Cazenovia Club Book Sample

Comitee Photo?

About the designer Kevin Mann has been a member since 2003 and a governor since 200?. He has been spent most of his professional life as an and art director. creative director and professor of design and advertising.

One Hundred and More Years of the Cazenovia Club

J. Frederick Rogers, elected to membership in 2011, is a descendant of Owahgena Club members and of incorporators, bondholders, shareholders and officers of both the Owahgena Holding and Cazenovia Club Corporations. His ancestors in the Allen, Stevens and Chard families were active in the Club during the first six decades of the twentieth century.

A FAMILY WITHIN A VILLAGE

About the author

A FAMILY WITHIN A VILLAGE One Hundred and More Years of the Cazenovia Club

Acknowledgements The History Committee is grateful to the Board of Governors for approving this project and for affording access to the minutes of its meetings and Annual Meetings, along with other documentary materials. We are also thankful for the astute comments and corrections of our “dissertation committee” — Eleanor Chard, Bob Constable, Patti and Sparky Christakos, Russ Grills and Hume Laidman — who gently nudged this book toward the truth of events they themselves had lived through.

Patti Christakos, Chair Pat Hill Lynn Horowitch Kevin Mann Teresa Parke J. Frederick Rogers

Prologue A society created for the hale fellowship of its members, if it is to endure, must continually strive to uphold the founding spirit and purpose which initially made such a voluntary association possible, desirable and, in retrospect, seemingly inevitable.

During the festival year of 2017, the Cazenovia Club celebrates the centennial of its third incorporation — and the first of its occupancy of the current clubhouse — arguably the most important of several possible anniversary dates worthy of recognition. In this fleeting moment of observance, it is well to cast a backward eye upon the thirteen decades of history that have sculpted the Club and its members, and that have ushered it and them to the present promontory from which to recall and assess the significance of all that has gone before.

And quite a lot has gone before. This commemorative book undertakes to offer a chronological montage illustrating the lakeside life that the Cazenovia Club has created, perpetuated and enriched. In pictures and words, these pages attempt to capture what might be called its very genius: the “club idea” that inspired its founders to establish an atmosphere of family — “to promote social enjoyment and intercourse amongst the members,” in the words of the 1916 Certificate of Incorporation — which the membership and successive Boards of Governors have held dear and handed on for generations.

Xernam, sit et occus resecer erferov iditis es eosti ut la con re omnis eossum que numquid ut qui aut pre sit, cuptate nditat eumendam, voluptibus, samus eum hit qui blati conseriasim hariaestio quodi blam, int as veriti sim

The beginning.

“AN ORIGIN STORY” It is tempting to consider that today’s Club — its ethos and, indeed, its very property and building — descends simply from the landmark Owahgena Club, built for $5,000 in the summer of 1885 by Lamburtus Wolters Ledyard as a subscription clubhouse for his family and friends.

Two fingerprints of this aboriginal Lake Club would be found on the future Cazenovia Club: the strong superintendence of governing officers, and the interdependence of members in sustaining a healthy institution for the benefit of all.

There was, however, an even earlier planting of a lakeside social organization, also initiated (as might be expected) by Ledyard himself, and carrying the vigorous nautical DNA that would characterize both the later Owahgena and the formative years of the Cazenovia Club.

The location Ledyard selected for his 1885 Owahgena Club, “a wet point of no use” on land he already owned, was intentionally chosen to be near the place where the land-hunters John Lincklaen and Samuel Forman first pitched their tent, and where they discovered an existing bark hut. The weathered marker along the Club driveway commemorates this very spot and bears an inscription devised in 1917

by Helen Lincklaen Fairchild, wife of Charles Stebbins Fairchild, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the Cleveland administration.

