[James Cashmore]

Great stuff guys; really appreciated.

On a side note, does anyone else here think that I really good book on classic American clubhouses is long over due?  There seems to be a million books out there on golf architecture but little to nothing on clubhouses.  Anyone here keen to do one?  

Cheers
James

[RJ_Daley]

a nuamber of years ago, a young lady had come on GCA.com to ask for info on various significant club houses, for some sort of architecture white paper she was doing as an archie student.

There are so many beautiful ones, it seems like a no brainer sort of project that ought to be a success.  

It seems that Olympia Fields and Medinah are also obvious choices for highlighting amazing design.

[Sean_Tully]

It seems that it may have started with and also ended with Clifford Wendehack the architect that designed some pretty nice clubhouses also wrote at least one book on the subject.

He wrote:

Golf & Country Clubs. A Survey Of the Requirement of Planning Construction and Equipment of the Modern Club House. Circa 1929. Hard to come by and also expensive.

He also did books on Early Dutch homes in New Jersey as well. I stumbled on a copy of his Golf and Country Clubs  in a library and found it interesting and will need to take a longer look at it.

Tully

[John Shimp]

Here is a link to Palmetto's clubhouse previously shown by Sean T above.  Picture is a bit brighter.  2nd oldest clubhouse in the US behind Shinnecock Hills.

www.palmettogolfclub.net

[RJ_Daley]

http://www.mai-architects.com/(p3s4sh455l2wv23vmlsoew55)/pd_The_bridges.aspx

I hope the link works above.  It should take you to a rolling slide show of what may be the greatest modern built clubhouse I can think of at the Bridges in Rancho Santa Fe.  Marsh and Associates are the architect/design firm. They appear to be a premier architectural firm for clubhouses.

The building(s) evokes the memory of the Umbrian Hill town of Assisi.

I believe they had a Shells WWOG show not too long ago.  Does anyone think the course  is able to compare to the majesty of the club house?    

[Paul Payne]

I wish I had some photos because now I am thinking of some really good modern clubhouses. I really like the one at Huntsville CC inPA. A lot of the members call it the warehous but I like the simple line and the way the whole place opens up to the course.

I also think the clubhouse at Universtiy Ridge (public) is very interesting architecturally and has a very functional layout. I guess though this gets a bit off track because I am not sure a public clubhouse is really designed with the same purposes in mind as a private. On the other hand it would be interesting to see some of the small clubhouses that were built for public courses between the 1920's and WWII. I have seen some really great small clubhouse / golf shops out there.

[john_stiles]

Clifford Wendehack's 1929 book includes about 150 pages of excellent black & white clubhouse photographs, with exterior and interior views.  Excerpts from the architect's plan are included for some clubhouses.

The frontispiece is a nice oblique photograph looking down on the St. Andrews Golf Club.

The first portion of the coffee table size book is about 50 pages discussing the clubhouse requirements in much detail.

The second portion of the book includes photographs or sketches of :

Bonnie Briar CC,  Larchmont, N.Y.
Columbia CC,  Portland, Ore.
Detroit Golf Club
Drumlins CC,  Syracuse, N.Y.
Everglades Club, Palm Beach, Fla.
Fishers Island Club
Flintridge CC, Flintridge, Calif.
Franklin Hills
Glenview GC, Chicago, Ill.
Grosse Pointe Club
Grosse Point Country Club
Gulf Stream GC, Palm Beach, Fla.
Holston Hills CC,  Knoxville, Tenn.
Hope Valley CC, Hope Valley, N.C.
Huntington Valley CC, Willow Grove, Pa.
Kingsport GC,  Kingsport, Tenn.
Lakeside GC,  Hollywood, Calif.
Longue Vue CC,  Pittsburg, Pa.
Maidstone Club, East Hampton, L.I.
Morris County GC,  Covent, N.J.
Oakland Golf Club,  Bayside, L.I.
Ojai Valley CC
Onondaga GC, Syracuse, N.Y.
Oysters Harbors
Pepper Pike Club, Pepper Pike, Ohio
Pickering Hunt Club,  Phoenixville, PA
Plainfield CC
Quaker Ridge, Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Southern Pines CC, Southern Pines, N.C.
The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.
The Golf Club,  Palos Verdes, Calif.

