Brightly is still around! I'm still at Hackensack but was letting this thread run for a while before I commented.
I appreciate Bret Lawrence posting that damn article by Sid Dorfman referencing Red Hoffman (a very prolific sportswriter who covered golf for the Newark Star ledger) which alleges Raynor was involved with the creation of the course. I take every opportunity I can to correct this misinformation, but I have actually never read the article until Bret posted it here!
The article is SO WRONG! No better place than GCA.COM to put out the correct information. The highlighted line: "designed by Banks and built by Raynor" should set off alarms that the article is bullshit, right? Banks was Raynor's assistant. That would be like saying a course was "designed by Brian Schneider and built by Tom Doak..."
Based upon people telling me about Hoffman's assertion that HGC was a Raynor course, I conducted an exhaustive search. I was excited that our course might actually be a Raynor. I spent days in the Hackensack Public Library reading old newspapers on microfiche and read all of our old board minutes. My research proved the opposite, Raynor never saw the land where our course now exists.
Dead men don't build golf courses.
Our club was founded in 1899 in the city of Hackensack, NJ and the course was designed by Bendelow. Like many golf clubs in the US in the 1920's, our leaders determined that we needed a new course on a new site. We acquired land owned by the Kinderkamack Club in Oradell and Emerson, NJ. It was primarily a hunting club but had nine crude golf holes. We took in their 43 members and purchased the land in August of 1926. Raynor died in January of 1926. He never saw the site. Our board minutes clearly describe the process to select an architect. Donald Ross declined because he was too busy. "Propositions" (proposals) were received by AW Tillinghast, Styles and Van Kleek, and Charles Banks, "formerly of Seth Raynor and Company." We hired Banks (while he was finishing the last 9 holes at Fishers Island.) Work started in 1927 and was finished in 1928.
Eric, you MUST go read into the office and read these old board minutes! And do you have my signed copy of Bahto's book on Macdonald??? See George's comments about our course...
HGC was Banks' first solo design. Of course he included all the templates that Raynor used. As mentioned above, the Redan green complex he built is better than any I have played save NGLA and North Berwick. (And I've played plenty...) The course was "modernized" by William Gordon in 1960 (Insert crying emoji) renovated by Rees Jones in 1995, and faithfully restored to its Banks form over the past 15 years. We worked on one or two holes each year, with the shaping done by our very talented superintendent. Most of the work was excellent. Two big swings and misses; these green complexes need to be rebuilt, hopefully while I am still alive. The only hole we haven't touched is Hole 17, Banks' Eden, because we really don't know what to do about the stupid pond that was inserted in 1995. Members seem to like it... But when I had 20 GCA guys there years ago they asked me after the round why it was there and I had no good answer...
We also are not sure if we should restore the severe back-to-front pitch that William Gordon flattened in 1960. (He also removed EVERY back bunker that Banks built.)
Anyway, I'll stop blabbering now but if you hear that Raynor was involved at HGC, please say no he wasn't!
Cheers.