Ernest E. L. Hammer

Ernest E. L. Hammer (December 17, 1884 – March 10, 1970) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge from New York.

Life Hammer was born on December 17, 1884, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the son of Ernest E. Hammer and Catherine C. Tyrrell.

Hammer lived in the Bronx starting in 1890, where his father worked as a builder and consultant. He attended St. Jerome's School and graduated from St. Francis Xavier High School, the University of Notre Dame in Indiana with an A.B., and New York Law School with an LL.B. He was admitted to the bar in 1906 and began practicing law, handling important litigated and business transactions in the Bronx. He was a member of the law firm Healy & Hammer with former Assistant Corporation Counsel Ellsworth J. Healy, with law offices at 37 Liberty Street in Manhattan. He was chairman of the Committee on Legislation of the Democratic County General Committee of the County of the Bronx. In 1912, he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a Democrat, representing the 35th District. He served in the Assembly in 1913. He began residing in Bayport during the summer in 1924, and in March 1969 he moved to Sayville.

Active in promoting the growth of the Bronx, Hammer was a charter member of the Bronx Rotary Club, the Board of Trade, and the Chamber of Commerce. He helped plan the Concourse Plaza Hotel, the first hotel in the borough, and headed a committee that planned the Bronx County Building. He became a trustee for the Lavelle School for the Blind in 1928, and from 1951 to 1966 he served as president of the board. A notable Catholic layman, he received Papal appointments as a Knight of Malta and Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, was rewarded with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice and the Gold Cross of Jerusalem, and served as president of the board of governors of the Catholic Lawyers Guild.