On June 20, 1866, the Cazenovia Republican reported the founding of the Owahgena Lake Club with Ledyard (occupation: “gentleman”) as its Commodore. The purpose of this Club would be to “originate and conduct such amusements and lake fêtes as may be arranged by the members through their officers.” Members were enjoined to exhibit personal rectitude (“courteous and orderly conduct”) and solicitude of each other (“mutually guard and protect the boats and property”).

1886

Lizzie Murray Ledyard’s coming out party (photo, painting in Lorenzo)

1886 Sept 6

From that vantage, the two pioneers of the future Cazenovia gazed dreamily but purposefully out upon the lake that would give its name to the village, and much later the Club, that soon would draw life from it.

Cazenovia’s first regatta: The Preston Cup. Still held annual at Willow Bank

1887 July

President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland visit Owaghena

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The Owahgena building, with its Queen Anne styling and rustic interior, was the social keystone of an ascendant Cazenovia. The village was, by the late 19th century, throwing off the mantle of its dusty, post-colonial manufacturing past, becoming a Gilded Age destination for the newly rich from industrialized cities along the eastern seaboard, and from elsewhere, too (New Orleans, in one case). Autochthons named Andrews, Fairchild, Ledyard, Stebbins and Ten Eyck mingled amiably with these seasonal residents; descendants of these venerable natives would themselves find permanent domiciles away from Cazenovia but return faithfully for each summer’s “season.”

6

PIONEER

1888

Pioneer Cottage built (photo)

Indeed, as early as the summer of 1873, Cazenovia had been discovered

by The New York Times as “one of those delightful retreats yet unknown to fame, and its fresh charms still untouched by the follies of fashion.”

Soon enough, however, fashion did invade, captured in 1936 by the Cazenovia Republican in a proud retrospective vignette of late 19thcentury village life: “Gentlemen in cutaway coats, striped trousers and stiff hats, have leisure to discuss politics, religion or anything else as they meet on the street.”

Late 1880’s 1890’s: Lake Fetes begin

1891 Sept 12

First meeting of Owahgena’s revival.

In the 1880s, Cazenovia was quickly developing the stamp and amenities of a true summer resort. In 1910, the village had arrived socially, prompting a correspondent for The Times of London to compare it favorably with such venerable destinations as Bar Harbor, Newport and Saratoga: Here we see the summer girl and the summer boy in their element…. Dances are given by one or another hostess nearly every night, for these gatherings are really of the simplest character, sandwiches and lemonade being usually the only refreshments. The “Summer Colony” is possessed of a joie de vivre and an initiative which is somewhat foreign to the English character. Some member or another is always planning a new festivity…. The key-note of the “Summer Colony” is enjoyment, and not display.

Ledyard had described his own social project with similar understatement: It is in its adaptation a boathouse, where boats can be cared for, and parties of ladies and children can embark, aided by skilful boatmen; and a reading and social room, where subscribers can read, write, enjoy the lake scenery and have parties, entertainments and illuminations. Ladies also find it a pleasant place to meet with their handiwork, to pass their mornings, where the air from the water is usually cool even in midsummer days. No very wide or extended range of purpose is attempted. The Owahgena does not assume the ambition of a club, or offer the excitements of a casino. It is only a simple place that may gratify the tastes and serve the convenience of those who like quiet ways, and do not weary of the refined surroundings that form an especial charm of country life.

1891 – 1892

Jesse Fairchild Carpenter erects clubhouse

1892 Aug 9

The absence of any “excitements of a casino” attests to Ledyard’s wholesome morals and iron discipline: no alcohol was to be served or consumed on the premises (at least not in eyeshot). Neither gambling nor cigars were permitted.

A “simple place” it may have been by intention, but one self-confident enough, in July 1887, to offer a lake fête for the visiting President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland (an occasion engineered by the President’s Cazenovia-born treasury secretary, Charles S. Fairchild). The New York World described a scene not unlike the Cazenovia Fourth of July festivities that current members enjoy from the Club’s veranda:

Club I opening reception and ball

1892 Oct 12

Cazenovia’s Centennial celebrated at the Owaghena. Public invited.

