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Blending With Nature - Philadelphia Thinking 1909

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Mike_Cirba:
On the Cobb's Creek thread I wrote a lot about John Franklin Meehan, (aka Frank Meehan, J. Franklin Meehan, J. Franklyn Meehan), who was one of the original team of architects (along with Hugh Wilson, George Crump, Ab Smith, and George Klauder) who designed Philadephia's first golf course.

Meehan designed a number of courses in his career, mostly in eastern PA, but as far north as upper NY state and as far south as Tampa.   

Meehan was the son of arguably the first Landscape Architect in America; his father did the design for the 1876 US Sequicentennial celebration and is also known as the creator of Fairmount Park, the largest parks system of any US City.   His son Frank took the family business into wholly new areas, including municipal and housing planning, as well as golf course architecture, which seems to have been his real passion.

We have had numerous discussions here about the reasons why architecture in Philadelphia took a quick detour in the early teens from what was a very manufactured look to something much more in tune with nature and an attempt to blend colors, slopes, etc., into a more cohesive whole.

Looking at courses like Cobb's Creek and Merion, for instance, it is almost inconceivable to me how great, at-grade greens like the 5th at the East course, or the 5th at Cobbs just seem to be cut shorter, without any construction, after seeing much of the examples of what came before them.

As part of trying to understand some of the philosophic forces that led to this, I offer the following article from the 1909 Washington Post;


J Franklin Meehan, of Philadelphia, Urges Hearers to Study the Colors in Nature

""The series of open air lectures for the benefit of Takoma citizens at the residence of James  Covert, 462 Blair Road, Takoma Park DC, which had been discontinued for the summer months was resumed yesterday afternoon when J. Franklin Meehan  of Philadelphia, one of the formost landscape gardening engineers of the country, lectured on the lawn of the Covert residence on landscape gardening"

"The speaker emphasized the fact that by a careful attention to the rules of color and harmony onot only by each property owner in regard to his place alone but as affecting the whole neighborhood property values for the whole community  would be increased and advocated an imitation of the effects seen in nature as the ideal basis for work along this line."

"Mr. Meehan then enlarged on methods of construction in regard to the planning of new homes including location of the house in which he said that the architect should cooperate with the landscape gardener."

""Harmony in all the effects", said Mr. Meehan "is the fundamental object to be kept in mind.""

"Mr. Meehan closed by advocating a public vigilance committee which he said already had been put into operation in Baltimore suburbs whose duty it should be to notify attending property owners whose places were not up to the standard that they would have to better conditions.   This suggestion met with the approval of many of those present."

"After the lecture Mr. Meehan answered questions put to him by some of his listeners and showed plans of houses built along the ideas he had advanced." 

Mike_Cirba:
I'm not sure how well this will copy, but here's more on Meehan from the Cobb's Creek book we put together;

John Franklin Meehan (aka J. Franklin Meehan, Frank Meehan) – Meehan’s father Thomas came from England to become a famed landscape horticulturalist, author, and businessman and son “Frank” soon followed in his father’s footsteps and became a partner in the family business during his late teens.  His father’s fame led him to be selected to create the Landscape Plans and Horticultural Exhibit at the United States Centennial celebration in 1876 and after his death, even had a plant named after him, Meehania Cordata.  During his life, he was heavily involved in the effort to create city parks, and was on the City of Philadelphia advisory board that was responsible for the creation of Fairmount Park.   

During the 1880’s, Meehan stated, perhaps somewhat prophetically;

“I once looked upon these breathing-places for the poor in large cities with the eye of an artist, valuing them primarily as spots of beauty and ornament to the city. I look upon them now as playgrounds and places where all kinds of physical recreation can be enjoyed, and I leave the details of garden beauty and the ornamentation of the city to take a subordinate place.”

After his father’s death in 1901, Frank Meehan grew his father’s successful business into the areas of city planning, land planning, and agronomy.   He was also quite the sportsman, spending much of his time hunting and fishing in the outdoors.  Owner of a sprawling turf nursery just outside the city, it wasn’t long before Meehan took to golf…with fervor.

Meehan was one of the better amateur golfers in the Philadelphia area (another of the “amateur architects”), and although he wasn’t at quite the top echelon with fellows like Crump and Ab Smith, he did compete well and often in regional tournaments. 


While we don’t know exactly how and when Meehan began his love affair with the game, we know that in 1907 Meehan and some businessmen friends started a golf club called Edge Hill Country Club.   The nine-hole course was on land that Meehan owned, and he designed and constructed the course personally.   He also served as the Club President from 1907 until 1915, by which time the club had moved to a new site and was now known as North Hills Country Club.