Some of the clubhouses designed by Clifford C Wendehack are featured as well.

Caracas CC,  Caracas, Venezula
Crossing CC,  Trenton,  N.J.
Elizabeth Town and CC,  Elizabeth,  N.J.
Hackensack GC,  Oradell, N.J.
North Hills GC,  Douglaston, L. I.
North Jersey CC,  Paterson, N.J.
North Hempstead Golf Club, Port Washington, L.I.
Park Club,  Buffalo, N.Y.
Phelps Manor CC,  Englewood, N.J.
Ridgewood CC,  Paramus, N.J.
Rock Spring CC,  Orange, N.J.
Short Hills,  Short Hills, N.J.
Watchung Valley CC,  Plainfield, N.J.
Wiccopee CC,  Beacon, N.Y.
Winged Foot, Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Women's Club of Maplewood, Maplewood, N.J.
Yountakah CC.  Nutley, N.J.

[Mike_Sweeney]

Almost forgot, the Mother Ship of Clubhouse's - Sleepy Hollow's which used to be a Vanderbilt estate

[Kyle Harris]

Lookaway Golf Club in Buckingham, PA boasts the oldest clubhouse in the country.

From their website:


This is a truly magnificant setting.

[wsmorrison]

Kyle,

Any photos of Huntindgon Valley's clubhouse?  That's a beautiful building sitting above the course.

[JR Potts]

Medinah CC

[henrye]

James.  There are a couple of good ones in Canada that might be of interest.  An new one, built in 1990 is Redtail which can be found under the courses by country section of this website.

For Old & Traditional, Toronto Golf is tough to beat.  Built in 1913, it has basically remained intact - including the lockers.

http://www.torontogolfclub.com/index.cfm?ID=1

[henrye]

I guess I should add, and it's likely fairly obvious, that most of the really great classic clubhouses are in the UK.  

[RJ_Daley]

Of course this one has had it's share of exposure and celebrity...

[john_stiles]

There are some interesting observations by Clifford Wendehack in his 1929 book including this one.

"  The English and the Scotch from 1471 to the present time have succeeded in keeping the game with its accompanying Club Houses within reasonable limitations, but within four decades America has lifted it out of its simplicity and made it a highly specialized and scientific factor of our country life.  

If Americans golfers would follow the example and simplicity of their prototypes such as are found in the Old World, golf today in this country would be a much less expensive pastime. "

[Wayne Wiggins, Jr.]

Had to bring this thread back up to practice my picture posting.

Aronimink GC

[BCrosby]

I was in Charlottesville a couple of days ago. Purely by chance I ran across a book by James Mayo on Country Club architecture in a used bookstore. It was published in 1998. At the time Mayo was a professor of architecture at U. of Kansas.  

My flight back to ATL was three hours late so I read the book at the gate between visits to the bar. Not a great book. It could have used a lot more pictures. But it has some interesting stories, including anecdotes about clubs discriminating against Jews, Catholics, blacks, women, etc. There is very little on gca, except that the author notes that sometimes the golf course got in the way of a good clubhouse.

One surprising fact. In 1915 there were 1,000 golf clubs in the US. Ten years later there were 15,000. (I note in passing that despite severe, tough original Golden Age courses full of topshot bunkers, cross bunkers, wild greens and other things mediocre golfers have trouble with, golf was growing exponentially. A propos of thread from last week, I am unconvinced there is any causal connection between the growth of the game and the difficulty (or lack thereof) of golf courses.)

The book is really a history of private social clubs in the US, the first of which was the Union Club in NYC and some clubs in Boston founded in the early 1800's.

You might try to find the book.

Bob

The dust jacket has a picture of the Fairfield, Conn. clubhouse from the '20's. It was (is?) a truly massive structure. Anyone know if it still exists?

 

[Mike Benham]

This is for Adam ...

[Anthony Butler]

For the folks south of the equator... This clubhouse is airconditioned inside and out.



arb:

[James Bennett]

Anthony

that is a clubhouse that should be 'perused'.  It is well worth a 'Captain Cook'.

James B

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