Lost links, Philly: Brookline Square, Penn RR, Hermitage, Villanova, Altwood

[Joe Bausch]

Here's a fun one I've been digging up info for the last couple of weeks and decided it is time to present it to the masses.  The Brookline Square Club golf course was very short lived, starting around 1922 and may have been gone in as little as 5 years later.   The idea for the club was started by a few fellows in early 1921.  They purchased land in Haverford Township, on the site currently occupied by the Haverford High School.  It was a club for master freemasons.  It had a huge clubhouse that cost according to some accounts $500,000, complete with a 1200 seat auditorium and a bowling alley.  The first mention of the club that I've seen is this Nov 25, 1923 Philadelphia Inquirer article:




That story also included a picture of the gigantic clubhouse:



The course and clubhouse were dedicated on Oct 19, 1924 as this Inky article documents.  Guests included the Governor of PA and Miss America!



I visited the Free Masons Library in Philly where they have the monthly publication of the club from 1923 to 1926, which was called "Brookline Square Man".  I hoped that would reveal the architect of the golf course, but it did not.  It does include some pretty neat photos.







The property is hilly and allowed for good sledding in the winter:



The lady on the right is showing some good form!



This poorly focused photo of some ladies and a caddy shows an interesting pin:



Soon I might have some aerials of the course.  Maybe that might help identify the architect!

[Dan Boerger]

Joe - This is really top notch research. Great job.

[Craig Disher]

Joe,
About a year ago I found a 1938 aerial of the site which shows the clubhouse still standing. A few bunkers and old greensites are visible but the site had obviously been cleared for housing with a few dirt roads crossing it.  I asked Wayne Morrison about it and a short time ago he identified the club as Brookline Square - probably after talking to you.  His info was that the club property was sold in 1926 for $1M and the members moved to what is now Paxon Hollow. Strange that the property sat undeveloped for at least 12 years - and even stranger that the club had such a short life. The aerial shows the large size of the clubhouse and until I saw your picture I wasn't sure what it was.

[Joe Bausch]

Craig,  the club had money problems and in late 1926 they sold the course to pay off other debts (I assume the ridiculous clubhouse being the largest money).  It seems it might have been converted to a 9 hole course in early 1927 but I still don't know exactly how long it stayed in biz.

I believe that clubhouse stayed around until 1953 or 1956.  I forget where I read the year it finally was torn down.

Around the time of selling the course is when some of the members picked up and started Paxson Hollow.

I still have this suspicion somebody of note was involved in the architecture of Brookline Square.

And talk about ironies:  I uncovered Brookline Square when doing Cobb's Creek research... and guess what creek runs through the property?  Yep, Cobb's!  In the Brookline Square Man reading I did today I read that on the back nine was a par 3 (I'm assuming the 135 yard 15th) with a green surrounded by water.  Geez, Pete Dye is such a copy cat!

[David Stamm]

Joe, you are an animal! Great sleuthing! Keep it coming man!

[Joe Bausch]

Joe, you are an animal! Great sleuthing! Keep it coming man!

Ya' never know, I might have a couple of others. 

Actually I do have a couple of other NLEs that I've never seen talked about at all before.  But I don't find them quite as interesting as Brookline Square so I'll hold off on revealing them. 

[Mike_Cirba]

As we talked about earlier today, I find it somewhat incredulous that the Masons ran into money issues.

Something tells me there's more to the story, but if anyone can find the truth, it will be Joe.

[TEPaul]

Joe:

It would be nice to find out who the golf architect was for Brookline Square GC but that clubhouse looks remarkably similar to the "shingle" style Sanford White did for Shinnecock in the 1880s. It wouldn't surprise me if the architects of the Brookline Square clubhouse were New York's McKim, Mead and White.

[Joe Bausch]

Tom, I left my notes I took on the Club at work (and I'm not going out today with all these knucklehead drivers in the snow!), but the architect of the clubhouse was a freemason at the Club, an architect by trade.  I'm pretty sure his last name was Lachern or something like that.

Here's a better photo of the clubhouse (from around 1950 I think) courtesy of the Haverford Township Historical Society:

[BCrosby]

All this confirms a suspicion I've had for years that the real history of golf architecture is still buried in old newspapers and periodicals. The stuff we have all read, the books by Hunter, MacK, MacD et al., don't scratch the surface.

The other interesting thing is how the development of golf clubs was treated as news back then. It was, apparently, a big deal and incredibly newsworthy. Can you imagine the same kind of coverage today in a major metroplitan paper? One that includes photos of caddies and women playing from bunkers, at the opening of a new course? Heck, even modern magazines that focus only on golf don't give club openings that much pub.

All of which suggests that the game was perceived very differently back then. Or as someone once said, the past is a foreign country.

Great stuff Joe.

Bob

 

[D_Malley]

joe,
i am very familiar with the square club as it was called.  those pictures are great, and i would love to get some copies.  the property was purchased by a company called Conway corp for 1 million dollars in 25 or 26.  see paxon hollow history link below.  i do not think any of the golf course remained in use after their purchase.  the clubhouse is a different story.  it remained in use for many years after the golf course was gone.  in fact my father, who lived in havertown at the time remembers attending many functions at the square club.  the clubhouse was acctually used as a remote campus for Temple univ. at one point.  haverford high then accuired the property and i think it is now the site of athletic fields.
i have another article on the club which might interest you, i will try to post it if i get to my office today.







http://www.paxonhollowgolf.com/index2.html

[D_Malley]

the other NLE club in that area that i am sure you have found info on, is the penna. railroad course which my father played many times, growing up in that area.  i think it was down closer to the current septa line near haverford road. 

i find that pin in your pic very interesting, which appears to be a wicker basket.  there has always been alot of spectulation about where the origins of the wicker baskets at merion came from.  wouldn't it be funny if the answer was Paxon Hollow.

