History

A really good history; thank you Suzanne! Elaine and I are flattered to be mentioned towards the end. BTW, until I read this I was unaware that we benefited from the $100 million in community mortgage lending that the Ortners negotiated with Chase. We got our mortgage from Chase in 1974, a time when it was unusual to get a home mortgage from a commercial bank. None of the savings banks and savings and loans that we approached would even give us an application.

What a wonderful post. More like these please here on Brownstoner. When I first moved to Clinton Hill 25 years ago (then up the street from the poster at Clinton and Lafayette), I was able to meet many of the longer-term residents through house tours, the SONYA art tour, Tilley's coffee shop etc who had connections to previous funkier (in many senses of the word) times. Somewhat off topic I ran by the new location of the Brooklyn Free School, once on Clinton Avenue, now further out in Bed-Stuy. Best.

R.H. Kutner was the genial proprietor of The Borough Park Clubhouse in 1907. Prior to this he was managing the clubhouse with his wife for six years. In 1907 the clubhouse underwent extensive alterations and improvements, to which Kuttner “spared no expense making his establishment complete in every detail”. Additions included a bowling alley in the basement, a billiard parlor and a dancing stage among other things. There is no mention of Kuttner in this article only Reynolds, however newspaper from December 25th, 1907 have all this information, as this was the case. I’m wondering then, did Reynolds buy the clubhouse and sell it to Kutner or in the reverse, did Reynolds buy it from Kutner? This I do not know.

Suzanne, thank you for this wonderful series! I learned so much about my great-grandfather and the family that I didn't know. And thank you too for highlighting the contributions of my second cousin Sean MacGuire, who (literally) pulled all the patents and was instrumental in getting Thomas E. Murray elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (website: www.temurray.com). People might also be interested in my cousin Tom Murray's documentary "Dad's in Heaven with Nixon" (2010) which originally aired on Showtime and is now available via Amazon or Netflix. It's about his artist brother Chris Murray's struggle with autism and includes family film and info about the Murray family and Southampton. And I can't end this without mentioning again the book "New York and Power" (2013) by Joseph Cunningham where Thomas E. Murray plays a major role.