T. H. Riggs-Miller

[Adam Lawrence]

I have just found a variety of references to this chap, who was apparently Australian-born and came to the US in 1912 with Harry Colt. Apparently he had an important role in the construction of Pine Valley and later worked with Tillinghast.


Can anyone fill me in further on Riggs-Miller?

[Bret Lawrence]

Adam,


I don't have a lot of information on T. H. Riggs-Miller, but I have come across his name a few times.


T. H. Riggs-Miller was associated with Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc. prior to June 1916. This company was responsible for implementing the Carters system in the States. Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc. consolidated with Carters Tested Seeds in 1920.  In a June 1916 publication of The Golf Course, there was an announcement that T. H. Riggs-Miller is no longer associated with Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc.  I am curious whether the "Miller" in Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc, referred to T. H. Riggs-Miller?  Peterson was Arthur Peterson and Sinclaire was R. O. Sinclaire, but I have never found evidence of the name behind Miller.


In the late 1920's and early 1930's, T. H. Riggs-Miller contributed several articles to Golfdom. His articles dealt mostly with greenkeeping techniques. During this same time period, he was the greenkeeper at Richmond County Country Club in Staten Island, NY.  The Golfdom articles can be found through the MSU Turfgrass Archives website.


In 1935, Riggs-Miller was reported designing and laying out an 18-hole course for Lawrence Country Club in Lawrence, Kansas. The article mentioned that Perry Maxwell would be responsible for the construction of the course.


In 1940, T. H. Riggs-Miller passed away at the age of 52 in Kansas City, Missouri.  The short entry in Golfdom mentioned he had come to Kansas City several years ago to redesign the Swope Park Course No. 1.


These are the few references I have found for T. H. Riggs-Miller.


Bret

[Adam Lawrence]

Thanks Bret. I found an interesting piece this morning that references an interview with Riggs-Miller in American Golfer. It says that he worked initially with Suttons, before partnering with Peterson and Sinclaire and working with Carters as you say after he came to the States. So it is perhaps not surprising that Colt should have known him.


Rice says that he also built Lido for CBM among many other courses. He became superintendent of parks in Kansas City -- where he was well known because he had earlier constructed the Swope Park course -- in late 1936.

[Sven Nilsen]

A couple more articles on Riggs-Miller:


June 22, 1934 Fort Worth Star-Telegram -





Aug. 15, 1934 Maryville Daily Forum -





May 25, 1937 St. Joseph Gazette -

[Tom_Doak]

I try to keep my own projects small enough that we don't have to have an army of advisors and consultants to help build them.  But, surely Pine Valley and Lido G.C. were very big projects in those days, comparable to something like Kingsbarns or Castle Stuart in recent memory.


For Kingsbarns, there were two turf consultants [Dave Wilber and Walter Woods], a project manager [Bard Reynolds], a superintendent [can't remember if Chris Haspell was there from the start], an architect [Kyle Phillips], and a very engaged owner [Mark Parsinen].  I would not be surprised if Pine Valley had most of the same roles, and surely Riggs-Miller would have been more in the role of Bard Reynolds or Dave Wilber there.


So, after a few years of doing that, did he graduate to being the real designer of other projects?  It looks like it, but it's surprising his name didn't come up via Cornish & Whitten as the architect of record in a few places.  The 1930's were certainly a tough time to be doing that.


Note that Sven's three clippings are all "remodelings" and as Mike Young has often pointed out here, that's different than a new design.  You don't really need to be an architect to go out and rebuild bunkers, non-architects do it all the time.

[Sven Nilsen]

A few more Riggs-Miller tidbits -


1916 - Was in charge of construction for Willie Park's course in Goshen, NY


1927 - First president of the New Jersey Greenkeepers' Association while he was serving as superintendent of Richmond County CC on Staten Island


1933/34 - Was working for Tillinghast on projects in the midwest

[Jim_Kennedy]

https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,46083.msg1016509.html#msg1016509

[Sven Nilsen]

Nov. 22, 1934 Kansas City Times -

[Bret Lawrence]

Adam,


Thanks for clarifying that he was in fact a partner in Peterson, Sinclaire and Miller, Inc.
It’s interesting that they he and Colt were both associated with Sutton’s and then later moved on to Carters.


I noticed that T. H. Riggs-Miller also wrote a few articles for American Golfer and Golf Illustrated.


Bret