[Joe Bausch]

George, I'd be happy to hear more about 'Square Club'.  I have much other stuff that I've just not posted.  For instance, I have a couple of newspaper articles about the club from around 1990, one from the Inky, the other I think the DelCo Times.

It was 1926 when the golf course was sold.  I did not photocopy everything I read from the club monthly publications, but I thought I read the price was more like 600k.  Anyways.

I also read in one of the monthly pubs that the course was going to be open to the public as a 9 hole course in 1927 until something like August.

MikeC:  the club was financed with bonds.  The Brookline Square Man articles talked about getting enough of these sold month after month.  They went through a couple of presidents in a few years.  One of the presidents wrote that the course was sold b/c of financial difficulties of the club.

Another club nearby, very close to Llanarch and PECO, has been mentioned here a few times and Wexler mentions it in Lost Links, calling it the Pennsylvania Golf Club.  I believe this course was called, in 1926, the Pennsylvania Railroad Country Club, according to something I read yesterday.  I'm working on additional info for this one, and when I have more I'll start another thread.  If anybody has stuff to share, please contact me.

[TEPaul]

"The other interesting thing is how the development of golf clubs was treated as news back then. It was, apparently, a big deal and incredibly newsworthy. Can you imagine the same kind of coverage today in a major metroplitan paper? One that includes photos of caddies and women playing from bunkers, at the opening of a new course? Heck, even modern magazines that focus only on golf don't give club openings that much pub."

Bob:

It does seem that clubs and such were more newsworthy back then and there sure is a wealth of old information in those old newspapers and periodicals but we shouldn't forget that the old newspapers and periodicals had nothing remotely like the competition back then that newspapers and periodicals do today. No TV, no Internet, and probably very little in the way of radio reporting. Newspapers and periodicals totally dominated back then.

[mike_malone]

 Aerial photos in the Llanerch grill room show another course close by . It appears to be SE.

[Joe Bausch]

Aerial photos in the Llanerch grill room show another course close by . It appears to be SE.

That would almost certainly be the Beverly Hills golf course, a 9 holer.  Details of that course were in an early 1990's Inky article I have at work.

Below is a November 1937 Penn Pilot aerial of Beverly Hills.  Looks like you had to dodge trains to play there!

[Craig Disher]

The Pennsylvania GC was to the east of Llanerch on a triangular piece of property bounded by Earlington and Valley roads. By 1950 the course was being carved up for housing.

One course in the Philadelphia area that I've not been able to identify is a 9-holer (the aerial shows at least 10 greens) that stood between Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital and Holy Cross Cemetery. I think the clubhouse stood on the NW corner of the property at the intersection of E Providence Road and S Wycombe Ave. Any insight on that course, Joe?

[Joe Bausch]

One course in the Philadelphia area that I've not been able to identify is a 9-holer (the aerial shows at least 10 greens) that stood between Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital and Holy Cross Cemetery. I think the clubhouse stood on the NW corner of the property at the intersection of E Providence Road and S Wycombe Ave. Any insight on that course, Joe?

I'm pretty sure I read something about a course near there recently when visiting the Delaware County Historical Society.  That info is at work and I may not get into the office today.  I have this vague recollection it is something like the MacDade Golf Course.

[Mike_Cirba]

Joe,

Did Beverly Hills GC later become known as Mary Lyons GC?

[Craig Disher]

From 1937:

[Mike_Cirba]

Craig,

It's amazing how many courses are in that picture.

Cobb's Creek, Karakung,  McCall G&CC and Pennsylvania GC are all there as well.

[Joe Bausch]

Joe,

Did Beverly Hills GC later become known as Mary Lyons GC?

No.

Mary Lyons GC was just north of Springhaven, and the Swarthmore Golf Club was just south of Springhaven.  Each of these shortish 18 hole courses went away, I'm trying to remember what I read the other day, I think in the mid-40's (for the housing demand caused by soldiers returning from WW 2).

[BCrosby]

TEP -

Because of the different way the press covered golf courses back then, it is likely that the history of a course built in the 1920's that disappeared in the 1930's is better documented than the history of a course built in the 1980's that disappeared in the 1990's.

Which is why I hope modern architects, developers and others keep architectural records of modern courses. They may be the only records we will ever have.   

Bob

 

[wsmorrison]

That basket looks just like the one Flynn patented in 1916.  Maybe Flynn had something to do with the design of Brookline Square.  It was right in the middle of his hub of activity. 

Besides Merion East, those baskets were used for a time at Huntingdon Valley, Merion West, Winged Foot, and San Francisco GC in the US and Stoke Poges and Golf de Saint Germain in France.

[Joe Bausch]

Wayne, I'm assuming you've never come across any drawings or anything that would suggest Flynn was the architect at BSC?  Or have you through your research found instances where Flynn was involved with a course but no drawings have been found?