The Montauk Club is a social club located in a Francis Kimball-designed building in

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in South Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park and Eighth Avenue (Brooklyn), Prospect Park West to the east, ...

, Brooklyn. The Club provides dining and drinking services.

History

The Club was founded in 1889 as a traditional men's social club by a group looking for a club located in the rapidly-developing Park Slope area. The initial group of 25 charter members quickly grew to 300 and became the most prominent club in Brooklyn.

Charles Pratt Charles Pratt (October 2, 1830 – May 4, 1891) was an American businessman. Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and he established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. He then lived with his growing fam ...

, Richard Schermerhorn, Edwin Clark Litchfield and Robert Pinkerton were early members. Of the hundreds of clubs in Brooklyn at the time, the Montauk Club is the only one still in existence. The landmark clubhouse was built in 1889-91 and was designed by Francis H. Kimball in the Venetian Gothic. It is reported to have been modeled after the Palazzo Santa Sofia (

Ca' d'Oro The Ca' d'Oro, or Palazzo Santa Sofia, is a palace on the Grand Canal of Venice, Grand Canal in Venice, northern Italy. Ca' d'Oro or Cadoro translates to "House of Gold" or "Golden House" in English because of the Gilding, gilt and polychrome ext ...

) on

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

's Grand Canal. Built of brownstone and brick, it features verdigris copper and

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

produced by the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Works. It is ornamented with representations of the Montauk tribe of Native Americans the club is named after, which can be found on the building's

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

, over the main entrance, and on a continuous

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

between the third and fourth floors. Other panels depict a meeting in 1659 between the Montauks and Europeans, and the laying of the cornerstone of the building. The smaller staircase to the left of the main entrance was built as the Ladies' Entrance, the first of its kind in any social club in Brooklyn or Manhattan. It is now used as the entrance to the condominium units (see below). The club is located within the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission's

Park Slope Historic District Park Slope Historic District is a national historic district in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It consists of 1,802 contributing buildings built between 1862 and about 1920. The 40-block district is almost exclusively residential and ...

. In 2017, the Montauk Club building received the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award from the New York Landmarks Conservancy and the

Municipal Art Society The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) is a non-profit membership organization for preservation in New York City, which aims to encourage thoughtful planning and urban design and inclusive neighborhoods across the city. The organization was ...

's MaSterworks Award for Best Restoration. Although not a political club, many prominent politicians of both parties were members, and the Club has hosted many prominent politicians over the years, including

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until Assassination of William McKinley, his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

and

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

. Hugh L. Carey, Governor of New York, was a member for many years. Club membership declined in the period before Brooklyn's renaissance, and it became difficult to maintain the beautiful but aging clubhouse. The upper and basement floors were sold to a developer for condominiums, with the Club ultimately retaining ownership of the first and second floors. With a growing membership, especially of younger members, the Club continues to provide community for families and individuals.

In popular culture

The club has been used as a location in films such as ''

Prizzi's Honor ''Prizzi's Honor'' is a 1985 American black comedy crime film directed by John Huston, starring Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner as two highly skilled mob assassins who, after falling in love, are hired to kill each other. The screenplay co- ...

'', '' Definitely, Maybe'', '' Gigantic'',

Rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a wooden, plastic, or metal bat that has a cylindrical end. The players score b ...

'', '' Illuminata'', Q&A, and ''

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

'' and television shows such as '' The Mysteries of Laura,

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter for the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. The series sta ...

, Gotham,

The Good Wife ''The Good Wife'' is an American legal political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in law ...

, Public Morals'' and ''

Person of Interest "Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...

''.

Gallery

File:Montauk Club from Park Street West.jpg, View of the building from the southeast, on Plaza Street West File:Montauk Club Park Street West facade detail.jpg, Detail of the Plaza Street West facade File:Montauk Club doorway.jpg, The main entrance to the building File:Montauk Club 8th Avenue facade detail.jpg, Detail of the Eighth Avenue facade, above the entrance

References

Notes

External links

* *{{Official website, http://www.montaukclub.com Clubs and societies in New York City Gentlemen's clubs in New York City Park Slope Buildings and structures in Brooklyn Culture of New York City Organizations established in 1891 1891 establishments in New York (state) Gothic Revival architecture in New York City Venetian Gothic architecture in the United States

History

In popular culture

Gallery

See also

References

External links