The First Daily Fee Course In Chicago

[Jim_Kennedy]

Was at the Harlem Race Track. The area is now known as Forest Park but it was incorporated as the Town of Harlem in 1884.

Horse racing/gambling was outlawed shortly after the track was opened, so car races were held there and in 1901 a golf course was built on the site by the owner, John Condon.



The clubhouse and scorecard:



And the layout:



About the famous statue of Cleopatra:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-object-at-hand-4-121205387/?page=2&no-ist





Today there is a Walmart, a mall, and a humongous USPS warehouse on the site.

It seems that in 1917 the town tried to regain some revenues it lost from the racetrack -  they used to charge an amusement fee on it, so they decided to levy the fee on the golf course. I like the pluck of Mary Condon - taking on the township (and winning) so she wouldn't have to pay it.  

[Jim_Kennedy]

A map of the nine hole course in 1901 - it 'fits' into the N/S layout of race track. The second nine (no map) is on the E/W leg of the property.

[Tim_Cronin]

Harlem GC (first called Harlem Jockey Club GC) had two lives.
The first was private, from 1900 to 1904. It was private and designed by James Foulis and or the track's landscaper, Thorpe, first name unknown. The course closed after about four years of play. (It opened either late 1900 or early 1901.)
The Newspaper GC used it in 1901. The group was renamed the Tecumseh GC in 1902.

There was no golf from 1905 through 1909.
Harlem reopened with a new layout designed by David McIntosh within the old confines of the race track in 1910. It was this course that was open to the public, though in 1911, the Harlem Golf Club, a private group, began to use it as well. By 1913, two other non-real estate clubs were using it.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tim,

Thanks for the info. Does the 1911 date still give it the title of first daily fee?

[Adam Clayman]

Jim, How does Jackson Park fit into the timeline? The article mentions Washington Park as a precursor. Was that a mistake? And, if there was a course in Washington Park, was it private? If not, andd Jackson Park was public, how could Harlem be the first daily fee?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Adam,

A "daily fee" is open to the general public, but privately owned. As you know, early on it was munis or privates.

I'm pretty sure that JP and WP were munis.

[Tim_Cronin]

I don't use the term "daily fee" myself because it can cause confusion. The real meaning is pay once, play all day, and that's all but non-existent today. It wasn't common in the old days, either.

Jackson Park was the first course open to the public in the area. Harlem may have been the first privately-owned course open to the public in the area, but I'd have to check my list.

Washington Park was a private club, most of it in the infield of the original Washington Park Race Track on the south side of Chicago (as opposed to the relocated track in Homewood).

There was also an informal Washington Park course in the actual park, but that was shuttered by the park board after a short while.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tim,

Thanks for the info.

Confusing or misnomer, the term "Daily Fee" was also used at least as far back as the 1920s to differentiate a muni from a privately owned golf course that was open to the public, and it's still in use today.

[John McCarthy]

Tim: 

Did you write the article on the Lincoln Park Golf Course a few months back in the CDGA newsletter?

[Tim_Cronin]

Jim, going through my list, yes, Harlem in the second phase of its golf life was, as far as I can tell, the first privately-owned public course in the Chicago area. American Golfer's May 1910 issue has a story on it opening 9 holes. The 9 outside the race track came a few years later – I haven't nailed down a date yet.

John, that was Rich Skykinski who mentioned Lincoln Park in the August issue.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tim,

Thanks for your searching this out.  Being the first P.O.P. is not earth shattering info, but it does add something to the golf record of Chicago.

[Tim_Cronin]

Tim,

Thanks for your searching this out.  Being the first P.O.P. is not earth shattering info, but it does add something to the golf record of Chicago.

You would have thought it would have happened sooner, considering the huge numbers racked up at Jackson Park and the other park district courses.

[SL_Solow]

One thing I can be comfortable with; if Tim suggests something about Golf history in Chicago, it has been well researched.

[Tim_Cronin]

One thing I can be comfortable with; if Tim suggests something about Golf history in Chicago, it has been well researched.

Or stumbled upon. Amazing what I find out after I think I know something.

[Jim_Kennedy]

One thing I can be comfortable with; if Tim suggests something about Golf history in Chicago, it has been well researched.

No doubt.

Or stumbled upon. Amazing what I find out after I think I know something.

That's exactly how I found the info - I was looking for something else in some old articles and saw the reference to Harlem. I guess it "pays" to be easily sidetracked.  

Thanks again for clarifying this.
  

[Sven Nilsen]

A followup piece on Harlem (mentioned as the only Daily Fee in Chicago in this May 1919 The American Golfer blurb):



Question for Tim, the Bendelow ASGCA List notes Harlem GC with a date of 1910.  The only mention I've seen for him working there is a Nov. 18, 1914 The Day Book article which notes plans to have Bendelow lengthen the course from 9 to 18 holes.  Do you know if he did any work on the course earlier than 1914?

[Tim_Cronin]

Sven, I do not.

[Dan Moore]

Tim Sven,  I recently saw a reference to a rudimentary links in Washington Park being open to the public in 1892 for World's fair visitors.  have either of you seen anything like that?

[Tim_Cronin]

I haven't; I'd think that would have been widely publicized.

[Sven Nilsen]

More on the 1910 opening of the "daily fee" or "pay as you play" course at Harlem (from the April 1910 edition of Golf Magazine).

[Adam Clayman]

Is the Wheaton club mentioned above CGC?

[Sven Nilsen]

Is the Wheaton club mentioned above CGC?

Different course, Adam.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tim Sven,  I recently saw a reference to a rudimentary links in Washington Park being open to the public in 1892 for World's fair visitors.  have either of you seen anything like that?

Maybe this?

From the USGA Golf Journal
 The world’s fair came to Chicago in 1892 and Sir Henry Wood was appointed England’s commissioner general to the fair. He was bringing a group of college men who had played golf at their universities and wanted to play here. Hobart Chatfield Chatfield-Taylor (believe it or not!) knew of Macdonald’s enthusiasm for the game, and he asked Charley to lay out a course on the estate of Senator John B. Farwell, Chatfield-Taylor’s father-in-law, at Lake Forest, north of Chicago. Macdonald agreed and produced seven holes. The longest hole wasn’t more than 250 yards, and four others were from 50 to 75 yards. It was hardly real golf, but it was a start. By then golf was being played on the east coast in New York, Newport and Boston.

The little venture at Lake Forest breathed fresh vigor into Macdonald’s dream of playing golf steadily and so he passed the hat around the Chicago Club. Twenty or so friends contributed $10 each and armed with little more than $200 he laid out a nine-hole course on a farm in Belmont, III., about 24 miles west of Chicago. There was no clubhouse – only a barn for shelter – but it was better than anything else in the West.

[BCrosby]

On what Chicago course did Chandler Egan grow up playing?

Bob

[Jim_Kennedy]

...and there is this article about the Fair, Jackson Park, and golf. It's from the Chicago Tribune and dated Aug. 7th, 1892