History's Mysteries

[Jim_Kennedy]

Automobile Club -Detroit - didn't see it on the Park list,  unless it had another name
Toronto Hunt Club - Canada
Meadowbrook, Grosse Point Il
North Jersey CC - NJ
Northfield CC -also NJ, possibly ACCC?
No name - Canton Ma.

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

Automobile Club of Detroit changed its name to Pine Lake around 1921.

Here are a couple of articles touching on Park's work in the cities noted in the Happy Valley writeup (which was the focus of my question), all forwarded by Jim.





I've updated the list to note in bold the courses we can confirm he worked on in 1916.

Baltimore - Rolling Road (although his work is given a date of 1920)
Detroit (5 courses) - Meadowbrook, Pine Lake (aka Automobile Club), Cascade Hills?, Flint, Red Run
Minneapolis - Minneapolis GC
New Britain - this would be Shuttle Meadow
Meridian - a 9 hole course in Meridian, LA was organized in 1917
Plottsville (Pottsville?) - Schuykill CC (work is given a date of 1921)
Reidsville - assuming this is the town in NC, which didn't get a course until 1931
Boston - this is the Canton course, Milton-Hoosick

His work at North Jersey is a new one to me.  Also, the second article confirms Drew's questions on Sylvania, and adds in his doing work at the Toledo CC around the same time.

[Ed Homsey]

I'm curious about the listing of North Jersey CC also.  It's pretty clear that Travis designed their current course in 1921.  Their previous courses were not designed by anyone of note, best I can tell.

[Jim_Kennedy]

This article leaves room for speculation, but it reads like this was a Park course.  
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle,  Oct 7, 1916


Further mention of work at NJCC at around the same time that the earlier article mentions Park.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug 14, 1915


A mention of the new holes at NJCC - no Park or Travis reference
BDE, Aug 1, 1915

[Ed Homsey]

Jim--I'm having a hard time seeing the connection between Park and the Patterson Golf Club, which became North Jersey.  What am I missing?  Travis was not brought into the North Jersey picture until 1921.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Ed,
The 1916 article from the Schenectady Gazette in reply #26 mentions alterations at NJCC that were carried out by Park.

[Ed Homsey]

Thanks, Jim.  I missed that.  In 1915, North Jersey CC was located at Warren Point, near Paterson, NJ.  The map of the course, published in NJCC's centennial book, shows it to be a very tight course, squeezed into a fairly small landscape.  It is apparent that there were concerns about the course when it opened.  The history book notes that, "It was a picturesque course....however, it was considered hazardous, with a number of parallel fairways that destroyed the beauty and serenity of the setting."  By 1919, the club was looking for a new setting and, in 1921 purchased their current property in Wayne.  That was when Travis was brought in.

[Rick Shefchik]

My biggest question about Park is why he didn't return to Minneapolis in the spring of 1917. Has anyone found an article describing what he was doing at that time? He left the completion of Minneapolis Golf Club to head pro William Clark, who saw the grounds for the first time in March 2017. I've been through MGC's board minutes from that era, and unfortunately there's no mention of why Park was not present to complete the course.

[Sven Nilsen]

Rick:

See the second article posted above in Reply #26.

It gives a good ideas as to his activity, but also notes that he thought many clubs were reluctant to take on a big outlay at the time.

My guess is that Park was a bit of an opportunist, and was following the money while lining up as much work as possible.  He stayed fairly busy through the early 20's.

The other articles from that time note he was traveling all over the East and Midwest (and to Canada).  It could be that a return visit to Minnesota just didn't fall into his calculated travel plans.

Sven

[Bret Lawrence]

Sven,

Mystery #7-did Harvard ever get its golf course?

Regarding Harvard, I tend to believe they never built the course in Waltham.

Here are three articles to explain my thinking.

The first two articles show Harvards golf schedules in 1904 and 1905. I would think if they had a new course in Waltham, they wouldn't need to use The Country Club and Oakley.

The first article is Harvards golf schedule from 1904, found on TheCrimson.com


The second article is Harvards golf schedule from 1905, found on the Crimson.com


The third article is from the Hartford Courant-June 25,1922: In the first and last paragraph, the author makes it sound like Harvad has never had a course to call home.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Rick,

I don't know about MGC, but in some cases the pro was also the superintendent. It wasn't unusual in that era for the designer to prepare a set of plans and leave varying amounts of work in his hands, or those of the club's green committee.

[Bret Lawrence]

Sven,

I also looked into some of the old Taft Papyrus newspapers who kept very good tabs on Yale and Harvard. In February 20, 1902 the Taft Papyrus stated that "Harvard Golf Club is endeavoring to raise $15,250 for the purchase of a new golf course". (Similar to your first article). I could never find a follow up on the golf course, however one year and one day later there was a note regarding Harvard.  "During the last year six new buildings have been erected at Harvard. The cost of which was nearly $1,025,000." Maybe this had some influence on the golf course being pushed aside?

Bret

[Rick Shefchik]

Rick,

I don't know about MGC, but in some cases the pro was also the superintendent. It wasn't unusual in that era for the designer to prepare a set of plans and leave varying amounts of work in his hands, or those of the club's green committee.

That's apparently what happened in Minneapolis, but Clark seems to have deviated from Park's original design. The Minneapolis morning Tribune reported that spring that the new course would be 5,250 yards, while Park's plan called for the course to be 6,348 yards, and the hole lengths in the newspaper do not match up with Park's original plan.

