Steel Company, in collaboration with Willard Straight, decided to create a meeting place for the interests of foreign trade. Presidents of the Lackawanna Steel Company, Dollar Steamship Company, W.R. Grace Shipping, Chase National Bank, and United States Rubber all became Governors of India House and remained active during its first two decades.
The National Foreign Trade Council made India House its headquarters. Leaders in commerce worldwide graced the halls at India House. Indeed, from its very inception, the club's charter stated that its goal was to "create in this country a relation between the bankers and the promoters of foreign enterprises that would make it possible to handle foreign undertakings..."
Early in 1918 Willard Straight bought the property with the idea that India House might some day wish to own it. Through the generosity of Mrs. Dorothy Payne Whitney-Straight (Elmhirst), India House acquired the property in February 1921, and on the expiration of certain leases in 1924, rearranged and rebuilt the structure.
In 1925, Mr. William A. Delano, the well-known architect added what is now known as the Marine Room, with special lighting and architectural details that relate to marine life and seafaring. Extensive alterations were made and the rooms were fitted out in the spirit of the early American overseas trade.
Many statesmen have been members of India House, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., James Byrnes, W. Averell Harriman, George C. Marshall, Henry Cabot Lodge and Cyrus Vance. Other members include previous mayors of New York, including John P. O'Brien and the famous architect William Adams Delano, whose firm, Delano & Aldrich, redesigned the interior of India House.