[Sven Nilsen]

The 1928 American Annual Guide contains a Trade Directory that lists various manufacturers of equipment, supplies and accessories.  The directory includes a section for "Architects, Golf Course" with names and firms as follows:

American Park Builders, Chicago, Ill.
Andrews, H.F., Albany, N.Y.
Banks, Chas. H. New York, N.Y.
Barr, J.P., Milwaukee, Wis.
Behr, Max, San Francisco, Cal.
Bland & Sibbald, Ltd., Toronto, Ont., Can.
Collis, Harry, Chicago, Ill.
Colt & Allison, New York, N.Y.
Connellan, Wm., Grosse Ile, Mich.
Dunlap, Edward T., Washington, D.C.
Dunn, Seymour, Lake Placid, N.Y.
Emmett, Devereau, St. James, L.I., N.Y.
Finley, Fred, Richmond, Va.
Ham, Arthur, Redford, Mich.
Hatch, Walter, N. Amherst, Mich.
Laidlaw, Clarence O., Detroit, Mich.
Langford & Moreau, Chicago, Ill.
Lewis & Valentine, New York, N.Y.
Longford, Wm., Lake Worth, Fla.
Maddox, MacDonald & Maddox, Chicago, Ill.
Murray, Albert H., Montreal, Que., Can.
Paddock, H.D., Cleveland, O.
Park, Willie, New York, N.Y.
Peterson, Arthur D., New York, N.Y.
Pioneer Golf & Landscape Co., Chicago, Ill.
Ross, Donald, Jr., Pinehurst, N.C.
Strong, Herbert and Geo. Low, New York, N.Y.
Styles, Wayne B. and John R., Van Kleek, Boston, Mass.
Thompson, Stanley & Co., Ltd., Toronto, Ont.
Tillinghast, A.W., New York, N.Y.
Tucker, Wm. & Son, New York, N.Y.
United States Golf Architects, Chicago, Ill.
Wagstaff, C.D. & Co., Evanston, Ill.
Watson, Wm., Los Angeles, Cal.
Way, W.H., South Euclid, O.
Wells, Tom, Inc., New York, N.Y.
White, Robert, Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Wilkinson, Willard G., Westfield, N.J.
Winton, Tom, Tuckahoe, N.Y.

Some thought/questions:

1.  There are a few names on this list I'd like to learn more about, including Andrews, Barr, Dunlap, Ham, Laidlaw, Lewis & Valentine, Paddock, Peterson and Wells.

2.  Who was working with the "corporate" architect firms during this time?

3.  Interesting that Langford (noted as Longford for Florida) was listed twice.

4.  The list contains the professionals from that era.  What names would you add to round out the list to include the "amateur architects?"

[Jud_T]

Sven,

Interesting.  I've barely heard of 1/3 of 'em...

[BCrosby]

No MacKenzie or Thomas or Bell?

[BCrosby]

No Raynor, MacD or Egan?

This is not a very helpful list.

[Ian Andrew]

For perspective:

I don't appear in any trade publication today because I don't pay to be listed.
Trade Lists are advertising.




BTW Raynor has died before the list was published.

[Jim Sherma]

I assume that Fred Finley is a misspelled Fred Findlay. I believe that Alex Findlay was still alive at this point.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I would love to know more about all those Chicago guys.  I had heard of American Park Builders, but there are two others - Pioneers and American GCA listed in Chicago.  Is the former a subsidiary of the first?  We knew it housed Bendelow and others for a while.  Who was Pioneer?

I am familiar with the other Chicago firms.

BTW, I probably have the distinction of being the only one on these boards who has actually talked to Mr. Langford.  He was still listed in the ASGCA roster when I started calling around at age 15.  I got him on the phone in his Florida retirement home, and he chuckled a little and said he was long since out of the game.

[Blake Conant]

Jeff, did you get a chance to study any of Langford's courses in Omaha when you were building there?  Any thoughts on Ironwood (Highland CC) being redeveloped into a mixed-use commercial/retail district? 

[Jeff_Brauer]

I studied OCC a bunch, having done some routing expansion studies for them at the time.  I hadn't heard of the latter. You will recall that Whitten and others don't think OCC was Langord, but rather Stiles.

Either way, my fave LM course in the midwest is really Wakonda in Des Moines, though.

[Gib_Papazian]

Maddox, MacDonald & Maddox, Chicago, Ill.

Hmmmmmmm, since C.B. was from Chicago, I wonder if he was a sort of a nonpracticing partner.

[RJ_Daley]

Jeff, what about the Foulis Bros in Chicago?  James died in 1928, but Robt continued to work here and there until late 30s or early 40s.  Could the Foulis Bros be either U.S. Golf Architects, or Pioneer?

Another obscure one that comes to mind, working out of Chicago, was Stanley Pelcher.

[Joe Bausch]

I assume that Fred Finley is a misspelled Fred Findlay. I believe that Alex Findlay was still alive at this point.

Yes, Alex was still alive in the 20s.

[Gib_Papazian]

I looked it up, and here is the answer:


Does anyone know anything about this partnership or any of their designs?

From what I know: Macdonald was a Scot and Maddox was the construction man. I've seen picutres of their work, really bold bunkering appears to be their calling card. They were based in Chicago, and their courses are in Illinois and surrounding states. I don't know what its like today, but Beverly Shores in N. Indiana looked good.

From Tom MacWood, December 23, 2005.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I have studied some of Pelchar's work up in MN.  Didn't we learn recently that he was affiliated with the Klauss Bros. landscape company that stayed in business long enough to build Kemper Lakes in 1976-7, via the second generation, (Otto Klaus)

Not sure about the Foulis and Pioneer.  It seems like one at least bro went to ST Louis early, no?  Would be worth looking up.  My first reaction was that it was a spinoff of one of the construction guys from American Park Builders, and who knows who the gca was.

[Blake Conant]

Wakonda is on my list.  Stiles has since gotten official credit for OCC, although it's always referred to as a Maxwell redesign.

[RJ_Daley]

C&W has Pelchar as forming U.S.Golf Architects (clever use of USGA).  Who did he form the company with?  Leonard MacCumber?

[Sven Nilsen]

Jeff:

Here's the thread where we discussed Pelchar, Klaus and U.S. Golf Architects:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=54471.0

Sven

[RJ_Daley]

Sven, I hadn't seen your Jan 3 thread, and honest, I wasn't trying to rip you off.    It was a wild guess at Pelchar and MacCumber and Foulis Bros.  Then, I looked in C&W.  As for MacCumber, they didn't list North Shore in the courses credited to him.  But, of course I knew of it and saw an original drawing by MacCumber that the Super at N.S. has in his office.  Hepner told me that he thought MacCumber worked on some courses for Raynor more as an engineer-construction manager, and might have worked in Minneapolis area at same time he did North Shore.

Oneida CC is of course here in Green Bay and has been gone over quite a bit by Lohmann.  Pelchar also did Turtle Lake club near Boulder Junction WI, and I've played that a few times.  It is so-so, with pretty north woods setting.

[Sven Nilsen]

RJ:

No worries, and wouldn't have thought anything of it if you didn't bring it.

Thought it might make sense to add in the three posts from the other thread here:

SN:

I've been researching Stanley Pelchar and his involvement with a design firm called United States Golf Architects, Inc.  Pelchar worked with James Prendergast (engineer) and Otto Claus (landscape architect).

There are a number of small advertisements in Golfdom from the late 20's that reference the firm.  Today I found an ad from May 1929 that lists a number of the courses they built, including several I had not heard of before:

Beloit CC (Beloit, WI)
Lake Anna GC (Palos Park, IL)
Oneida Golf and Riding Club (Green Bay, WI)
Municipal GC (Beloit, WI) - this is the Kreuger course
Burnham Woods GC (Burnham, IL)
South Shore GC (Momence, IL) - attributed elsewhere to Willie Watson, aka Garden of Eden GC
Woman's CC (Waukegan, IL)
Palo Alto CC (Chicago, IL) - aka Walnut Hills GC?
Surprise Park Golf Y Boat Club (Cedar Lake, IN)

Does anyone have any additional information on Lake Anna, South Shore, Woman's CC and Palo Alto, including different names that these courses may have been known by?

JB:

Interesting in that when I started with Killian and Nugent in 1977, during the construction of Kemper Lakes, the construction manager was the Claus  Bros., probably a descendant of the original, but still named Otto.  Until now, I had not realized that connection.

Of course, Kemper hired them to do the entire corporate HQ for their landscape experience, but I bet their experience in golf had something to do with it.  In fact, they were responsible for hiring K and N for the course.  I think Packard was considered, but Claus wanted nothing to do with Wadsworth coming into "their turf" to build the course, and those two were closely affiliated at that time.

I have seen many of those courses above, although not for 30 years, and would add Nemadhi in Superior, WI to the Pelchar list.  A solid course, built with little fw grading on a flat site.  In many ways, just typical of mid level courses of the 1920's.

SN:

Jeff:

The legacy of Otto Claus is a bit intriguing. 

In addition to US Golf Architects, I've found ads placed by American Park Builders (a well known entity), Frank MacDonald (located in Chicago), Leonard Macomber (also from Chicago) and George Davies (out of Louisville).  Despite the fact that the latter three were advertising in the most popular trade magazine of their day, the list of attributions for each doesn't suggest that they were overly successful in obtaining business (Macomber seeming to have had the most resonance in the historical record).

MacDonald did some work with Charles Maddox, but advertised his services under his own name. 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the likes of Pelchar, Macomber, Davies and MacDonald were responsible for more than a few of the "mid-level" midwestern courses that remain as unknowns today. 

I also think the merits of each of their works is open to debate, and in certain cases possibly worthy of study.  The comments I've read about the renovation at Macomber's North Shore CC in Menasha, WI seem to suggest that he left a fairly solid course on the ground.  One wonders if perhaps the neglect that many of these mid-level courses suffered over the years combined with some mindless tinkering have dulled our opinions of what the "lesser-knowns" actually contributed to the genre in the early days.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

The fact that MacDonald was advertising with the Maddoxes in 1928 and on his own in 1929 suggests theirs was a short-lived partnership.

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