7

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A brilliant pyrotechnic display was given in honor of the President on Cazenovia Lake this evening. The entire lower line of the lake was lined with fire and beacons were placed at intervals of a rod on the hills along the bank with red fire blazing between them. In the midst of all the brilliancy a fleet of steamers, sail yachts, and rowboats started for a tour around the lake from the Owahgena Boat House.

The craft were nearly 400 in number and were decorated with Japanese lanterns and colored fire was burned all the way. Rockets, Roman candles, pin-wheels, fiery snakes, and fireworks of every kind filled the air on every hand.

President and Mrs. Cleveland were the guests of the Owahgena Boat Club and had a steam yacht reserved especially for them.

The Rivals

But the lake’s placid waters concealed a lack of serenity under the social surface of the young organization. Discontented members — “men of wealth,” mostly Owahgenians upset with Ledyard’s imperious (and teetotaling) ways — rose up in 1891 to found a rival organization, the Cazenovia Club. This new outfit was quickly set on foot, attracting not unexpectedly an overlapping membership with that of the Owahgena itself.

Newly appointed House Committee member Jesse Fairchild Carpenter betook to erect an attractive and expansive frame clubhouse on his property at 10 Albany Street, eventually fitted out with a double bowling alley, tennis courts, and a boathouse on the dyke behind the lot. As work started, Carpenter offered generously — in the event,

1893 Sept 30

Caz Club I fire. Total loss

1894 Mar

prophetically — that if anything should happen to the clubhouse, he would replace it. Construction began in March, and the building opened with a grand reception and ball on August 9, 1892.

But a menace stalked the land in those days: fire. Because much construction was of wood — cheaper than brick or stone — and because open flame was a necessary companion for food, light and warmth, disaster always lurked. On September 30, 1893, citizens awoke to the worst village fire in twenty-two years. It was the new Clubhouse, its oiled Georgia pine walls burning like a torch.

In this case, the stalker was serial Cazenovia arsonist Frank Arnold, apostrophized by local poet and retired Methodist minister Dwight Williams, Sr., as a “phantom of the night” whose destructive deeds “bore far away / A relic of a former day.” Arnold was thought to

Robert J. Hubbard purchases Egyptian mummy for Cazenovia while on Grand Tour

1894 Aug 11

Tilting tournament held in Cazenovia

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in reality a complex of two buildings: the Pioneer Cottage and the unadorned, camp-like boathouse (with slips for thirty-five boats and a statement-making, view-blocking five-story tower) that is today’s Clubhouse.

The sturdy, board-and-batten and clapboard-style Cottage, with its Victorian ornamentation, was originally built as Pioneer Place on the site of Benjamin Brewster’s future home, “Scrooby” (now the Brewster Inn). It was moved, with herculean effort over the top of a ten-foot cedar hedge, to what is now the south parking lot on the current property. Renamed Pioneer Cottage, it had provided winter club rooms for Owahgena subscribers, and overnight guest rooms for the convenience of out-of-town members. Its operation was to be the main source of income for the reincarnated Cazenovia Club.

Yet, with the ink hardly dry on the Corporation’s mortgage for this grand acquisition, tragedy once again stalked the Club. On December 31, 1917, fire engulfed the Cottage — a complete loss. This time the conflagration needed no arsonist; an overheated furnace operating in temperatures of 15 degrees below zero was the culprit. Water was reported to have frozen to the clothing of the gallant but overwhelmed village firemen on the scene.

trust-holders when faced with this second disastrous fire.

Although the Pioneer was covered by insurance (“$8,500 on building, $1,500 on furnishings”), moving the Club’s entire operations into the boathouse entailed some additional expense. More grimly, without the revenue-generating Pioneer Cottage, the future did not augur well for bondholders looking for interest payments on the $20,000 establishing indenture.

