Philadelphia Lost Links, Part 2: Shenley Pines (Philly's First Links?)

[Joe Bausch]

I recently came upon a 1922 Philadelphia Public Ledger story that suggests a nine-hole course by the name of Shenley Pines may have started about the same time (early 1890s) as the Philadelphia Country Club course, and perhaps even was the first course in this area.  This article doesn't make it sound like much of a layout, but it is a fantastic read!

[TEPaul]

Joe:

Very interesting article indeed. If a course like that really was the first one in Philadelphia that would mean golf started here essentially as it did in Boston, not on the land of a club but on the land of apparently some well off landowners who were used to going abroad, such as the Hunnewells, Phillips and Appletons of Boston.

I do see some of those old line family names in that article that are still around today here in Philadephia. One of them is Percy and Joe Clark and that other fellow by the name of Madeira. Joe Clark was Frederick Winslow Taylor's brother-in-law, and the executor of Taylor's estate and the man that Hugh Wilson went to immediately following Taylor's death in 1915. Essentially that began a process that would turn into the USGA Green Section in the early 1920s.

And you guessed it, I'm directly related to some of those people. Those Clarks, Percy and Joseph are from the direct line of my mother, nee Frances Ellen Clark (Paul). There was a Clark financial house in Philadelphia  (competitor of Drexel) through which the famous American financier from Ohio, Jay Cooke, came up though. Jay Cooke essentially financed the US Civil War through his clever creation and promotion of US Government bonds!   

[TEPaul]

Joe:

I also like the way that article said that old course used some Continental army trench and other military features for hazards and such.

If Paul Cowley could see that he would go apeshit with ecstasy---he is the best there is for military feature ideas applied to golf course architecture.

[Joe Bausch]

With a search and find mission lead by Jim Hutchins, here is an 1892 map showing where this course would be.  The property of Dougherty and Sills, which is talked about in the article, is right where it should be:

[Joe Bausch]

I recently stumbled upon this February 1920 Philly Inky article that talks about how many golf pros came out of the "Falls of the Schuylkill" area of Philadelphia.  I post this on this thread b/c Shenley Pines, arguably the first nine hole golf course in this area, was located in the Falls of Schuylkill region.  This is probably not a coincidence and likely a nice story to be further explored.

[Joe Bausch]

Long time St. Davids pro Pete Trenham, now the historian for the Philadelphia section of the PGA, passed along to me an article he wrote a few years ago on "The Falls" area.  I think it has some wonderful info in it and dovetails nicely with this thread:

The Falls of Schuylkill known as “The Falls” is a little neighborhood on the east bank of the Schuylkill River between Strawberry Mansion and Manayunk. In the 1890s 75% of the area’s workers were employed by Dodson’s a weaving mill that had supplied blankets to the Union Army during the Civil War. Dodson’s had two classes of employees, English weavers and Irish laborers. In 1893 when the Philadelphia Country Club constructed a golf course on its grounds a mile or so west of the Schuylkill near City Line Avenue there was a need for caddies and golf was introduced to The Falls. Up to that time the Irish boys usually dropped out of school when they reached the age of 14 and went into the mill but now there were caddy jobs and the parents were happy to get them out in the fresh air and away from the drinking in the mill.

It didn’t take long for some of the boys to become accomplished golfers. They chipped and putted in the caddy yard while waiting for employment and they played the course on Mondays. When they returned to The Falls in the evening there would be challenges to see if someone could drive a golf ball across the Schuylkill. By the early 1900s the boys from The Falls were becoming assistant pros and within a few years they were being hired as head pros by the Philadelphia clubs. The golfers hung out at an eatery in The Falls called “The Gunboat”. The brother of the owner of “The Gunboat” was Bill Byrne a pro at several clubs before settling in as the professional at St. Davids GC for fourteen years. Golf stories would be swapped there along with news about job openings in the golf business. 

As the years went on there was a lot of talk concerning who was The Falls’ best golfer. In 1920 they decided to hold a tournament and the Philadelphia Country Club agreed to host the event. The tournament was open to only those who had been born in East Falls. On Monday September 13 Bill Leach, the professional at the Merchantville CC, won the first of what was called the “Open Championship of the Falls of Schuylkill” with a 36-hole score of 159. Leach went on to win the tournament three more times as the professional at Overbrook GC. His fourth win came in 1929 with a score of 136 at PCC.
At one point there were 48 young men holding positions as head pros or assistant pros who had lived in The Falls. Some became famous and some were colorful characters. One of the latter was Matt Duffy who had a waxed mustache and wore fawn colored spats. Duffy was a good golfer (he qualified for the 1922 PGA Championship) and could work in any phase of the golf business. He worked as the green superintendent at the Delaware County Field Club (now Llanerch), held three head pro positions at various times and redesigned the greens at the Cape May CC, which no longer exists. In between golf assignments he used a car that he had painted to look like a cab to make a buck. He would hang out near the Yellow Cap phone in The Falls and if no one was there to answer the call he would take it and pick up a fare. A play writer from The Falls named George Kelly wrote his prize-winning play “The Showoff” using Duffy as his inspiration for the lead character.

The Falls’ most famous golfer was Jack Burke, Sr. who worked at several Philadelphia clubs before moving west. Burke missed winning the 1920 U.S. Open by one stroke while working at the Town & Country Club in St. Paul, Minnesota. He went on to win the PGA Seniors’ Championship in 1941. His son Jack Burke, Jr. won a PGA Championship and a Masters Tournament.

