Aviation Country Club of Detroit (Herbert Strong)

[Tom Bacsanyi]

My father was placed in a post-acute rehabilitation facility after an extended hospitalization. Arriving at the facility in the northwest suburbs of Detroit, I was struck by how much the old building looked like a clubhouse. A stately house on high ground, surrounded by a large lawn with towering trees. Turns out it actually was a clubhouse, for a defunct club called the Aviation Country Club of Detroit. The property and buildings were originally owned by a fellow named Flanders who was an auto industry bigwig. The club acquired the property in 1920, converted the house and garage into club facilities, and an 18 hole course was laid out by Herbert Strong.


"Aviation" comes from it's close proximity to a landing strip, obviously attractive to such members as Eddie Rickenbacker. I don't know how long the club operated, but it seems that the Great Depression probably ended it's existence. Now the clubhouse is the aforementioned medical facility, and the land where the holes were laid is a subdivision.


Was this the first "fly-in" country club?


Some articles:


https://golfblogger.com/lost-to-time-the-aviation-country-club-of-detroit-michigan/


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Aviation_Country_Club_-_Detroit%2C_Michigan.pdf

[DFarron]

Grew up in Detroit and never heard about this before. Very interesting !

[Phil Young]

The May 29, 1920 issue of the Collyers Eye newspaper states, "Detroit is to have an Aviation Country Club...Fred Law Ohmstead of Brookline, Mass., has been engaged to lay out the $100,000 links and Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker has been commissioned to prepare plans for the hangers and landing fields.


Eight days later, on June 6, 1920, the Detroit Free Press reports, "From dawn to dusk each day of the past week Herbert Strong...has been studying the every knoll and..." Unfortunately the article was not scanned very well and is exceedingly hard to make out. Another article, in 1921, clearly states that strong designed the golf course.


There are a lot of early newspaper articles available through newspapers.com from 1920 onward that details the building of both the airfield and that part of the club and the golf course...   

[Sven Nilsen]

Aviation was also originally known as Green Lake CC (pre-formation) and later as Lochaven CC and Green Lake Heights CC.  There was a course in California known as the Yolo Flier's Club (aka Woodland GC) that may have predated Aviation as a combination golf and flying club.

Oct. 1919 American Golfer -





1920 Olmsted Plan -



June 6, 1920 Detroit Free Press -



Feb. 27, 1921 Detroit Free Press -





April 1921 Golf Illustrated -















July 31, 1938 Detroit Free Press -

[Tom Bacsanyi]

^^^^Very cool Sven thank you.


Interesting that the nearby Pine Lake Country Club was called the Automobile Club of Detroit. So you had Aviation and Automobile rather close together.

[Bret Lawrence]

I was looking through the Olmsted letters for Aviation Country Club.  On the last page, the club asks if Colt will be making a trip to the country.  Mr. Olmsted responds that he has no knowledge of Colt making a return trip and then he includes a quick character reference about Seth Raynor and what it would cost the club to employ him.  Mr. Olmsted continues to recommend Strong as the club’s best option.  I have included a link to the telegram asking about Colt.  Olmsted’s response to this telegram is in frames 75 and 77.


https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss52571.mss52571-02-335_0268_0347/?sp=79&st=image

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Wow, that's really cool. I didn't know that Olmstead acted in an advisory capacity in terms of golf architect selection. Are there other cases of this?


It seems to me whether Olmstead would recommend Strong or Raynor is based on the land. "Strong has impressed me as exceptionally capable...in taking advantages of natural irregularities of hilly ground." But if the land is flat and "dependent on deliberate inventions and creation of naturalistic hazards, Seth Raynor is probably better and temperamentally  easier to work with." But yet Strong was expected in attendance with Olmstead. Does this mean that he was selected just then or was his presence at the meeting part of his evaluation as an option?


Love this phrase from King, "...with the object of making these club grounds nationally famous..."


Make no small plans.

I was looking through the Olmsted letters for Aviation Country Club.  On the last page, the club asks if Colt will be making a trip to the country.  Mr. Olmsted responds that he has no knowledge of Colt making a return trip and then he includes a quick character reference about Seth Raynor and what it would cost the club to employ him.  Mr. Olmsted continues to recommend Strong as the club’s best option.  I have included a link to the telegram asking about Colt.  Olmsted’s response to this telegram is in frames 75 and 77.


https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss52571.mss52571-02-335_0268_0347/?sp=79&st=image

[Brett Hochstein]

This is pretty cool--thanks for sharing. I used to drive by this every day on the way to high school, both on the Willow Road and Commerce Road sides, and I never would have had any inclination there used to be golf there. Makes sense though as the land in that belt is very good for golf (Orchard Lake is basically catty corner from the property). Would've been cool to have the diversity of Herbert Strong in the region as well as seeing how the lake was utilized, given almost every linear foot of lakefront in Oakland County has been swallowed up by homes. 


Do we know when it ceased being golf? There must be some aerials or old photos out there somewhere, too.

