3. The Montauk Club

In opulent late 19th-century Brooklyn, clubs – both men’s and women’s – sprang to life by the dozen: the Hamilton, the Crescent, the Union League, the Unity, the Germania, the Brooklyn, the Carlton, among many others. Park Slope had begun to rival Brooklyn Heights as the borough’s prime residential area. The 1890 Census Bureau reported that Park Slope had the highest per capita income in the country and its residents were the leaders of Brooklyn society.

And so it is not surprising that a group of 25 men met one day in 1888 in the home of Norton Q. Pope at 241 Park Place to form the Montauk Club. On March 11, 1889, the State of New York issued a Certificate of Incorporation. Within weeks, the new club had drawn some 300 subscribers, making it necessary to lease the brownstone at 34 Eighth Avenue temporarily while they awaited completion of their new clubhouse.

To build their new home one of New York’s finest architects was chosen: Francis H. Kimball. Kimball had just completed the Corbin Building (still standing today on the corner of Broadway and John Street), and had earlier completed two exquisite churches, also still standing (Emmanuel Baptist Church, Lafayette Ave. and St. James Place, Brooklyn 1887, and Riverside Presbyterian Church, near Spuyten Dyvil, 1888) and was to go on to design the two huge buildings just north of Trinity Church in Manhattan, the Trinity and U.S. Realty Buildings on Broadway.

Tours will happen every 30 minutes from 12 to 4 PM on Sunday, October 14th.