Another caddy graduate of The Falls was Joe Roseman who also wound up in the Midwest as a pro-green superintendent. Roseman also designed more than 50 golf courses, pioneered the use of complete underground watering systems and in 1922 he built a night-lighted par-three course. He also invented and manufactured golf course mowers that were sold under the Roseman name. One of his inventions was a hollow mower roller to preserve the turf. Some golf courses are still using Roseman mowers and looking for parts on the Internet.

A famous Falls caddy who didn’t become a golf professional was John B. Kelly, Sr., the father of the actress Grace Kelly. Kelly won gold medals in rowing at the Olympics in both 1920 and 1924. He played in several of the first East Falls Opens and became a very successful businessman. (John B. Kelly and George Kelly were brothers)

When the second East Falls Open was held in 1921 the tournament committee invited some local pros that had worked at PCC or clubs nearby along with the residents of The Falls. Charles Hoffner won that East Falls Open and two of the next three. It continued into the late 1930s as an open tournament until some of the Fallsers became tired of “outside carpet bagging golf pros” winning their tournament (even though they had been invited). Even the six-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion Glenna Vare played in the first round in 1932. The committee decided that the tournament would be open only to residents and former residents of The Falls. Today it is open to residents of The Falls, former residents of the falls and the sons of anyone who ever lived in The Falls. This year’s event at North Hills will draw its usual field of 150+ entries and along with some great golf shots there will be many stories about the past cast of characters and golf stars from The Falls.

[Bill Shotzbarger]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this course was located almost exactly where Penn Charter and Philly University is today?

[Joe Bausch]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this course was located almost exactly where Penn Charter and Philly University is today?

That is correct Bill:  Penn Charter looks to be right on it!

[Dan Herrmann]

I love this line from Joe's first article - "One of the hazards was over a house used as a prison during the Revolutionary War".  Wow!

Here's an early map that depicts the battleground:


and a painting of the battle from an area that would have been nearby:

[Joe Bausch]

I have an update on what may have been the first full-fledged golf course in Philly, called Shenley Pines.  This info comes courtesy of Jim Hutchins (darn it Jim, ask Ran to be a member!).

The house owned by H.M. Sill was known as "Shenley".  The house owned by T.H. Dougherty was known as "Pines".  These were very elegant houses, as you'll see below.  Here is info from the Bryn Mawr library on Sill and Dougherty:

**SILL, H. M. - SHENLEY - JOHNSON, LINDLEY - F,H15G
bio: Sill, Harold Montgomery (1854-) m1877 Pauline Wiener(1855-00)
- banker w/E W Clark from 1871 - s/John Todhunter Sill&Sarah C. Dunlap
- ret 1888
loc: nw - Germantown,School La
- - b-i-law to Dougherty - esd Schoolhse la
bldg: 1884 - - downspout - dem

Sill, Dougherty
S. F. Hotchkin, Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mt. Airy, and Chestnut Hill, 1889, p. 130: "Mr. Sill's fine large Queen Anne cottage . . . The similar residence of Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Sill's brother-in-law, is adjacent."

**DOUGHERTY, T. HARVEY - THE PINES - JOHNSON, LINDLEY - F
bio: Dougherty, Thomas Harvey (1853- ) & Amelia Wiener
distiller - s/Chas A. D.bro-in-law of Mr. Sill, nxt
- 1886:w/J. A. Dougherty Sons, att UP 1869-70.
loc: nw - Germantown
- esd Schoolhse Lane
bldg: 1885 c? - - eye - dem

Sill, Dougherty
S. F. Hotchkin, Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mt. Airy, and Chestnut Hill, 1889, p. 130: "Mr. Sill's fine large Queen Anne cottage . . . The similar residence of Mr. Dougherty, Mr. Sill's brother-in-law, is adjacent."


Here is a pic of the Shenley house:



Here is a pic of the Pines house:

[TEPaul]

Joe:

If this Shenley Pines course really was the first course in this area the nature of it isn't much different from Boston where the first courses (early 1890s) weren't even clubs---they were courses on private estates, such as the Hunnewells, Phillips and particularly the Appleton family (R.M. Appleton being the man who with a few of his Myopia Hunt Club friends laid out the original nine hole of Myopia in the spring of 1894). And it's no wonder he did as he had his own course on his estate before that!

[TEPaul]

Joe:

I have zero idea about the truth of this but apropos of what I just said above about some of those really early private estate courses it would not surprise me if Daddy Deep Pockets built a couple of similar places for his married children on his larger estate or whatever with that early Shenley course.

This was the sort of the evolution around fifty years later on the Main Line when Clarence Geist (owner of Seaview and Boca Raton) built a massive place on over 100 acres across the street from his massive mansion and gave it to his daughter when she got married. That wedding present house and place is now Overbrook's clubhouse and Overbrook golf course----the only solo golf course of Donald Ross's Philadelphia agent J.B. MacGovern.

This is sort of along the lines of the original Mt Airy course (which is now called Whitemarsh GC). That place belonged to George Thomas, bigtime financier. He was asked if he'd consider letting a club put a golf course on his massive estate and he apparently agreed providing his son, George Thomas Jr., designed the course!