e club was also open to new cultural attractions. In
June of 1889, while still at 34 Eighth Avenue, the club had
a Chinese feast, prepared by Manhattan’s most famous
Chinese chef, Sue Gee. Chinese food was still a novelty
and was not seen as t food for upscale Westerners. e
Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote about the event with an
article entitled “Heathen Fare Will Be on the Tables of
the Montauk Club.” e evening was a great success, and
probably helped popularize Chinese food in the city.
Unusually, the Montauk was not a political club and
accepted both Democrats and Republicans. ey also did
not have a restrictive policy towards Jews, unlike many
Brooklyn institutions. Money and connections were the
main indicator of membership.
Club members enjoyed the rst oor, which contained
a parlor, library and smoking room. e doors between
them could recess, opening up the entire oor into one
large gathering space. e second oor had a billiard
room, card rooms and other reception spaces. e third
oor contained the main dining room as well as the
separate ladies’ parlor and dining room. e fourth oor
o ered hotel-style lodging rooms for six lucky members
who shared a common bathroom. e main kitchen was
in the basement, with dumbwaiter service throughout the
building. e basement also had a bowling alley.
AS TIME GOES BY
e Montauk Club was extremely popular for years. Most
of Brooklyn’s elite belonged to it. Local and national politicians
were invited to speak over the course of the twentieth
century, including Presidents McKinley, Hoover,
Eisenhower and both John and Robert Kennedy. New
York Governor Hugh Carey was a longtime member.
e club was much loved but so popular members complained
the long-term bedrooms were never vacated and
the club lacked a large ballroom or hall. It was thought an
addition would be built on the south side, as per Kimball’s
plans, but one never was.
e club also had a few scandals of the embezzling kind.
ese were called “defalcations” in their day. e rst
defalcator was Nathaniel T. Houghton, who was treasurer
and bookkeeper for the club in 1894. Over the course
of a couple of years, he slowly skimmed o more than
$5,000 of club money. at would be the equivalent of
almost $138,000 today.
When the the was discovered, he le his family behind
and took o to Ohio. e management and membership
of the club were dumbfounded, as Houghton was well
liked. He returned to New York and was arrested, upon
which time he tried to negotiate with the club to pay
back the money. He pled guilty at his trial, still trying to
negotiate. Many club members signed letters of support
and told the judge that Houghton had been o ered a job
in Ohio if he was shown leniency.
e judge wasn’t having it. In a forceful and progressive
declaration, Judge James A. Murtha said, “Because a man
is brought up in good surroundings and is o ered no
incentive to steal on account of poverty or hunger, I am
expected to open the prison doors and let him go free? Yet
a poor fellow who is brought up amid every temptation
and knows no better than to steal is sent to prison without
the care or petition of anyone.” He sentenced Houghton to
the maximum of three years.
In 1916, Wall Street broker Christopher Wagner, who
was rooming on the top oor of the club, answered a
82
Left, envelope for invitation to
event at the Montauk Theatre at
the Montauk Club in 1895. Image
via Montauk Club Collection,
Brooklyn Public Library.