Sven, thanks for the questions. I’ll provide as many answers as I can. In reference to the 1926 Brochure you asked:
“Are there courses listed that he did a design for that were never built?” Yes, there is one that can be identified as such, Hudson River Country Club which can be found in the section “Examinations and Reports.” Among the clubs listed there are some that he only examined and reported on, provided recommendations for that were actually built, designed the above mentioned course for that wasn’t built, courses that he may have just overseen the construction of and a number that there is almost no specific information on. Among these may have been courses designed that also weren’t built. Regarding all of the courses in the “Thirty-six Holes Courses, Twenty-seven Holes Courses, Eighteen Holes Courses, Nine Holes Courses, Reconstructed and Extended Courses sections,” Tilly states, “These courses were planned by A. W. Tillinghast, and the most notable were constructed under the supervision of his organization.”
“It would be helpful to see the 1926 Brochure, as it might add some context as to how Tilly described his work.” I emailed copies of both sides of the Brochure and hope that you can post them as I haven’t learned how to do so on the new site as yet.
“Are there other courses that he used an out-of-date name?” Yes and no. The reason for that odd answer is because of my identifying Myosotis Country Club which he lists and up until my find there was almost no information to be found. It turns out that Tilly designed an 18-hole course for it that was built and played on, owned by Max Phillips. In 1923, on his NJ estate he created the Myosotis Polo Club and had the course designed and built by Tilly to attract more Polo players. In 1925 he transferred title of it to a group of members who wanted nothing to do with polo. They, in turn, hired Tilly do design a new course on the same site as the existing Myosotis and named it Suneagles. The entire story is incredibly fascinating but too long to go into here. Other than that, which isn’t a true out-of-date name, all others are correct as written.
“Why didn’t he list it as Twaalfskill?” You’d have to ask him as he is the only person who would know. I believe that he either didn’t know it had been taken over by Twaalfskill or had simply forgotten it. I would agree with your statement, “Certainly he would have known that was the name going forward” if you had instead stated, he “possibly could” have known. That is just your opinion.
“Does the name Colonial GC enter the record anywhere? This was the first name adopted when the club moved to its new site in 1902.” Yes it does. My chapter on Kingston includes the following:
“Minutes of the 3rd Annual meeting of the Kingston Golf Club held at the office of Everett Fowler April 9th, 1902…After some discussion, motion was duly made and seconded that the name of the club be changed from Kingston Golf Club to the Colonial Club of Kingston. Carried.” This was followed by, “Six weeks later, the board minutes record: “Special meeting of the Kingston Golf Club [evidently the new name didn’t last] held at the office of E. Fowler, Wednesday evening May 21st, 1902 all members having been duly notified.”
“How intact are the club records that are cited? Wasn’t there a clubhouse fire in the ‘20’s?” The 1902 Board minutes from which I quote and used in my chapter are intact and were sent to me directly from the club. They are fragile, sometimes difficult to read but usable. I’ll email you a copy of them. These and other board minutes prior to the fire were kept in a Board of Directors home and survived the fire.
“Are there any connections between Tilly, Kingston, the membership, etc?” None of which I know. During the years between the late 1890s and 1915, Tilly played in many tournaments including upstate New York and as far as Lake Placid. He even won the title “Champion of the Adirondacks.” It may be that he met Lawrence Van Etten in one of these tournaments or others from Kingston. But that is only a suggestion. Actually, for the majority of the courses that tilly worked on throughout his career, the specific person, member or otherwise, that contacted him about their specific process isn’t known.
“When did the idea for Kingston’s new 1930’s course, Wiltwyck, actually start?” Tom Buggy’s research on this found that “There's a 1933 newspaper article that describes committee assignments and the impending start of construction for the new 9-hole Kingston/Wiltwyck course. By the way, there's a 1937 newspaper article about consideration of a Wiltwyck-Twaalfskill merger (which never happened). In 1954 Wiltwyck moved to a new location with 18 holes after its original property was lost due to construction of the New York Thruway.” Currently there isn’t even a single mention anywhere that has Tilly involved with the new Kingston Golf Club.
“For a guy who was a prolific writer, it seems odd that he never made mention of his work here.” Actually, it’s the opposite. In the June, 1901 issue of Golf magazine, his article “St. Andrews” was published. His next known published article of any type was in the first issue of The American Golfer magazine, published August, 1908.He also didn’t begin writing for the Philadelphia newspapers until 1911. As all of these publications wanted only current information, his writing about his work at Kingston back in 1902 would not have been wanted by any of them.
Yes, “fresh eyes only help,” and is one of the main reasons I wrote the Tillinghast Chronicles. Almost everything written in them is the result of questions I have been asked about Tilly and his work. There is a great deal of desire by many to know any and everything possible about Tilly. I am extremely open to any information, ideas or suppositions that one sends me, even those that disagree with my conclusions/answers so that corrections can made where warranted. That is, in addition to their lengths prohibiting publishing in paper form, why Volumes II & IV are published as PDFs as they allow me to provide annual updates to the information in them.
I apologize for the length and hope this helps, Phil