One might well wonder why the Cottage was not immediately replaced. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 — the signing of the armistice with Germany to end World War I — was still months away. The Governors accordingly voted that “for patriotic reasons, and because of the high cost of building materials, the Club House, lost by recent fire, be not rebuilt.”

On September 20, 1920, the Club Corporation sold its property to the Holding Corporation for $16,500.

Lessor–Lessee

The “club idea” that burned so brightly in the souls of Lambertus Wolters Ledyard and Jesse Fairchild Carpenter has carried this little institution — like a storm-tossed coracle at sea — through devastation, financial complexities and the vagaries of time and societal change.

That idea was ignited once again in the hearts of the next generation of

1900

Davis Cup, US vs. Britain, Men’s tennis tournament founded

Creative financial engineering was therefore in order. The latest exigencies prompted the Board, in 1919, to ask attorney Foster Pruyn, to “draw up a scheme for taking bonds over by a Holding Co.” From this seed sprang the formation of the Owahgena Holding Corporation

1901

First automobile appears in Cazenovia: Julia and Henry Burden’s Apperson

1901

Jesse Fairchild Carpenter dies

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As the boating era had sadly passed, the swimming era had been on the rise since the 1960s, to such an extent that various plans arose to improve the waterfront by tampering with the seawall. Such alterations, however, the Board waved away at the 1989 Annual Meeting, not wishing to “precipitate a bureaucratic mess” involving the New York State Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that could take up to two years to resolve. In 1992, to erase any doubt about the Club’s right to enjoy its waterfront, member Donald H. “Sparky” Christakos — as if auditioning for the Governor’s seat he would occupy beginning in 1993 — secured the necessary beach permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

On the social side of Club life, special casual events like the Steak Roast and periodic barbecues were gaining markedly in popularity over the mainstay Saturday night formal dinners — notwithstanding one member’s wistful salute, at the 1992 Annual Meeting, to the “global uniqueness of Saturday evening black tie attire.” The advent of these one-off events must have seemed a more satisfying solution than the one the Governors entertained in 1980, which would have made Saturdays the equal of Wednesdays, abruptly stripping gentlemen of their weekend cummerbunds and women of their long dresses.

Meanwhile, the membership was apparently becoming more carnivorous. In a bid to stabilize weekly dinner seatings, which remained subject to wild fluctuations, the audience at the 1993 Annual Meeting was assured that “beef tenderloin would be a staple on Saturday evenings to encourage regular attendance.” (Privately, the Governors stewed that “meat carving is slowing down the buffet line.”)

But bovine blandishments aside, it took until the Annual Meeting of 2001 for a Governor to state plainly what many had already understood

1938 July 4

36

Clock given in honor of manager and ex-officio member Benjamin Brewster Stebbins (d. 1935)

1939–1945 World War II

for decades concerning dinner attendance: “the social lives of members these days are very busy…. The Club is not the sole social scene for the members as it was in earlier times.”

Bleach Your Whites

In a separate announcement at the 1993 meeting, Club historian Dallas Trammell attempted to validate the jocular practice of men appearing on the grounds dressed as women: he revealed the discovery of a photographic album dated 1885-1913 featuring, among others, the early Club officer “George Allen playing tennis in a long dress.” (He also read out a relevant minute from the 1927 Annual Meeting, giving documentary proof that the Club’s noisome “parking concerns” date from forever.)

But at least Allen’s was a white dress. Dramatic changes in sports technology accelerated during the late 1970s, consigning, for example, small-faced wooden racquets to the dustbin of history in favor oversize models made of space-age composite materials.

Clothing, too, shifted from traditionally decorous linens to athletically empowering synthetics, often in bold, aesthetically pleasing colors.

Until approximately 1971 — when the Board received a member’s letter complaining that “a general laxity seemed to prevail in the matter of appropriate attire” — proper tennis costumes had been taken for granted. Periodic reminders in the Kaleidoscope, such as in the spring of 1978, helpfully counseled members to “bleach your whites” in preparation for the season ahead.

