I had a conversation with Tom Paul on Friday and wish I had written down some notes because in trying to reconstruct it early on a Sunday morning I'm struggling a bit. Still, I'll do my best.
Tom called me because he noted that I was asking what "securing" land meant back then, as in Merion "secured" 117 acres in November 1910 as we agreed above.
According to Tom, the securing of land was simply an "agreement in principle".
At Merion, this agreement in principle was based on a formal offer sent to Merion in early November 1911 from Mr. Nicholson of the Haverford Development Company, offering 117 acres at a fixed price.
The offer letter does not make clear whether there are a specified 117 acres previously agreed upon, or whether it is an offer for 117 acres generally. (There is no mention of 130 acres, or an option of another 13 acres.) Nicholson stated that the offer was good until early December, evidently trying to move things along.
Given subsequent events, we now know quite certainly tht the specific location of the 117 acres was NOT finalized, except in those cases of land boundaries already well established on the historic boundary lines of the two properties in question.
I should not one other very important point Tom raised. The Nicholoson letter, and the subsequent Cuyler letter, were not separate letters in and of themselves, but were instead full transcripts of those letters entered verbatim into the Merion Cricket Club Minutes, presumably by the club secretary Edward Sayres.As a result of Nicholson's offer, club solicitor Cuyler wrote a letter to President Evans recommending a number of things, the most important being 1) The Merion Cricket Club form a separate formal Corporation "Merion Cricket Club Golf Association" to hold title after purchase, and 2) The H.G. Lloyd take title to the land in question as there was no definite course at that time so that he could accommodate the easy shifting of boundary lines as needed for golf. It should be noted that the term "definite" has strict legal definition particularly as relating to real estate law, meaning "having clearly defined, distinct, explicit limits".
Cuyler also asked President Evans to notify him when that future boundary line between golf and real estate was finally established.
Tom Paul also states that he's unclear and may have misread previously when he stated that it was advised that Lloyd take title either for HDC or for Merion, and tells me the legalistic language in that section is very confusing. In any case, he thinks that's largely meaningless and he suggests we should instead just look at what we know actually transpired shortly afterwards.
Evans responded to Nicholson that the club was indeed interested, but needed some more time to setup a new corporation, etc., which they did.
Later in December, as we know, Lloyd did not just take the title for 117 acres into his personal possession, but instead took the entire 140 acres of the Johnson Farm as well as the 21 acres of the Dallas Estate.
Again, this is simply MORE evidence that the boundary between real estate and golf was not determined at this time, or in the legal words of Cuyler, it was not "definite" where the golf course would be. Only later, on April 19th 1911 after Merion's Board approved one of the golf course plans that the Committee had worked on through April 6th, 1911, was that land plan finalized. At that meeting, the Merion Board also approved a swap of land alread purchased for land adjoining and also approved purchase of an additional 3 acres for $7500.
In July, Lloyd sold the NOW 120 acres to a middleman, a Mr. Rothman, who turned around and sold it to Merion Cricket Club Golf Assn., the newly formed Corporation, who rented use of the course to Merion Cricket Club for $1 a year.
Finally, I pointed out earlier that one of the news articles talked about lawn tennis courts and skating rink at the new site.
In that regard, I'd put forward this January 1911 Dues Increase letter from Secretary Edward Sayres to the membership, in which he not only increases assessments on those golfing members of the Cricket Club, but also on those who will be using the Lawn Tennis courts and the Skating facilities at the new course, which experts are presently at work preparing plans for as of that date.
While we know that later ice skating did take place by flooding the quarry, we can only speculate that the Lawn Tennis courts would have taken a number of acres, and would have almost certainly been located very near the clubhouse facilities.
Is there anyone who still believes that this was all locked down, course routed, and everything in place by November, 1910?
