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"But I am working real hard Sully, to see your logic here and I think I've done it. You're going to be amazed too because I think I can clearly shows via truly "verifiable facts" who the architects were who routed and designed Merion East and I agree with you that they did it in 1910 and not in 1911, and I think they basically did it in the late summer months and early fall months of 1910."
Sure, I'll bite..."
OK Sully, I realize that poor Merion and its poor history and poor historians and poor history writers have already been through too much already with us on here but here is my new thesis that pretty much goes along with your thinking----eg somebody was out there routing and designing a course in 1910 and maybe even in July and August and Sept and Oct. of 1910 before the HDC offer went to MCC on Nov. 10, 1910. My thesis is based on yours---eg smart men just don't buy land for a golf course before they are pretty certain exactly what that golf course is going to look like and be like!!!!!!!
So here's what I think happened, and I am going to supply undeniable evidence for it and "verifiable facts!"
Who do we actually KNOW (verifiable facts, now) who was undeniably out on that land in those summer and fall months of 1910?
1/ We know Macdonald and Whigam were out there once in June of 1910 but not an iota of evidence puts either one at Ardmore until April 6, 1911. And we know Barker was there in early June but other than some wacko GCA analyst who thinks he jumped off a train on the way from New York to Georgia there is not an iota of evidence he was ever at Ardmore at any other time in 1910. Wilson, Griscom, Toulmin and Francis? Well, they lived here but no one ever said they were actually out there in 1910 routing and designing that course in 1910 and either did they.
But Horatio Gates Lloyd and Edward W. Connell were out there because one was the clear representative for MCC to negotiate with HDC and the other was clearly the HDC representative to negotiate with MCC. And the original HDC offer to MCC on Nov. 10, 1910 confirms this in writing (do you want to see it?). So we sure know they were out there because the records of MCC say they were the ones who negotiated the HDC offer of 117 acres to MCC and they were both part of the HDC structure too then.
So, I’m concluding that Horatio Gates Lloyd and Edward W. Connell routed and designed Merion East or were the driving force behind it and I am going to strongly petition Merion GC to accept this and change the architectural attribution of the early Merion East from Wilson and his committee to Lloyd and Connell.
But what about this century old story of Wilson and Committee designing Merion East? I think that’s an almost total fabrication and here’s my reasoning:
It all actually revolves around Richard Francis and his relationship with Lloyd. I mean, come on Sully, what kind of dumb story is that 1950 article of Francis’ that he rode his bike over to Lloyd’s place after midnight? What grown man or straight man is going to do that? Not a single one, I tell you. Therefore (or should I yell it right from the shoulder, THEREFORE, like those excellent and stentorian legal minds and debaters, F. Lee Bailey, Melvin Belli and David Moriarty do?), I think it is very likely, or probable or strongly presumable to conclude that Richard Francis had a queer eye for Horatio Gates Lloyd and being the incredibly powerful man Lloyd was (like a lot of powerful men like that) he probably got into the occasional kinky stuff with maids of butlers or gay men or even some cats and dogs late at night when his wife was asleep and after a hard day at the office underwriting California or whatnot.
Rode his bike to see Lloyd after midnight to swap some damn land on a golf course!? Phssshaw! Well, I don’t doubt he did and probably a number of times. I mean the gay blade probably rode his bike over there 3-7 times of more so his car wouldn’t wake up Mrs Lloyd.
Wilson, Toulmin and Griscom? Not a bit of truth in that. And no truth in Francis doing anything out there either. The whole thing is a big fantasy idolization move on Merion’s part and a great big cover-up to hide the fact that Francis was gay and Horatio occasionally let him fool around in 1910 or so. I don’t think there even was a Wilson Committee, at least there was never one actually recorded in the MCC meeting minutes. Oh sure, Hugh liked grass! We ALL know that! He loved to touch it and smell it and I think he even tried smoking some of it too. And there is no question at all he was heavily involved in the agronomy of Merion East and West but not its architecture except maybe hiring that loop-de-loop Pickering to construct the place. Merion East may be the finest example of “flask” architecture the world has ever known because of Pickering’s construction hand and flask. And that young little Flynn may’ve been brought in by Wilson too.
So that’s my thesis, and I can prove it. Nay, belay that, I just did.
The whole thing was a big ruse to cover up some ineffable sexual misconduct and the real architects of Merion East were Lloyd and Connell. Sure both of them got totally minimized for what they did but Lloyd engineered the whole thing on purpose, including his own minimization as the primary architect of Merion East.
In my opinion, that Horatio Gates Lloyd was an incredible guy and the time has now come, a century after the fact, for the club to honor him for what he did for them!