But in 1984, the Kaleidoscope became a megaphone for the Governors when they changed the Rule Book to emphasize that whites were not

1941 Dec 7

Attack on Pearl Harbor

1941

Club remits dues of seven members during their military service

1942

Mrs. Lee, longest serving Club manager, begins her tenure (photo)

Xernam, sit et occus resecer erferov iditis es eosti ut la con re omnis eossum que numquid ut qui aut pre sit, cuptate nditat eumendam, voluptibus, samus eum hit qui blati conseriasim hariaestio quodi blam, int as veriti sim

that “our trapper successfully resolved the beaver problem at the Club, and ‘we won’t hear from them for a long time!’ Cost – $80.”

“A series of changing phases or events” With these words, both prescient and historically accurate, founding Kaleidoscope editor Georgiana Borst “Jana” Owens (1921-2004) explained the title of the Club’s new organ of communication, the sole information bridge to members until the advent of email. Owens would be followed by a capable, creative and hard-working succession of blue pencil-wielding editors, including Mary Lou Schwinn, Peggy Laidman, David Bull and Kevin Mann.

Xernam, sit et occus resecer erferov iditis es eosti ut la con re omnis eossum que numquid ut qui aut pre sit, cuptate nditat eumendam, voluptibus, samus eum hit qui blati conseriasim hariaestio quodi blam, int as veriti sim

Parking, too, would rear its head as a growing membership demanded more spaces nearer the Clubhouse. Hemmed in by the lake to the west, Governors’ eyes naturally looked east to the lagoon, “to fill in part of the mini-dyke and island.” Questions flew like volleys across the Red Court net: “Can this be done?” “Do we own the island?” Sagely discerning a potential quagmire, President Theodore H. Northrup lowered the temperature: “Bottom, bottom line — we need a separate meeting on this.”

And local critters would again force themselves into the Board’s already crowded field of vision. Having more or less conquered the “goose situation” with the application of a non-chemical repellent on the front lawn, in the winter of 2005 the Governors could fist-bump at the news

1971

44

Billie Jean King first female athlete to earn more than $100,000 in one year

FPO

1971

The new publication would be many things to many people. It would report raw facts, like the renovations to the Clubhouse in 1978, or the fate of the towering flagpole felled by a freak typhoon that same summer (“the flag survived”). It would purvey news-you-can-use, like new-member listings and the 1987 “Item of Interest” that Dudley N. Hartt, Jr., was the first Club president who was also the son of a president.

The Kaleidoscope would mark dates of historical importance: that busy inaugural year of 1978 was the thirtieth anniversary of inter-club tennis rivalries with the Sedgwick Farm Tennis Club and the Sadequada Golf Club (started by George Thompson, Robert Knapp, Chester King and Jimmy Hubbard).

Looking forward that same year, the soon-to-be beloved annual Cazenovia Club Golf Tournament teed off for the first time at the Cazenovia Country Club. This event has, like the flagpole, remained permanently associated with the leadership of Robert S. Constable.

Club purchases ‘new reproducing system” aka record player

1972

Title IX, federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education

1973 May 13

Mother’s Day Massacre: Bobby Riggs vs. Margaret Court. Bobby Riggs wins in two sets

John Hunter

“A TENNIS STORY”

Tennis at the Club

In creating this memory, I sat with Hal McGrath to collect a few of his favorite stories. Hal is undoubtedly the best player to ever call the Cazenovia Club home. Yes, recent years have brought us a few that can serve faster and hit the ball harder, but I doubt any of them will ever create a legacy that will even come close to Hal’s. Check any plaque in the lobby of the Club — it is adorned with Hal’s name multiple times. Hal has always “shared the wealth” by teaming up with different partners almost every year, guaranteeing many of us a spot on the Labor Day podium.

