Willowdale (now Westwood CC): another Willie Park Jr design (AND Tilly?!)

[Joe Bausch]

Earlier last month I noticed the Fulton History site had been restocked with many Buffalo, NY newspapers.  So I gave the search engine probably my 5000th search and up popped a nifty one.  This from the April 7, 1921 edition of the Buffalo Courier:



It is neat when you share such a finding like I did with Mr. Buffalo Golfer RonMon, and he told me to contact Kevin Lynch concerning this finding.  Which I did.  And we cranked out lots of neat stuff. 

Willowdale eventually became what is now Westwood CC. 

For Westwood CC, Williamsville, NY, Cornish & Whitten has;
 
William Harries
   (R) Geoffrey S. Cornish
    (R) Robert Moote

You'll see in the 1921 article that Harries was part of the construction team.  Well, I'll let Kevin weigh in now with lots of other stuff and figures!

One has to wonder just how many other 'undiscovered' Willie Park Jr courses are out there!

[Ronald Montesano]

For historic setting, Kevin Lynch is William Harries' love child with Lady Heathcoat Amory...

[Kevin Lynch]

When I was first contacted by Joe about Westwood, I thought this one was a no-brainer.  As far as I knew, this was just another of William Harries' many courses in Western New York (after all, Cornish & Whitten said so).  Even further, Geoff Cornish was involved in some re-design work at Westwood, so I figured he must have been familiar with the club history and confident in the attribution to Harries.  Finally, I had never heard any mention of Willie Park from anyone in Western New York.  Even the Westwood website makes no mention of anyone but Harries.

Over the course of several days, I had a great time discovering the history of the club, as well as making connections between several of the clubs in the region (including as far away as Jamestown).  The historical research also helped me understand some of the more "awkward-feeling" holes at Westwood.

I will try to add to this thread along the same path of discovery I went through.  I will add some information about William Harries' involvement in Western New York, the written history of Westwood / Willowbrook,  and finally the pieces that support the attribution of the original 9 holes to Willie Park, Jr. 

I hope some of you find this as interesting as I did.  If anyone has additional information about the site, I'd be grateful to hear about it.  I still have some questions about the eventual expansion of Westwood in the 1940's and how the club's land may tie into the Town of Amherst Audubon courses.

[Kevin Lynch]

For starters, here is the current diagram of Westwood Country Club.  I've rotated the image to a Northern heading so it will align with some later aerials.

[Kevin Lynch]

Buffalo’s Historic Golf District -  Sheridan Drive Region

As a little backdrop for this discussion, it’s interesting to be aware of the number of older courses near Westwood/Willowdale.  Much of Buffalo’s older Golf History seems to be concentrated in one 6 mile stretch along Sheridan Drive. 

Below is a link to an aerial of Westwood Country Club. 
http://binged.it/17WYJAn

Adjacent to the Northeast portion of Westwood’s property is a municipal par-3 course (Town of Amherst – Audubon Golf Course).  The “C-Shaped” pond on the east is part of the Par-3 course.  Across Maple Road to the North is the full 18-hole Audubon Golf Course (which abuts against the University of Buffalo).  These two courses were built in the 1940’s (by William Harries).
 
While these two Audubon courses don’t have the deep history, if you shift to the East along Sheridan Drive, you will take a tour of Buffalo’s older historic courses.

First, you will come across Park Country Club – host of the 1934 PGA Championship.  This course is attributed to the firm of Colt & Alison and built in 1927.  Ian Andrew recently performed some restoration work at the Club.

Continuing East (Sheridan & Youngs), you will come across Donald Ross’ Country Club of Buffalo (1924) – host of the 1931 US Women’s Amateur.  The previous location of the CC of Buffalo was several miles away (Main Street & Bailey Avenue) and hosted the 1912 US Open (currently the Grover Cleveland Golf Course).

Finally, if you continue East along Sheridan, you will come to Brookfield Country Club, host of the 1948 Western Open.  This course has its own interesting history and mystery.  The 18 holes existing at Brookfield are attributed to William Harries (1927).  According to the Brookfield site, the course was formerly known as Meadowbrook and changed names in 1943.

However, George Bahto had an interesting thread a few months ago indicating that this property may have had a course designed by Seth Raynor in 1922.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,48335.0.html

In an older aerial (around 1928), there appeared to be 9 holes directly east of Brookfield which no longer exist (possibly named Glenn Acres).  This may have been the mystery Raynor course from George’s 1921 article (on the current aerial, this 9 hole course was in the "Hurlburt lane / Brookfield Lane" area).

