"Tom,
I agree...but I'll continue to believe that Lloyd's position of influence with HDC demands that December 19, 1910 is not the earliest point he could have been in a position to move boundaries..."
Sully:
That's seems to be true. But what Lloyd was doing in his negotiations with Connell before Nov. 1910 appears from everything contained in the MCC committee reports and board meetings that address the negotiations between Connell and Lloyd to have all been well before any golf course routing or hole designing was even considered. It is important to note that Lloyd seemed to be the only one from MCC doing any negotiating with HDC about golf ground. The minutes and reports say so.
I do understand that some people on here just think there must have been some sort of golf course design at this point. Apparently they seem to think that partly due to David Moriarty's completely unfactual contention that that was the case but the fact truly is from everything from MCC itself that it just was not the case.
The fact is MCC began to do routing and design plans for Merion East at some point and for a whole lot of practical reasons that have been either ignored or dismissed on these multiple Merion/Macdonald threads Nov, 1910 was just NOT that point when they began doing that. Again, there are all kinds of practical reasons contained in MCC's record why that was so and why they were not doing that at that early point.
As far a Francis land swap prior to Nov, 1910, Francis, like Wilson and the rest of the Wilson Committee that was appointed in the beginning of 1911 and that included Griscom, Toulmin and Lloyd himself had just not yet become involved in that process of routing, designing or laying out plans for a golf course. All they had accomplished by mid-Nov, 1910 was the agreement that they had enough land with that 117 acres to be able to do it. Probably the single biggest factor holding things up for Lloyd and Connell was the pinning down of the Dallas estate that would not happen until Nov. 1910. After that, and after Lloyd completed his negotiations with Connell (the board minutes refect he did this on his own with numerous meetings and conferences with Connell) HDC wrote a letter on Nov. 10, 1910 from HDC secretary Nickolson to MCC president Evans making the offer of 117 acres. Evan's got approval from the board and wrote Nicklson back agreeing to the terms of the offer. At that point at least a single boundary line was not as exact as it would be after the Francis land swap idea, the approval of the Thompson Resolution and its reflection in the July 21, 1910 deed that Lloyd transfered to MCCGA.
There is also little question that there was one really obvious elastic boundary line and that is why Lloyd put himself in a position to adjust it. Had the Francis land swap idea happened BEFORE Lloyd's Dec, 19, 1910 deed then that elastic boundary line would have reflected Francis' idea on the topo contour maps the Wilson Committee used beginning at some point in January 1911 but the fact is it just did not and that is why it is reflected on the board level in the Thompson Resolution AFTER Lloyd took the land into his own name and why it is particularly reflected in the deed he transfered to MCCGA on July 21, 1911. That particular boundary line served to enclose the rest of the courses boundary lines which did not change between the Dec, 1910 and the July 1911 deed with the exception of the land of the original Johson farm above Ardmore Ave far to the west that was never considered for golf holes anyway for really obvious reasons.