Capt. William Tumbridge, who was born in Cape Town in 1845 and
who served in the Union Navy in the Civil War, built the
original structure on the north side of Clark Street, between
Hicks and Henry Streets, in 1885. The 10-story building,
designed by Augustus Hatfield, must have been one of the tallest
buildings in Brooklyn Heights. In 1895, Tumbridge was fined $25
for slapping and punching Ira Morley, a broker, who had no money
to pay his hotel bill. And in 1901 Tumbridge was arrested for
disorderly conduct after assaulting a policeman in a quarrel on
a Gates Avenue trolley car. Like other hotels before the advent
of the better-class apartment building, the St. George offered
shelter to both transients and permanent residents. The 1905
census records the family of the prominent chinaware merchant
Theodore Ovington, including his daughter Mary White Ovington,
40, a Radcliffe graduate. In 1909 she was one of the founders of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People;
in 1911 her book ''Half