Bryan,
My question regarding the blueprint was serious, although also somewhat rhetorical. I don't think that anyone actually considering the property could reasonably believe that CBM intended 90 acres of lots of that property, and whenever it was actually created, the blue print gives us a glimpse into the planning process. So, I am asking, if CBM planned on sub-dividing the property into a 60 large building lots for the Founders (in addition to golf course) then where on the property would these lots fit? And what would be left for the golf course?
Do you have a date for the blueprint?
I don't have a date for the blueprint. My best guess would be pre-construction 1907. There are center line numbers which are unfortunately indecipherable. They could be yardages, but since they don't seem to be in uniform gaps from hole-to-hole I wonder if they are elevations. It least one early course description contained center-line elevation changes, and seeing those center-line figures makes me wonder if there is some connection.
Presumably by then CBM knew he had some surplus land but not 90 acres surplus by the time the blueprint was done, if not before. Do you think the blueprint was done pre-purchase; after the end of the 5 months of detail planning over the winter of 06-07; or somewhere in that 5 months?
I think it was quite obvious that he knew there was no room to divide up land into 60 building lots for founders by the time the blueprint was created. I think the more pertinent question is, when was the course being planned? The various press accounts and CBM quotes indicate that planning process was already well under way (but not yet completed) by mid-December 1906. CBM had already told us about the location of four famous (or soon to be famous) holes, the location and general dimensions of the course, the quarter-mile frontage on Peconic Bay, the one mile frontage on Bulls Head Bay, the approximate location of the first and last holes, the types of other holes he wanted to build, etc. He also told us that the property purchase would be tailored to the needs of the final, detailed plan for the golf course. In short, even at this point, there was no room for 90 acres of building lots for 60 millionaires.
As for the date that final, detailed routing was complete (like the one depicted on the blueprint,) it seems to have been sometime the spring of 1907, at the latest. CBM indicated he would complete the detailed plan before the purchase, and by early May 1907 (May 4, 1907 NY Evening post, IIRC), HJW offered a detailed description of much of the course, including exact yardages and hole numbers for a number of the holes.
So, as for the 90 acres of surplus land and the 1.5 acre lots, I do not think that had anything directly to do with the NGLA property.
- The description to which you are referring was from a hypothetical in original version of the Solicitation Letter/Agreement, authored by CBM in 1904.
- Presumably, CBM included a copy of the 1904 Agreement when he sent out his Notice That Payment was Due pursuant to this Agreement in December 1906. In the version of the Agreement reprinted in Scotland's Gift, all of the language about the real estate scheme was not included.
- The newspapers picked up on the language in the 1904 Agreement and presumed (mistakenly, I believe) that this was what CBM actually intended to do at NGLA.
- None of the extensive CBM and HJW quotes in the December 1906 articles mention a plan to divvy up the property into 60 lots for the founders.
So I don't think, on this particular site, that CBM ever intended to divvy 90 acres of land between the Founders (just as he never intended to divvy up land for the founders from the previous 120 Acre property he tried to purchase.)
To try and answer your last question, I don't think the Founders ever had any expectation of receiving 1.5 Acre lots on this property, but if they did, their expectations were inconsistent with CBM's intentions. The founders likely new that CBM had purchased the property from a huge, well-publicized development specializing in large, high end, building sites, but if they didn't then CBM told them that building sites were available.