***********************
All this background is interesting because it shows the boom of golf in the 1920’s with names such as Park, Ross, Colt & Raynor present in Buffalo.   But, also present in the same timeframe was little-known William Harries (1886-1972).  In my next post, I’ll dig a little deeper into this man’s contributions to Willowdale/Westwood as well as other historic courses in the region.

[Kevin Lynch]

WILLIAM HARRIES' ROLE

It’s difficult to have any discussion of golf in Western New York without notice of William Edward Harries (1886-1972), as he has been associated with many projects.   I have been fascinated with Harries’ contributions to WNY Golf for years, as he was involved with the design of my home course (Elma Meadows) as well as my favorite WNY course (Byrncliff Resort).

Harries has an interesting history both on & off the course.  A Buffalo native, he traveled to England after graduating from Cornell in 1908.  After returning from England in 1910, he worked municipally for several years as the Superintendant of the NYS Reservation at Niagara Falls (1910-1912) and again as the Buffalo Superintendant of Parks from 1919-1922.

Harries seemed to have two separate phases of his golf design / construction career.  Prior to the 1930’s, he seemed to work on his own through the landscape firm of Harries, Hall & Kruse (firm with offices in Toronto and Buffalo).  In the 1920s / early 30s, he was credited with designing Brookfield and  Oneonta Country Club, as well as Sheridan Park Golf Course (host of 1962 Publinx).

Here is a biography of Harries from the Oneonta website:
http://www.oneontacountryclub.org/course-design/

Here is also a link to an article about the Harries, Hall & Kruse firm: 
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Forgotten+landscape+architectural+firm+of+Harries,+Hall+and+Kruse+of...-a030235619


What I found most interesting was Harries’ involvement with some of golf architecture’s  bigger names  in a construction role.  Harries is credited with constructing Cherry Hill Country Club in 1923-24 (Travis design just over the US/Canada border), and apparently with building Willowdale for Park, Jr. ( according to Joe’s 1921 article).

In an old GCA thread, Ed Homsey (Travis Society President) mentioned a letter written by AW Tillinghast in August 1936 after a visit to Park Club’s Williamsville (Alison) and Orchard Park (Travis) courses.  Tillinghast wrote about a gathering of professionals, greenskeepers and committee members and stated “One of those who asked me the most questions was Mr. Harries, who has built many courses in the district.  Courses planned by Travis, Alison, and Donald Ross.  He came to me afterwards and expressed his satisfaction and pleasure.” 

The reference to Alison leads me to believe he may have also had a hand in the building of Park CC and the “Ross” reference may have been in relation to Country Club of Buffalo.  Incidentally, Harries designed the back 9 holes at Thendara Country Club, with the original 9 holes designed by Donald Ross (perhaps there was a connection there).


After World  War II, Harries entered the “second phase” of his design career.   Harries was associated with the firm of (Russell) Tryon and Schwartz & Associates (landscape firm out of East Aurora, NY).  Most of the post WWII municipal courses built in Western New York are credited to Harries & Tryon (with Harries generally regarded as the "lead" architect). 

Given Harries ubiquitous presence in WNY, I had no doubt that Harries had designed Westwood, as indicated by Cornish & Whitten (and also via a 1965 article in the Buffalo Evening news).  Furthermore, most search engines listed 1945 as the construction date for Westwood, which would align with Harries' other design dates in the area (Audubon was built in 1942).

Joe’s question started me looking deeper into the history of Westwood, with the Willowdale name as a new tool for research.  I wasn’t sure if Willowdale existed on the same site, or may have been a NLE course in the same area (similar to the mystery disappearance of the possible Raynor holes in the Brookfield / Glenn Acres property).  My next post will get into the history of the Club itself.

[Kevin Lynch]

WESTWOOD HISTORY / WILLOWDALE

I had never really heard about Westwood being named Willowdale or pre-dating the 1945 construction date as generally accepted (although I hadn’t really looked to deep either).  My understanding of Westwood’s history was pretty limited.  I knew that in the 20th century, Westwood was generally associated with the Jewish population, although that has seemed to fade away in the past decade or so.

But armed with a new name, I dug in to learn more about the club itself and found a few articles which helped explain theformation of the current club.

First, I found a page from buffalo.wikispot.org.  This page still credited Harries as the architect, but did have a brief history section which noted:

 “Before it was an 18-hole course called Westwood Country Club, in 1921, the original club founded was called The Willowdale, a 9-hole course and the original clubhouse was was across Sheridan Drive. The Willowdale was created in response to existing country clubs in the Buffalo area's prejudice against the Jewish community at the time. The original budget for The Willowdale was about $125,000 but was overspent by $250,000 and in 1929, the club was a victim of the stock market crash. During 1930's, the club was sold to at least 2 different owners who ran the club as a casino. From the '30s to early '40s, the golf club wasn't operated.

