Marvin Cross House. March 30, 1958. Built in the 1870s, this Second Empire mansion was the first headquarters of the Brevoort Club, a swanky Brooklyn gentlemen’s club in the years between 1885 and 1887. Marvin Cross was a lumber merchant, and later Brooklyn Parks Commissioner and member of the Board of Education purchased the mansion in 1891. President Grover Cleveland once dined here as a Cross family guest. In the late 19th century, this fashionable stretch of Bedford Avenue was home to several mansions, many of which have since been demolished.