In 1911, the club outgrew the modest original course and voted to move and build a new course, first of nine holes, then a year or so later one of 18 holes, both which Meehan also designed.   In May of 1911, A.W. Tillinghast wrote;

The baby member of the Golf Association of Philadelphia—the North Hills Country Club—gives promise of great development.   The club is a little over a year old and is situated in the famous Whitemarsh Valley at Remlu, which is the first village north of Edge Hill. The entire property consists of 240 acres of beautiful, rolling land, through which a stream of clear spring water runs practically the entire length of the course, and which is made use of continually.  The course measures 3,117 yards, and the nine holes par at 36. Most of the land was under farm cultivation, but much wild growth had to be cleared away.

Mr. J. Franklin Meehan is president of the club and his great knowledge of turf and grasses will prove of immense value to the new course.
According to the North Hills Country Club history;
Moving to the new club house necessitated the re-design of the golf course and forced the club to negotiate for additional land. Some ground was dropped (the old 6th and 7th holes were transferred back to the association) and new acreage was acquired and Meehan designed a new 9 hole golf course to accommodate the new club house location.

The next year, on February 6, 1912, the club now having 100 restless members who were each paying $25.00 per year dues, it was voted that North Hills should be an 18 hole course. Some additional acreage, the present 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and parts of the 2nd and 8th holes were acquired from the Land Association and a new lease was negotiated
Meehan, who was now in his third year as president contracted to design and build the present golf course for the sum of $1,625.00.  An attempt was made to keep the old nine in use while the new layout was being constructed but the financial burden was too much. Meehan opened the new course for play on July 12, 1913, admittedly before it was ready for use.
While we don’t know much about Meehan’s golf architectural talents or design acumen at this stage of his career, we do know that it wasn’t long before he brought in some help with North Hills in the form of Hugh Wilson and Ab Smith in 1916. 

From an August, 1914 account;

 

In January 1915, Tillinghast wrote, “"North Hills" has great possibilities, for the natural features are
many. In a number of places the ancient mine workings offer exceptional opportunities to the course
builder, but unfortunately the club has not been in a position to finance the work which would give them a
remarkable course. Lay out North Hills on a big scale and it will be a great golf course”.

Tillinghast alluded to the fact that Meehan was just learning when he wrote in August 1916, North Hills plan a number of changes on their course, which although possessing great natural advantages, always has been rather crude.   The clubhouse, too, will be improved considerably.”

Given Hugh Wilson’s keen interest in all things agronomic, it is certain that he and Meehan had much to discuss in that area, and it is likely to assume that Wilson shared design concepts with Meehan, as well.  What we do know is that they built a very enjoyable, challenging course at North Hills that still stands today much as it did when they renovated it in 1916.

We also know that Meehan went on to practice golf course architecture largely on his own for at least the next fifteen or so years.   Although he worked primarily in Eastern Pennsylvania, he also built courses in upstate New York, and as far south as Tampa, Florida.   His latter effort still exists today in the form of the “Babe Zaharias Golf Course” which was originally known as Forest Hills Country Club when Meehan designed it in 1925. 

In Eastern Pennsylvania, we know that Meehan’s architectural resume included;

LuLu Country Club (first nine holes with Warren Webb) - 1915
Ashbourne Country Club – 1923
Sandy Run Country Club – 1923
Spring-Ford Country Club – 1924
Paxon Hollow (with Francis Warner) – 1926
Berwick Country Club - 1926
Brookside Country Club (Allentown) – 1929

While none of these courses are of the status of the top echelon of Philadelphia-area clubs, they are all fun to play, with sound, very natural golf holes, and all are challenging with some degree of quirkiness created by the imaginative use of natural landforms.   For instance, at both LuLu and Brookside, Meehan created short, dangerous par threes inside of quarry walls.   

Meehan was dynamic, outgoing, and seemingly always energetically active.   This brief description from James Finegan in his “Centennial Tribute to Golf in Philadelphia” certainly provides some insight into the man. 

“J. Franklin Meehan was a born entrepreneur   He dearly loved to start something from scratch.   In some instances, as at Ashbourne and Spring-Ford, a new golf cub that had aquired ground would call him in to lay out the course, a rewarding assignment that enabled him to put his personal imprint on the raw land.   But it was not quite so satisfying as conceiving the idea for a club, finding the property, laying out the course, bringing together a number of kindred souls, and actually running the club during its formative years.   This he did at North Hills.   And now, more than 15 years later and virtually next door, he undertook to do it again (at Sandy Run).”