There is and never has been any by-law preventing any non-Jews from joining the club, however, up until the early 2000's, members were required to provide documentation showing they donated money to a Jewish federation and was the only country club in the Buffalo area to require this.”

Of course, not wanting to put to much faith in an article with “Wiki” in the name, I pursued things a little more.  I found an archive summary from the UB Library for a collection of records for Westwood Country Club from 1945-1995.  In the synopsis, the following was noted:

"Historical Note
The Westwood Country Club or "The Westwood" is a country club located in Williamsville, New York. The Westwood was founded in 1945 by 200 members who  paid an initiation fee of two hundred dollars, The certificate of incorporation for "The Westwood" was signed by the nine "Directors" on March  14, 1945 and stated that the purpose of the club was to "organize, equip,  operate and manage a Country Club for the pleasure and recreation of its members, and in connection therewith to maintain a club house, golf course,  tennis courts, swimming pool and any and all means of recreation which its' Directors may consider advisable."

While the Westwood Country Club began in the 1940s, its roots lie in two  predecessor Jewish Country Clubs at the same geographic site: Willowdale Country Club and the Wilmont Town and Country Club. The Willowdale Country Club was organized in 1919 and began operation two years later in 1921 with a nine-hole golf course in a lot on Sheridan Drive near North Forest in what was then a pastoral setting in Williamsville. It was established in a wider period of country club building and boom in Buffalo during the 1920s and was also initiated in response to the difficulties Jewish applicants had in gaining entry into other established Country Clubs in Greater Buffalo.

Within a decade, Willowdale had raised enough money to build a formal mock Tudor style clubhouse that opened in 1928, and remains in use by the current Westwood Country Club (with building additions). The Wall Street Crash and subsequent Great Depression saw revenues plummet dramatically as many members relinquished memberships due to financial hardship. In an effort to save both the Willowdale and the Montefiore Club (a Jewish Men's City Club based in Buffalo), the two combined to create the Wilmont Town and Country Club, a name formed out of a combination of their distinct entities. This action was not enough for Willowdale however, and for a few years the Country Club ceased to operate while the Montefiore Club resumed its independence.

During the early 1930s the site was opened as the Blossom Heath Country Club, with ownership based in Chicago, Illinois. After WWII, the club revived and emerged as the Westwood Country Club (WCC), working in cooperation with the Forest Road Corporation (FRC) that owns the land and leases it to the WCC for a nominal fee. In 1995, "The Westwood" celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a Presidential Ball.”

Given these excerpts, the history of Westwood was a little clearer.

Per the UB Synopsis, the site was operated as the Blossom Heath Country Club during the 30s (there is a "Blossom Heath Road" just south of Westwood, and just west of Park CC).  This matches up somewhat with the Buffalo.wikispot history, which mention that "the club was sold to at least two different owners who ran the club as a casino" during the 1930s.

The current iteration of the club was formed after WWII, which explained the 1945 date I usually saw attributed to the course.   I suppose the various ownership changes and cessation of golf from 1929 through 1945 may explain why the club generally refers to its 1945 inception, rather than a continuation of the original 1921 Willowdale club.

However, I still had not seen any reference to Willie Park, nor was I clear as to whether the original 9 holes were still incorporated into the current routing.  I decided to turn my attention towards the designers.  (NOTE: At this point, I had not seen the 1921 article from Joe.  All I had was an e-mail from him indicating that he believed Westwood was formerly named Willowdale and was built by Park.)

[Kevin Lynch]

WILLOWDALE DESIGNER – OE Smith or Willie Park?

With a new name, I consulted Cornish & Whitten and looked for Willowdale.

Lo & behold, there was an entry for “Willowdale CC at Buffalo (9) – O.E. Smith”

So, who was Orrin Edward Smith?

According to his biography in C&W, Orrin Smith (1883-1958) “began his career as a construction superintendent for Willie Park, Jr. on the Shuttle Meadow CC in New Britain, Connecticut).”   The biography continued to state that Smith entered private practice as a course designer around 1925, which would have been approximately 4 years after the 1921 Willowdale inception.  The “private practice” date also coincides with Willie Park’s death in 1925.

I also researched for any other involvement by Willie Park, Jr. in Western New York.  The only course attributed to Park, Jr. is Moonbrook Country Club, located in Jamestown, NY (approx. 60 miles SW of Buffalo).  Interestingly, Moonbrook was built in 1921, so Park’s presence in WNY during that year makes sense.

