457 Rugby Rd, SSpellen 1

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Detached single-family wood-framed house
Address: 457 Rugby Road
Cross Streets: Dorchester and Ditmas Avenues
Neighborhood: Ditmas Park West
Year Built: 1910-11
Architectural Style: Queen Anne with a hint of Arts and Crafts
Architect: Unknown
Landmarked: No, but filed with LPC for consideration, and should be.

The story: Developer Louis H. Pounds, through his Manor Realty Company, purchased the land that currently makes up Ditmas Park and Ditmas Park West in 1902 from the Ditmarsen family, which had farmed here since the late 1600s.

Flatbush was Brooklyn’s new suburbia at this time, with several important developers overseeing the transition as old farmlands became lots with fine homes for Brooklyn’s wealthier set, who wanted to be within reach of the city, but not in it.

Many of these developers, including Pounds, were looking at the model set forth by Dean Alvord, the master developer of posh Prospect Park South, only blocks from here.

Alvord’s development of PPS had begun in 1898, and by the time Pounds began working on Ditmas Park, Alvord was well on his way, with wide streets filling up with grand, enormous houses.

Pounds took his cue from Alvord, and set up the infrastructure of his neighborhood first. He cleared and leveled the lots, and laid out the pipes and wiring for water, sewers, gas and electricity. He also laid out the sidewalks and landscaped streets before building his homes.

His Ditmas Park boundaries did not cross the Brighton train line, which is now the Q train subway line, running between E. 16th Street and Marlborough Road. That is the border between Ditmas Park and its neighbor, Ditmas Park West.

After finishing up Ditmas Park around 1908, Pounds turned his attention to Ditmas Park West.

457 Rugby Rd, SSpellen 3

The architecture in Ditmas Park West is very similar to that of Ditmas Park, but the area included many two-family houses — and, later, apartment buildings — as well as single-family wood-framed homes.

Pounds used several architects for Ditmas Park, and he did the same here. It is not clear who the the architect was for this house.

The house is more of a Queen Anne design than a Colonial Revival, which was the popular style of the day. It mixes classic Queen Anne details with the more modern bungalow/Arts & Crafts style, also very popular.

The most striking part of the house’s design is the steeply pitched front roof, with a large dormer opening up on the second floor. The wide expanse of window here is just great, as is the stained glass in the transom.

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This is supported by a deep and welcoming porch, supported by classical columns. The entire house is clad in shingles, now painted a nice shade of sky blue, with green trim.

We know it was built around 1911, because that’s when the first want ad appears, with the homeowner looking for domestic help.

That homeowner may have been Clarence C. Klinck. He and his wife and two children are listed here in 1911 and lived here at least until 1939. Mr. Klinck was a well-respected banker.

He was vice president of Manufacturers Trust, and a trustee of the Kings County Savings Bank. His brother Jacob was president of the Kings County Savings Bank.

His wife Louise was active in many different women’s clubs, and his son, Clarence Jr., was quite popular at Brooklyn Poly Tech, and then at Princeton.

When Clarence Sr. died in 1938, over 1,000 people attended his funeral at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Flatbush. He’s buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

The family of John J. Traynor lived here for a long time afterward. Traynor was a CPA with the firm Reed, Abbott & Morgan. His wife Edna made the news often because of her charity and club work.

She was the topic of an article in the Brooklyn Eagle in 1950. Mrs. Traynor was Chairwoman of the Woman’s Division of the Brooklyn Cancer Committee. In the article she speaks of her charity work, not only with this organization but with at least four other groups, all health related.

457 Rugby Rd, Mrs. Traynor, BE, 1950

1950 Brooklyn Eagle

She also talked about raising her three sons, one of whom was joining the priesthood. She told the paper that she took care of the ten-room house without outside help. She was something.

Mrs. Traynor actually made the paper three times in 1950, including being named “Woman of the Week” in the Eagle in October of 1950. All three mentions appeared with photographs.

In the sign of the times, however, her first name was not mentioned once in any of the three articles. She was always Mrs. John J. Traynor. Her first name was retrieved from census records.

The Traynors sold the house in 1951 to a Dr. Alexander Ellman. From there, the trail grows cold.

All house photographs: Suzanne Spellen

457 Rugby Rd, SSpellen 2


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