Cape May NJ - 1920

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sorry if these run off the page a bit.

This old course ran along Lafayette and Elmira Sts. in Cape May NJ.

Two of the old green sites are still visible in the new aerial. They're on the left side of the photo,
just to the right of the RR tracks and left of the small pond.

Anyone know what course this was?  

[Jim_Kennedy]

Again, sorry if this runs off the page.

Still going strong, ca. 1944, and the greens are getting a more rounded shape, plus some new bunkers. Course was closed sometime
before 1956.

Oh yeah, the green at the left side of the photo, the upper one, has a Biarritz quality to i(seen in the 1920 and 1944 photos).
 
 

[Jim_Kennedy]

Here's the green in question, blown up. Hmmm. 

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

Cape May Golf Club, which dates back to 1898 and was laid out by P.F. Foy.  It had 9 holes, and remained a 9 hole course up until at least 1931.  The 1900 Harpers notes the course was located "close to the seashore, on the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia and Reading railroads."

Sven

[Sean_Tully]

Neat stuff! Like that you can still make out three of the old green locations in the current photo! Also, love the feature of the inverted sand mounds on the right of the 1920 photo. Hard to beat a 1920 aerial hope there is more to look into. I just tracked down an aerial taken in 1928 that was just 100 yards or so from showing my course. Heartbreak.

Is the clubhouse still there?

Tully

[Sven Nilsen]

This link has a bunch of historical maps for the area - http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/CAPE_MAY_COUNTY/oldCapeMay.html

The 1931 map for Cape May City is very helpful.

Sven

[David_Tepper]

Gentlemen -

Apologies for the thread hijack, but what is the state of golf in the Cape May area currently? Are there any good/decent courses there, public or private?

Also, does the golf season last thru the winter months there or do the courses close at some point in the fall?

DT

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sean,
There were tennis courts at the club and it looks like they were located up at the top right hand corner of the '20/'44 photos.

It's likely that the clubhouse was located there, but it doesn't seem like anything 'old' remains in the area when looking at the new aerial.

Here is a very clear two part photo from '33. Really clear Biarritz.  

[Sean_Tully]

Jim-

You sidetracked me for the last 30 minutes. Love digging into this stuff. Want to figure that routing out. It gets a little hard after what I assume to be the first hole that plays to the right from the clubhouse and the second that plays back towards the clubhouse adjacent to #1. From there I get confused.

Here is what I have. House for clubhouse was built in 1870 and owned by the Wales family. Found this map that shows the location of the home in 1886. Wales owned another parcel further up the road but it didn't have a homesite.


Golf Lane was obviously added later adjacent to the Hand properties.

There is a home there currently, but the roofline is different. Here is a photo of the clubhouse circa 1910.
The porch matches up to the existing house. Always been fascinated by early golf clubhouses.


Going back to what I was supposed to be doing! Thanks for the sidetrack.

Tully

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sean,
Here's what stands on the property today. The eave molding and the four square style of roof is the same for both structures. The roof walk,  rear extension, chimneys, and a few windows are gone, but I think the two buildings are one and the same.
 

[archie_struthers]

 


Nice find Jim , I've lived here a long time and never heard of it . very interesting! I'm sure Bausch, Cirba and company will have some info

[Jim_Kennedy]

Nice find Jim , I've lived here a long time and never heard of it . very interesting! I'm sure Bausch, Cirba and company will have some info

I was kinda' hoping that Flynn built the Biarritz that's shown in the photos.  

Did you ever hear of Rehoboth Beach CC? Built in 1927, it was still played in the '50s but gone sometime before 2002 (per HistoricAerials).

Interesting par 3 over a finger of Silver Lake, shown in the lower portion of the photo.

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

There's a Trenham article floating around that talks about Matt Duffy, a former caddy from Philadelphia CC, who ended up as the pro at Cape May GC (starting around 1928) and reworked their greens.

Not sure if he'd ever seen a Biarritz, but there were a few out there by the time he would have done his work.

Sven

[Joe Bausch]

Same house in 1909 from the Public Ledger:

[Sean_Tully]

Reached out to a fellow researcher out here and he shared with me this "little" nugget of information! This has to be close to the original scorecard that was used and a bogey one to top it off. Was hoping to see a routing map, but if there was one surely Joe will find it.





Would love to see some ground level photos of the course and try to get the routing and green sites figured out! Has anyone figured out what the local historical societies have or any of the locals near to where the course was?

Tully

[Joe Bausch]

FYI:  I'm pretty sure a very prominent local golf writer, William Evans, was a member at Cape May GC.  He even wrote for some national publications. 

I have more to share on the course but it is academic advising week and I'm lucky to have been able to type out this message.   

[Jim_Kennedy]

The photos on this site aren't overly revealing, but you can see all the golf courses that existed in NJ, ca. 1930. There's also a dissolve feature so you can gauge just how much a course has changed over the intervening 80+ years.  
  
http://njstateatlas.com/1930/

[Nate Oxman]

Jim,

Rehoboth Beach CC is still around. It's a private club.

www.rehobothbeachcc.com

[Jim_Kennedy]

Nate,
 
They sure made an upgrade when they moved to their new site in the late '60s.

[Nate Oxman]

You got that right. It looks like a great setting. I don't know anything about the quality of the course, but the head pro was my roommate in college. If there's interest, I could make a call and probably get a group or two out there to check it out. Not sure how far it is from the Philly suburbs either.

[Jim_Kennedy]

If interested, here's an aerial from 1933 of Stiles and Van Kleek's Brigantine GC.
Dan Herrmann postede a bit about it on another thread:

"One of his first jobs was the complete restoration of Brigantine GC (NJ) from the original plans of Stiles and Van Kleek.   The course which opened in 1927 closed just a few years later during the depression.   Two decades later Renn unearthed Brigantine from an overgrown, lost golf course to a very enjoyable course that is still a wonderful place to visit today.   I have many great memories of playing there in my youth during family vacations."

Clicking on the photo will enlarge it. Many of the greens appear to be elevated, but that stands to reason as the area can't be too many feet above sea level.

Here is the same area in 1920. At this time the land mass that is the golf course isn't in the same form as it is in the 1933 photo. Must have been a lot of fill put in place. Again, clicking on the photo will enlarge it.

 http://rsm.usace.army.mil/shore/newjersey/shore1920/large/images/070-Brigantine.jpg


And one more view, from 1944. Clickable.
'Course' is still there, but still some time away from rebuilding.
http://rsm.usace.army.mil/shore/newjersey/shore1944/large/images/1-26-Brigantine.jpg

Side note: Doesn't look like the company was looking to break any new ground with the Brigantine course: