All,
Some folks in PA fly to Florida, or Arizona, or the Caribbean during Christmas break.
But, if you're a true golf course nerd, the only hopping place to be is the Fairmount Parks Archive on the 10th floor across from the courthouse in downtown Philly.
Today, Joe Bausch and I took the train from Villanova into center city to meet Geoffrey Walsh (who was working, but was able to break free for the good stuff) there for a meeting with the Archive administrators.
It was a truly exciting day, but at first glance it seemed that all they had were many of the same newspaper articles we had already researched, along with very high-level end of the year summaries that included things like number of rounds played, etc.
However, before long we also came across some large blueprints detailing an irrigation system from the 60s (it was interesting that a number of the old tees and hole corridors still existed that late), but after an hour or so, one of the park archivists came across an indexed book that indicated there just might be an original map of the golf course.
The bound, rolled scroll was located, and we hurriedly cleared the tables. Slowly unrolling it as if it were the Dead Sea Scrolls, we all gingerly spread it across the table, and VOILA!, there it was...
The "Cobbs Creek Golf Course as Approved by Chief Engineer" (Jesse Vodges, who signed it below), dated April 8th, 1915, almost 14 months before the course opened for play.
In essence, and of extreme value for any restoration efforts, the large blueprint was a topographical map of the property, with a basic ball-and-stick routing drawing showing the exact proposed location of the tees, fairways, and greens.
It does not include any detailed golf features, which makes perfect sense because the other accounts here seem to indicate that Wilson, Smith, Vodges, et.al., built the features during construction in a hands-on method, probably much like Pete Dye does today. This is also consistent with what we know about the earliest drawings of Pine Valley, and possibly Merion as well, where fairway lines and green and tee locations were drawn and sketched out and then the details fleshed in during construction.
We all peered at this document excitedly as if it were the Holy Grail. The staff are graciously making full-scale copies for us, although Joe might be able to post some pics he took of it (in sections) when he gets back from a celebratory dinner tonight.
There was more good stuff found, including finding some wonderful 1916 photographs, and then Joe and I going back over to Cobbs late afternoon to validate some of what we had learned earlier.
I should mention that the discussion of what we're proposing was met with a great degree of interest, as well.