In addition to his Caz Club success, Hal has won the Eastern Intercollegiate Singles Title; been ranked 10th in the nation in amateur tennis; won the New York State Senior Doubles title 15 times; won Gold Medals in the National Senior Games in 2001, 2003 and 2005;

2011

58

Hickory chairs purchased for dining room. New staff uniforms for Saturday nights. Historical Club photos displayed throughout clubhouse (photo)

2012

and has over 100 championship titles to his name. He was, at last, named Herald Journal Athlete of the Year in company with names like Jimmy Brown, Ernie Davis, Carmen Basilio and Dolf Shea. With all this, one could almost wonder why his home court is the Caz Club.

We have been blessed to witness his play, generosity and sportsmanship over these many years.

My own memory of tennis at the Club goes back to the late 1950s and early ’60s when, as a young kid, I would sit nervous, squirming and pretzel-like on the grass of the Brewster court watching my dad, Jack Hunter, play the finals. No doubt, as a 10-year-old, I equated Labor Day at the Club to the Wimbledon finals. Though not in the same category as Hal, dad was a perennial winner, beating younger players in the singles and always teaming with an older partner — Tommy Thompson was his favorite — to win the doubles.

Colgate 13 nights begin.

Annual sell-outs (photos)

2012

Hal McGrath Tribute Night

2013 Feb 17

Serena Williams ranked #1 in the world for Women’s tennis for the next 186 weeks

My own time in the youth program was magical. Blessed with an endless supply of Hancock/Northrup cousins who came from both near and far for the summer, the program would fill the summer, and the summer would flash by. Rain or shine, we would come to the Club every day for friendship and activities that went way beyond tennis. Al Davis was the pro in my time and I would guess that he is the longest serving pro dedicated to the youth program. He was much more than just our tennis teacher. He was our leader for the summer! Building a resume for college acceptance didn’t matter back then, and we remained in the program later into our teen years than today’s world will allow.

2013

Gov. Sparky Christakos and Grounds committee member David Webster install stone bench to commemorate Lincklaen plaque

Our home-on-home matches with other clubs took us out of the immediate area as we traveled — Sedgwick Farm Tennis Club, in Syracuse, and the Sadaquada Golf Club, in Whitesboro — not just for tennis, but also for the post-competition dinner-dance hosted by the home club. I never got to play first singles as I was in the era of John Bruns, son of Ann and Dick, who was the tennis wunderkind of my day. John did well at both the Central New York and State levels and was a notch above everyone else in our program.

2013

First Lily Cup tourney; becomes annual event in memory of Debbie Schutzendorf Gregg (1964-2012) (photos)

2014 May

Club announces first cell phone usage policy

59

Comitee Photo?

About the designer Kevin Mann has been a member since 2003 and a governor since 200?. He has been spent most of his professional life as an and art director. creative director and professor of design and advertising.

One Hundred and More Years of the Cazenovia Club

J. Frederick Rogers, elected to membership in 2011, is a descendant of Owahgena Club members and of incorporators, bondholders, shareholders and officers of both the Owahgena Holding and Cazenovia Club Corporations. His ancestors in the Allen, Stevens and Chard families were active in the Club during the first six decades of the twentieth century.

A FAMILY WITHIN A VILLAGE

About the author

A FAMILY WITHIN A VILLAGE One Hundred and More Years of the Cazenovia Club

Acknowledgements The History Committee is grateful to the Board of Governors for approving this project and for affording access to the minutes of its meetings and Annual Meetings, along with other documentary materials. We are also thankful for the astute comments and corrections of our “dissertation committee” — Eleanor Chard, Bob Constable, Patti and Sparky Christakos, Russ Grills and Hume Laidman — who gently nudged this book toward the truth of events they themselves had lived through.

Patti Christakos, Chair Pat Hill Lynn Horowitch Kevin Mann Teresa Parke J. Frederick Rogers