"I've asked the question who is included in the so-called Philadelphia School and I've gotten various answers. Perhaps the better question is: What are the critieria for inclusion into the Philadelphia School?"
Mr. MacWood:
That is a good question and perhaps even an interesting one. To be honest with you I really don't know the answer to that question or even if an answer is necessary.
I can tell you this, though, and probably should tell you since I have been one who rather recently wrote a couple of articles in two publications (The Philadelphia Golfer magazine and the USGA's US Amateur magazine in 2005) about "The Philadelphia School of Architecture" and what it was and who might be considered a part of it originally.
As far as I know at this point the idea of it, or my idea of it, very well may've come from California's Geoff Shackelford.
I say that because Geoff Shackelford was arguably my first mentor in golf course architecture around a decade ago. My first exposure to the subject of golf architecture was in preparation to get involved in the so-called "Ardrossn Project" for my club, GMGC, and a proposed move from its present site to Ardrossan Farms; I went out to Barnes and Nobles or Borders and bought his book "The Golden Age of Golf Design."
After reading the book and thankfully because his email was included on the back jacket we proceeded to email constantly about golf and architecture and the project I was involved in. Geoff was the one who suggested I contact Coore and Crenshaw and that is what I did and eventually Bill Coore became my most important mentor on golf architecture, that's for sure.
I tell you all this because as far as I'm aware it may've been Geoff Shackelford in his book "The Golden Age of Golf Design" who thought to divide a few various regions and perhaps collections of architects or even styles and eras of American golf architecture into what he referred to as "schools".
This is what Geoff Shackelford had to say about "The Philadelphia School" in his book "The Golden Age of Golf Design":
"The five men who constitute the Philadelphia School of Design were a diverse and eccentric group, yet they were all good friends and the success of each can be attributed in large part to their residence in the Philadelphia area and their mutual friendship. George Crump, Hugh Wilson, A.W. Tillinghast, George Thomas and William Flynn were the five founders of the Philadelphia School, and each made an indelible mark on the landscape of American golf architecture.
How and when the Philadelphia School began is not known and is not relevant. One likely impetus was the lack of interesting golf architecture in the Philadelphia area, which was, however, home to a host of excellent golfers."
Perhaps one of Goeff Shackelford's inspiration in dividing his book into "schools", including the Philadelphia School, was his ongoing interest in George Thomas who designed LA's Riviera after moving west from his home in Philadelphia after designing a few early courses and perhaps also his interest in how and how much George Thomas himself, in his seminal book, "Golf Architecture in America, Its Strategy and Construction" credited Philadelphia's Hugh Wilson for helping and mentoring him in the area of golf architecture.
In that book of Thomas' this is what he had to say about Merion's Hugh Wilson:
"I always considered Hugh Wilson, of Merion, Pennsylvania, as one of the best of our architects, professional or amateur. He taught me many things at Merion and the Philadelphia Municipal; and when I was building my first California courses, he kindly advised me by letter when I wrote him concerning them."
Perhaps you feel that even George Thomas, Wilson's friend and contemporary, was simply trying to unrealistically and unfactually create a legend out of Merion's Hugh Wilson but somehow I rather doubt that and apparently most all of the world of golf and architecture and its history does too.