78 Herkimer Street

Property address is recorded in the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide as 320 Herkimer, which may be a typo. According to the 1883 Brooklyn City Directory, the original owner, Thomas P. Wilkinson, lived at number 78 as early as 1883.

Queen Anne style house, designed by J. C. Cady in 1880. Wilkinson was a paper dealer who lived nearby at 174 Herkimer Street in 1880.

A Thomas P. Wilkinson is listed as one of the incorporators of the Bedford Dispensary 1. He was a member of the Central Congregational Church, in whose affairs he remained active for many years. Wilkinson's first wife, Sarah, died on April 17, 1886 at the age of 43 2. Wilkinson was remarried to Alice Stanley Boynton on October 20, 1887 at the Stuyvesant Congregational Church (which was Mrs. Wilkinson's congregation). On November 22, 1887, the Wilkinsons held a wedding reception at their home on Herkimer 3. Alice Wilkinson died in 1903. Thomas P. Wilkinson died on October 2, 1915 4.

According to his obituary in Paper, Wilkinson was born in East Farnham, Canada in about 1839. His brothers Joseph and William founded Wilkinson Brothers & Co. prior to 1867, and in that year Thomas joined the firm, taking the place of brother Joseph. Around 1871 the firm constructed the Derby mill at Shelton, Conn., which "operated on jute paper and colored specialities". The plant was destroyed by fire in 1879, but was quickly rebuilt. Around this time, the firm had a contract to make postal cards for the government. In 1882, the firm expanded with the construction of the Hudson River Water Power Paper Mill in Mechanicsville, N.Y.5

According to Suzanne Spellen, the building was acquired by the Irving Club in 1895. The Irving Club sold the building in 1899 to the Invincible Club, which named the building Invincible Hall. By the 1920s the 17th Assembly District Republican Club operated out of the house.

See also: A. J. Valente, Rag Paper Manufacture in the United States, 1801 to 1900 (North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 2010), p. 292.

• 1"The Bedford Dispensary", Brooklyn Daily Eagle (June 29, 1881), p. 4.
• 2"Died", Brooklyn Daily Eagle (April 17, 1886), p. 4.
• 3"Wedding Reception", Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 27, 1887), p. 4.
• 4"Thomas P. Wilkinson is Dead", Paper: A Weekly Technical Journal (v. XVII, no. 3, September 29, 1915), p. 24.
• 5"Thomas P. Wilkinson is Dead", Paper: A Weekly Technical Journal (v. XVII, no. 3, September 29, 1915), p. 24.