Here is a link to some history from the Moonbrook website which mentions Park: http://www.moonbrookcc.com/history.html

At this point, I assumed that there was some “Burbeck /Tilly” confusion in attribution between the builder and designer.  Perhaps someone attributed this to Smith as Park’s construction superintendent. 

But then I found the same April 1921 article that Joe started with.  Expecting to find some reference to O.E. Smith, I was shocked to find that the construction work was done by the firm of “Harries & Hall.”  Further, the article mentioned that “J. Larvey of Dayton, O(hio), a Donald Ross trained man” served as supervisor.

Based on this, I’m not sure how Willowdale was ever attributed to OE Smith, instead of Park, Jr., especially given Park’s attributed presence in Jamestown during the same period.  I could understand how Harries might have been attributed, either as “builder” in 1921 or perhaps in a role during the expansion of the course in 1945 (coming out of hiatus from 1929-1945).

1945 was a time that Harries was busy building / designing courses  (notably the adjacent Audubon courses in 1942).  Given his prominence in Western New York and previous experience with the site in 1921 (while with Harries & Hall), and design of Audubon, his association with the Westwood iteration of the Club (1945-present) makes complete sense.

(Also, just to complete a game of "Six Degrees of William Harries," the original 9 at Moonbrook is definitely Willie Park.  But, the man credited for designing the second 9 at Moonbrook was none other than William Harries.)

At this point, I just needed to determine if any remnants of the Park, Jr. 9 holes still existed or if they were long gone.  I wasn’t sure if Harries was contracted in 1945 to either expand the course, redesign it or perhaps even salvage the holes that may have been overgrown during the down time.

Luckily, the 1921 article included two critical clues to understand the original routing.  I’ll dig into the routing mystery in my next post.

[Kevin Lynch]

WILLOWDALE vs WESTWOOD ROUTING
In trying to determine whether the current course incorporated the old holes or not, I studied the current aerial photos.  Looking at the aerial and course map, you can almost see an earlier border to the property that must have existed.  The current 11th green, 15th tee, 8th tee and entire 4th hole all seem positioned as if there was a northern boundary at some point.  The 12-14th and 5th-7th holes all seem to be segregated on a new northern portion of the property.   Thus, I suspected that the old course must have been situated somewhere in the southern portion of the existing property.

Luckily, a big clue to uncovering the old routing existed in the article Joe posted.  The April 1921 article referred to an “island green” as the 6th hole, followed by a creek serving as a hazard for the 7th hole tee shot.   The article also refers to a longest hole of 520 yards (#4). 

The 1921 water hazards described on #6 & #7 match up perfectly to the current #8 & #9, especially the part about the "lordly Sycamore" which is one of the prominent features on the island hole.  Thus, it was apparent that there was some semblance of the routing still in existence today.

However, the part about the longest hole being #4 totally confused me.  The only long hole existing in that section of the property is the current 3rd hole.  But, the green for the current 3rd hole leads right to the tee for the current 8th hole (the island green 6th from 1921).  If the current 3rd was the old 4th, I couldn’t figure out a routing to find a 5th hole between them.

Luckily, I remembered the old aerial from George Bahto’s “mystery Raynor” course near the Brookfield site (from late 1920s).  If I could locate the source for that photo, perhaps I could shift 5 miles west and catch a glimpse of Willowdale.

I located the 1929 aerial, which included the missing piece to solve my routing dilemma.



While the picture was dark, I could make out most of the greensites, and they mostly aligned with the current greens.  The key to solving the routing was a greensite I had assumed was part of the later expansion in the northern section of the property (current 7th green). 

The current 7th hole is a very awkward Par 5 which has a very sharp dogleg in the last 100 or so yards.  If you have a good drive, there still is very little chance of reaching in 2, so you would have to lay-up to the corner to set up a 3rd shot (sometimes with a short iron).  The hole has never “felt right” to me, and now that makes sense.  This green used to be for a straight par 4 approached directly from the west, played through a currently empty area between the current 4th, 5th and 7th holes.

Based on this discovery, I routed back to the clubhouse from this 5th green and forward to the clubhouse from the known 6th and 7th holes and came up with the following:

#1 = Current #3
#2 = Current #4
#3 = Current #15
#4 = Current 16th tee area to the region of the current 11th green (this is
an area that would hold the 520 yarder in the 1921 article)
#5 = Current 5th tee area to current 7th green
#6 = Current 8th (island par 3)
#7 = Current 9th (drive across creek)
#8 = Current 1st
#9 = Current 2nd (finishing par 3 that's a natural amphitheater)






This may also explain why the current 10th also is an awkward feeling dogleg as well, since it was crammed into a tight space when they converted the old 4th into the par-three 16th and used the rest for the 11th.
*****************

I'm not sure really sure if Westwood is aware that they have 7 original Park holes or even that he was inolved, but I never would have had any idea about this Joe's find in the 1921 article.  Amazing that one little article could lead to finding out the history of Westwood, the location of original holes, as well as an increased awareness of William Harries' role in WNY golf.