[Bret Lawrence]

Wow, that's really cool. I didn't know that Olmstead acted in an advisory capacity in terms of golf architect selection. Are there other cases of this?


It seems to me whether Olmstead would recommend Strong or Raynor is based on the land. "Strong has impressed me as exceptionally capable...in taking advantages of natural irregularities of hilly ground." But if the land is flat and "dependent on deliberate inventions and creation of naturalistic hazards, Seth Raynor is probably better and temperamentally  easier to work with." But yet Strong was expected in attendance with Olmstead. Does this mean that he was selected just then or was his presence at the meeting part of his evaluation as an option?


Love this phrase from King, "...with the object of making these club grounds nationally famous..."


Make no small plans.

I was looking through the Olmsted letters for Aviation Country Club.  On the last page, the club asks if Colt will be making a trip to the country.  Mr. Olmsted responds that he has no knowledge of Colt making a return trip and then he includes a quick character reference about Seth Raynor and what it would cost the club to employ him.  Mr. Olmsted continues to recommend Strong as the club’s best option.  I have included a link to the telegram asking about Colt.  Olmsted’s response to this telegram is in frames 75 and 77.


https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss52571.mss52571-02-335_0268_0347/?sp=79&st=image

Tom,


There are several examples of the Olmsted Associates recommending golf architects to their clients.  The one I can think of off the top of my head is the Bridgeport Municipal course in Bridgeport, CT.  The Olmsted Associate was pushing for Wayne Stiles to design the course, but after a site visit by Stiles the city decided to go with Robert White.  I have included a link to those letters below.  One of the letters also brings up Walter Hatch and Donald Ross. The Olmsted Associates seemed to shy away from Ross in their later years.


https://www.loc.gov/item/mss5257100718/


The Olmsted’s recommended Raynor and Banks to several clients, but their advice wasn’t always accepted or the architects were too busy or too hard to track down.  All of these projects were different.  Some projects such as Caracas Country Club in Venezuela and Mid-Ocean in Bermuda were reversed.  Banks and Raynor built these courses first and then recommended their clients to the Olmsted Brothers to develop the land around the golf course.



Bret

[Sven Nilsen]

Bret:


Do you have any further information on the Olmsteds and the following courses -


Del Monte - plans for the second course to be done by Raynor
Morro Bay CC (aka Cabrillo CC)
Palm Springs GC
Palos Verdes Estates GC - W. Bell
Pine Orchard CC - R. Pryde
Coral Keys Club - S. Raynor never built
Lake Shore CC (IL) - T. Bendelow
Burke Golf Course (South Bend, IN)
Oyster Harbors Club - Ross
Annapolis Roads GC - Banks
Gibson Island Club - Raynor
Eagle Nest CC (NY) - 1930's map of the much earlier Dunn/Bendelow course
Oheka - CBM/Raynor
CC of Charleston - Raynor


Sven

[Bret Lawrence]

Sven,


By further information do you mean the Olmsted letters? Some of these are tricky to find because they may go by the development name rather than the golf course. Some may also go by the developers name? There are a lot of letters for Palos Verdes.  If you go to Library of Congress and search Manuscripts/Mixed Material then type into the search box “Olmsted, Palos Verdes” you will get a page full of different letters, but I am not sure which one discusses the golf course. 


Here is a link to the Olmsted letters for Country Club of Charleston:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted+Wappoo


Annapolis Roads:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted%2C+Belmont+hotel


Coral Keys:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted%2C+West+Florida+Club


Oheka: (I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this one before, just noticed the Olmsted’s spelled his name incorrectly):
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted%2C+Kahan


Gibson Island:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted+Gibson+Island

Del Monte-2nd course Pages 14 and 16 mention Raynor,. This link will bring you to page 16, which summarizes the situation up to that point.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss52571.mss52571-02-417_0195_0286/?q=Olmsted%2C+Jacks&sp=16&r=0.471,0.851,0.512,0.51,0

I’ve never looked through the letters below, but I did find a few links. I am not sure if there is anything about the golf courses in here.  Some projects I’ve searched in the past involved building a driveway or entryway and had nothing to do with the golf course.  Palos Verdes and Oyster Harbors were big Olmsted projects.  There may be more on Oyster Harbors, but this is all I could find with a quick search:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted+Wianna


Lake Shore Country Club:
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted+Lake+Shore+Country+Club


Palm Springs GC:
https://www.loc.gov/item/mss5257105807/


This might be Eagle Nest? (A lot to sort through)
https://www.loc.gov/manuscripts/?q=Olmsted%2C+Eagle+Nest


Pine Orchard:
https://www.loc.gov/item/mss5257106158/


I will have to look in more detail for the others.  I feel like I have read Morro Bay before, but it must be listed under another title. Here is an interesting one.


A Tillinghast in Baltimore called Litter Louna:
https://www.loc.gov/item/mss5257101603/


Bret