The headquarters of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Canarsie. Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives
The headquarters of the historic Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Canarsie is up for sale for $1.5 million, according to Crain’s.
Although the building at 77 Conklin Ave. looks like a large private house, it’s been the political home of some of the most influential figures in the history of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, linking the clubhouse politics era of Meade Esposito to the more inclusive party of today.
And while today’s Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, represents a different part of Brooklyn, she was elected to her post in 2020 at a meeting held at the Thomas Jefferson Club. The club continues to host high-profile gatherings that have attracted political heavy hitters like Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and countless others.
The Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club was founded in 1955, and the headquarters in question was built in 1960, according to Crain’s. At that time, middle-class and working-class Italian Americans and Jewish Americans from Brownsville and East New York were migrating to Canarsie, Flatlands, Mill Basin and other nearby areas.
The tough-talking, wheeling-and-dealing Esposito, best known as the Brooklyn Democratic chair from 1969 to 1983, was elected as Democratic district leader in Canarsie in 1960. For the rest his political career, according to Wikipedia, he made the Thomas Jefferson club his political base.
Another politician based in the Jefferson club was Assemblymember Anthony Genovesi, who at one time was the club’s chair. During the 1990s, he headed a faction within the Brooklyn Democratic Party that sought to challenge the rule of then-Chair Assemblymember Clarence Norman, but he was never quite able to succeed. Described by The New York Times as “a bulky, gruff-talking figure who knew the ins and outs of neighborhood and state politics,”…
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