[Kevin Lynch]

Post-Park History / Remaining Mysteries

I’m still in search of information about the club after the original 9 holes in 1921.

The original article referred to the current course using 70 of 200 available acres.  Why weren’t the remaining 9 holes constructed earlier?  Park died in 1925, so they may have been delayed by his untimely death.

They certainly had plenty of land left over, between the northern portion of the property, as well as the area closer to Sheridan Drive (currently 17/18/driving range).  I suspect they were probably in the process of raising money to complete the final 9.  According to the UB Archive History, they raised money to complete the Tudor-Style Clubhouse in 1928, so the back 9 was probably the next big move until the Crash bankrupted the predecessor clubs.

I'm wondering if they also owned the land where the current Audubon Par 3 course is located (since it was directly due north of the old 6th / 7th holes).  If they originally had a rectangular lot, it would make sense the land was theirs.

Perhaps the old owners sold a portion to the Town of Amherst before 1945 or the new club sold it to raise some additional funds for the expansion to 18 holes.  I've seen mixed dates when the Par 3 course opened (1942 or 1963). If it's the former, the prior owners probably sold it off before Westwood  was formed in 1945.  Looking at a 1958 aerial, it appears that there are some greensites visible, so it may have been built the same time as the Audubon 18-hole course across Maple Ave (1942).

Other questions include:
-  When was Geoff Cornish involved in the redesign of the course and what was the extent of his work?
-  How did Orrin Edward Smith get credited with the design of the course?  Was he possibly brought in after Park’s death?  Did he have a hand in the expansion in 1945? 

Any additional insight or history would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe Bausch]

Yeoman's work Kevin.

Maybe we should have started this thread a few weeks before, or after, the US Open at Merion.  

[Ronald Montesano]

I just sent this thread link to the Buffalo News golf writer and all the pertinent personages at Westwood...they should follow it and learn more about their property.

[Kevin Lynch]

Joe,

Yeah - may have been lost in the midst of the Merion discussions.  I know that one of our former Buffalo guys (Dan Herrmann) has been engaged in the reheated Merion / CBM thread, so he may have been distracted.

Regardless, still fun to have pulled all that together from your lead.  With the updated Fulton archives, I may see if I can find out more about the mystery holes (Glenn Acres / Raynor?) adjacent to Brookfield.


Ron,

Who did you send the link to from Westwood?  At some point in the future, I will probably head over to the UB Library to review the Westwood Archive.  From the synopsis, they have "collection of Westwood Country Club, 1945-1995, includes minutes, resolutions, correspondence, annual reports, scrapbooks and photographs relating to the administrative and leisure activities of the Country Club."

Perhaps I can answer some of the open questions, including the timing & extent of Cornish' work.

[Kevin Lynch]

Perhaps I can answer some of the open questions, including the timing & extent of Cornish' work.

Just noticed this under Cornish's Biography -

Westwood CC - "Lakes - 1959" 
I looked at the 1958 / 1966 / 2006 aerials and it appears that Cornish added lakes to the Northern part of the property to the right of #12 (and completely reshaped the green) and also added a lake to the right of #6.

Subsequent to that work, it looks like ponds were added to the right of 18 (and green moved back 20 or so yards) and right of #13 (and green also shifted back ~20 yards).  I'm not sure who would have performed that work.  Did our friend Scott Witter ever do anything for them? 



I also noted this in Cornish' bio - "CC of Buffalo (Pond & Trees - 1965)" .  Oh, thanks for that improvement to Ross' work.     I looked at the 1963 vs 1966 aerials and didn't see any new ponds.  The only pond I can think of that was added (not on 1966) was the pond to the right of #17. 

[Ronald Montesano]

No thread jack, merely a mention that the pond right of 17 at CCB is certainly helpful for irrigation, i would suspect. Lord knows that any type of pond up top around 2-5 or 14-16 would have been a wretched addition.

[Joe Bausch]

Recently John Yerger of the Tillinghast Society sent me this article from the June 17, 1926 edition of the Buffalo Evening News, which suggests Tilly might be responsible for the 2nd nine at Willowdale (now Westwood CC):

[Jim Sherma]

Joe and kevin

This is the type of thread that makes this site something great.

And it did escape my radar back during the summer.