Clark had some chops of his own (he later designed Oak Ridge, one of the Twin Cities' best private courses), and perhaps concluded that he could come up with improvements to Park's design. Park's office never took credit for MGC. 

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #8 - Was DC's first public course ever built?

The article below describe an effort to build a course in Rock Creek Park.  Later reports note a 9 hole course did come into existence, but not until 1923 (with William Flynn being involved later on).

Was the first course ever built?

Golfers Magazine Dec. 1906




Golf Magazine Feb. 1907

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #9 - What happened to this Sacramento club?

A shout out to the west coast. 

This Jan. 1911 Golf Magazine blurb notes the ambitious plans for a new club in Sacramento.  The first iteration of the Sacramento GC was founded in 1900.  The later annual guides give a date of 1913 for the formation of the Sacramento CC (which was later remodeled by Fowler).

Was the course referred to in this article actually the CC, with the earlier GC already having gone out of existence?  Or, as suggested by a 1913 Spalding Official Golf Guide article, did the old course get improved and become the CC?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Looks like yes, and just waiting for a mower in '09.





Ed. - a 1911 article from the DC paper "The Evening Star" mentions the course, but it's thought to be too far from the city and not very well maintained.   

[BCrosby]

Sven -

Re: Charlottesville CC - Aug. 1913 newspaper article (see below) reports note Bendelow laying out a new course for this club.  No course by this name is noted in the Annual Guides...  

By chance last weekend I spoke with a retired professor from the UVA law school. He has played golf in C'ville for many decades. I asked him if he had ever heard of the course referenced above. He said he had and that it was located where the Law School was once located (Clarke Hall) and is now the site of the UVA chemistry and engineering departments. The course would have been off Rugby Road, maybe half a mile north of the the Lawn. He said it was gone by the time he arrived in C'ville, but older golfers had pointed out to him the course's former site.

All hearsay, but interesting.

Bob

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven -

Re: Charlottesville CC - Aug. 1913 newspaper article (see below) reports note Bendelow laying out a new course for this club.  No course by this name is noted in the Annual Guides...  

By chance last weekend I spoke with a retired professor from the UVA law school. He has played golf in C'ville for many decades. I asked him if he had ever heard of the course referenced above. He said he had and that it was located where the Law School was once located (Clarke Hall) and is now the site of the UVA chemistry and engineering departments. The course would have been off Rugby Road, maybe half a mile north of the the Lawn. He said it was gone by the time he arrived in C'ville, but older golfers had pointed out to him the course's former site.

All hearsay, but interesting.

Bob

Bob:

This was pretty much the guess that we had on the Bendelow thread.  Glad to hear a bit of confirmation.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #10 - Colorado Springs YMCA

The location for the proposed course would have put it in the area of the Garden of the Gods.  Was this course ever built?

May 1912 American Golfer -

[Mark Saltzman]

Sven, I love the concept of this thread, but I wonder if you would get more responses if you broke it into separate threads for each course you're investigating, with the course name in the title of each thread. Those who could contribute information on the specific courses might find the threads more easily, and Barney wouldn't have to browbeat the treehouse for responses.

Rick:

If you haven't noticed, there's a noted disdain for these types of threads from many members of the treehouse.  Some don't care about history, some don't think it matters, and some have a general disregard for "cut and paste historians."

With that in mind, I thought I'd keep the intrusion down to a minimum.  The thread might end up being a bit disjointed, but a straight read will give a fairly general sense of how the game developed with regards to many of the courses that aren't highlighted today.

Sven

Sven, I have nothing to add to this thread other than thanks and would second Rick's suggestion. I can't believe anyone has the attitude you mention in your post, but even if they do, that's their problem and I'm sure they're in the tiny minority.

[MCirba]

Sven,

Regarding this overall thread and the terrific work being done by you, Jim Kennedy, Bob Crosby, Joe Bausch, and others, that's the primary reason I've returned to GCA and hope to contribute.

In that regard, your question #8 above regarding Rock Creek Park.

It appears that work was started as planned around 1906 but ran into snags.   This May 7th 1909 article in the Washington Evening Star explains the issue.




I've been unable to find anything related to golf in the Park until 1922, when this Washington Sunday Star article appeared on September 10th.   The course opened on May 22nd, 1923 with Both President Harding and Chief Justice Taft playing in the first group.  



Hope this helps!

[Sven Nilsen]

Mike,

First, welcome back.

Second, the 1923 Rock Creek course is described as newly constructed, which raises the question of whether it had any connection to the earlier lay out. 

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #11 - Saltville's Short

A while back I posted some images of the golf course in Saltville, VA (the thread can be found here:  http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57979.0.html).

I'm still intrigued by the abruptness of the features in the old photograph, and what looks to be a Redan style hole in the aerial.

The course looked more refined than your average small town layout, and the money and connections behind its creation lend credence to the thought that there may have been a big name involved.

So who was responsible for Saltville?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Back at reply #40 I posted an article and mentioned another from 1911, one that suggests the course was built and operating. Here it is, from The Evening Star, Friday Feb 17th,  pg 2.

 
rock creek by sylvania2009, on Flickr

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
This article attributes the building of Saltville to Chris Whiteman
http://tinyurl.com/nuyvvek