Jefferson Democratic Club’s home up for sale in Canarsie

Unassuming building hosted power politics

July 29, 2024 Raanan Geberer

The headquarters of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club in Canarsie. Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Archives

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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,” he died in a car accident in 1998.

Today, probably the best-known political figure to have come out of the Thomas Jefferson Democratic Club is the affable, almost universally well-liked Frank Seddio, who served as its president from 1992 until 1998, according to Crain’s.

Seddio has held many positions during his career — police officer, lawyer, Assemblymember, Surrogate Court judge and chair of the Kings County Democratic Committee. When he resigned as party chair in 2020, he endorsed Assemblymember Bichotte Hermelyn as his successor.

Aside from his professional and political accomplishments, Seddio was well-known for decades for his elaborate Christmas display outside his law office, comprising more than 150,000 lights, according to published reports. He finally ended the lighting extravaganza in 2021 when he put the house up for sale.

Also vitally important to the club is Sue Ann Partnow, now district manager of Community Board 18. A 2017 profile in the Eagle mentioned that she served as female district leader for the area (Seddio was her male counterpart), a board member of the club, and the person who coordinated the club’s events, such as its annual gala dinner-dance at El Caribe.

She managed to juggle this, the Eagle reported, with a full-time position at the Jewish Association Serving the Aged (JASA). “I love being involved with the seniors,” she said.

At the present time, Bichotte Hermelyn told Crain’s, the club is looking for another, more modern headquarters.