We also know that John Franklin Meehan was a lifelong advocate of junior golf and largely responsible for the creation of the “Junior” division of the Golf Association of Philadelphia, as well as associated junior tournaments for both boys and girls   Perhaps it was partially due to his own children’s involvement in the game that served as his stimulus and motivation, which was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer in January, 1917;

It seems likely that his passion for junior golf, for growing the game he loved, as well as his direct family involvement with the Fairmount Park Commission would have been prime motivators leading to Meehan’s involvement with the Cobb’s Creek project.   The extent of Meehan’s actual involvement in the design and construction efforts at Cobb’s Creek is somewhat uncertain, only because there were no contemporaneous accounts of his work.  This is perhaps due to the fact that it wasn’t until the mid-20s that Meehan was actually known in the region as a “golf architect”, and probably earlier in his career was viewed simply as a successful businessman and sportsman with an expert agronomic, planning, and horticultural background who had established a thriving golf club in the suburbs.   It seems possible that perhaps Hugh Wilson brought him over to help with the agronomic efforts, especially as planned timetables for opening in the fall of 1915 were not met due to “grow-in” issues, but that is purely speculative.   

In any case we know that by August, 1924, when work began in earnest to build additional public courses in Philadelphia at Juniata (Tacony) as well as a second eighteen at Cobb’s Creek (Karakung), the following news item appeared in the Philadelphia Evening Ledger;

The city will be saved a big fee for a golf architect, in the program for the erection of a course in Tacony, Mr. Corson said (Corson is the Chief Engineer at this time of Fairmount Park and had been assistant to Jesse Vogdes in 1916).  He announced that he himself, a golfer, and Frank Meehan, Hugh Wilson and A. H. Smith, all members of the Philadelphia Golf Association, would probably design the course.

"Mr. Meehan, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Smith gave their aid in laying out the course at Cobbs Creek," stated the chief engineer, "and I am sure that they will help us with the Tacony links."

While we may never know the true extent of his involvement, it is clear that his relationship with Wilson and Smith was a close one and it seems that he was simply another of the “experts” who helped the city with the design, construction, and agronomic work necessary to build Cobb’s Creek.

(NOTE - We later found that the GAP Committee meeting minutes establish that Meehan was assigned by Robert Lesley to the original Committee to build a course in Fairmount Park)

TEPaul:
Interesting stuff on Meehan, Mike.

I played enough tournaments at one time or another at North Hills where it sure got my attention. But when I asked about its architecture and architect back then nobody knew much. Meehan did a lot more in a number of areas to do with golf architecture than I ever realized and I guess the only thing that kept his name from the recognition that others like him such as Wilson or Crump got is he just didn't have a course of the caliber of a Merion East or Pine Valley.

But you are right, I think, in saying that along about 1913 or so the Philadelphia contingent seemed to do a pretty fast swerve away from what might be called the engineered look in architecture and began to go pretty fast down what might be called a far more "natural look" road.

Something tells me Hugh Wilson might've been the one who pioneered this and ironically I think that can be seen from this paragraph he once wrote and then crossed out. Thankfully, for some reason we have that "draft" and God only knows why but we have it. It talks about what one needs to look for and look at to get inspiration for making natural looking bunker shapes.

Mike_Cirba:
Tom,

Meehan seems to have been a bit of a renaissance man and in the 1930s issued a national challenge that he and his family (wife and sons) could beat any other family in the country at golf.   I also find it very interesting that Meehan knew Wilson, Crump, Tilly, et.al. very early on.

Inquiring minds would love to hear Hugh Wilson's thoughts on natural bunkering.  ;)

I've always found it interesting how Alan Wilson's account talks about the idea of avoiding artifice in the look of Merion East and West.

TEPaul:
"Inquiring minds would love to hear Hugh Wilson's thoughts on natural bunkering.   ;D"

No problem Mikey, but I guess I'll have to whisper it in your ear at some point. I can't put it on here until those other two begin to understand the meaning of quid pro quo. Tom MacWood has stated on here he's made a pledge to never help me or Myopia with whatever he has on Myopia and Willie Campbell or ever help me with anything, and Moriarty posted he agrees with that, so what do you think? Why should I have to educate those two on here on Hugh Wilson's ideas? Let them do that research work themselves. ;)

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