The Philadelphia Cricket Club Sesquicentennial Book (1854-2004) by riehldarren

The Philadelphia Cricket Club America’s Oldest Country Club 1854-2004

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club America’s Oldest Country Club 1854-2004

David R. Contosta, Author Jas Szygiel, Designer

Published by The Philadelphia Cricket Club Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Photo by Jas Szygiel

Contents Introduction

Past and Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Chapter

Cricketing Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Chapter

Courts and Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Chapter

Country Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Chapter

The Club Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Chapter

Club Renewal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Appendices

Presidents and Champions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Par 4, Hole 9, St. Martin’s Course. PCC.

Introduction

PAST AND PRESENT

he twenty young men who joined together on a winter day in 1854 to found the Philadelphia Cricket Club had no reason to believe that their venture would last for 150 years. Like several private sporting groups founded in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Philadelphia Cricket Club would develop into a full-fledged country club, but none of the others can trace its founding as far back as 1854. For this reason, the Philadelphia Cricket Club can rightly claim to be the oldest country club in the United States in continuous operation.1 If the founders could not have anticipated such a future for their club, they also could not have imagined the vast changes that its members would experience over the decades. In 1854, Great Britain was the most powerful country in the world, whose empire would continue to expand under Queen Victoria for another half century. No one at the time, including President Franklin Pierce, saw the United States a world power, with its population of only 23 million and its long opposition to military spending and large standing armies. Nearly 3 million of the country’s inhabitants were slaves, whose status as bondsmen was protected by the U.S. Constitution. Opposition to slavery was mounting in the North, however; and in the same year that the Philadelphia Cricket Club was founded, the Kansas Nebraska Act, which opened up more territories for the possibility of slavery, touched off round after round of violence between pro- and anti-slavery groups. The election of Abraham Lincoln six years later would tip the balance toward southern secession, Civil War, and then Emancipation. Meanwhile, warfare against Native Americans continued, as settlers moved westward. Women could not vote in 1854, they could not serve on juries, and, if married, they could not sign contracts or hold property in their own names. They presided over households without electricity, running water, inside bathrooms, or central heating. For the fortunate few, air conditioning meant a house in the country at a time when spending a few weeks at the shore or off in New England was still a rarity, and when

Flourtown Clubhouse built in 1804. PCC.

“Miss [Hazel] Hotchkiss beats Miss Florence Sutton,” scene framed by the new clubhouse complex, 1911. CHHS.

Past and Present

no one had imagined the possibility of machines for cooling the air and circulating it through the house. The only possibility for instantaneous communication was a face-to-face conversation. Telephones were a generation away, and most families would not have a telephone until the early twentieth century. There were no typewriters, and even printers still had to set type by hand--one letter at a time. Most everything, including legal documents, was written out in cursive, making good penmanship a virtue as well as a necessity. Railroads were the latest improvement in transportation, but getting around locally still meant traveling on foot, on horseback, or in some kind of horse-drawn vehicle. Without transcontinental railroads, it took months to go from Philadelphia to San Francisco (much of it by covered wagon), while automobiles and airplanes would have struck everyone as ridiculous fantasies. Physicians remained helpless against most illnesses. There was no germ theory of disease and no antibiotics to kill the unknown germs. Doctors could perform surgeries under anesthesia, but without antiseptics, patients who survived the operation often died of infection. Despite the vast changes since 1854, the Philadelphia Cricket Club has survived and prospered, though it has faced many obstacles over the years. Its lack of a permanent home nearly led to collapse in the late 1870s, when the Chestnut Hill Cricket Club came to the rescue by allowing the Philadelphia cricketers to share their grounds. Then in 1883, Henry Howard Houston came up with a better solution when he offered land to the Club in his new Wissahickon Heights development (later renamed St. Martin’s) on the West Side of Chestnut Hill. Houston’s descendents would continue to be major benefactors, as well as Club members. The demise of cricket in the United States during the early twentieth century could have also spelled doom for the Club. Fortunately, it had laid out tennis courts upon moving to Wissahickon Heights; and in the 1890s it built the first of several golf courses, allowing the Club to ride the crest of the growing golf craze. By the time cricket faded as a major sport in the 1920s, the Philadelphia Cricket Club had already made the transition to being a full-fledged country club, with facilities for numerous sporting and social interests. The decision to buy land and build a new golf course at Flourtown in the early 1920s was part of this successful diversification, and a move that would give the Club more options for the future. Wars and economic depressions depleted Club membership and threatened its finances. Five fires plagued the Club during the first half of the twentieth century, the worst of them in 1908, which destroyed nearly all the buildings at St. Martin’s and resulted in one death and several serious injuries. Although the fire was devastating, it allowed the Club to build a larger clubhouse complex. Soon after the new buildings were completed, the Club hosted two U.S. Golf Opens and went on to

Introduction

produce dozens of national champions in tennis, squash, field hockey, and swimming that few if any country clubs in the nation could rival. During the past few decades, the Philadelphia Cricket Club has adapted to changing trends in American life. It allowed more casual dress, gave women an equal voice in governance, and built a second eighteen-hole golf course at Flourtown to take advantage of a new wave of golf enthusiasm and to expand its membership. The Flourtown site also permitted the Club to attract a growing suburban population outside the City of Philadelphia, at the same time maintaining its facilities on the West Side of Chestnut Hill, which remained one of the most desirable places to live anywhere in the United States. Good location, management foresight, generous benefactors, and a membership dedicated to athletic excellence and good sportsmanship all combined to make the Philadelphia Cricket Club the most enduring country club in the nation. I am indebted to many individuals for their help and support. Liz Jarvis initiated the idea for a history of the Club and supported it throughout. Jack Jennings, who chaired this group, was in constant contact, answered numerous questions, and gave thoughtful criticism and direction. Liz Jarvis, also a member of the committee and the archivist of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, was tireless in her search for photographs and other illustrations. Liz read the manuscript at various stages and made many helpful corrections and suggestions, as did Club president Barbara M. Daly. Sarah "Sallie" L. O. Smith, a great-granddaughter of Henry Howard Houston, kindly allowed me to research her collection of family papers relating to the Cricket Club properties. Club manager Nick Smith and his staff, along with Patti Santovito, membership coordinator, went out of their way to answer queries and to accommodate my visits to various Club facilities. Sandy Drinker and Jack Jennings generously gathered lists of Club champions, with the assistance of club professionals Julianne Harris, Ian Crookenden, and Terry McDowell. I have also much enjoyed working with Jas Szygiel of DesignArt, Incorporated. I am grateful for the assistance of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, the Chestnut Hill Historical Society, the Plymouth Meeting Historical Society, the Highlands Historical Society, the Germantown Historical Society, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and Temple University’s Urban Archives. As always, my wife Mary and my two sons, David and John, were an endless source of inspiration and support.

Past and Present

A cricket match in Germantown, 1862, from a pencil sketch by W. S. Newhall. Germantown History, p. 170.

Chapter x

Chapter

CRICKETING DAYS

y the 1850s Philadelphia had become the center of American cricket and was home to several cricket clubs that have survived into the twenty-first century. The oldest of these is the Philadelphia Cricket Club, whose early history was intimately tied to the social and economic

rhythms of the city—from its immigrants and industries to ideas about nature and leisure time. Providing the economic base for leisure activities and cricket clubs was the industrial explosion of Philadelphia during the second half of the nineteenth century. Strategically located near coalfields and served by major railroads and a seaport, Philadelphia was second in size only to New York, until Chicago overtook it at the very end of the century. Philadelphia’s population climbed from just over 400,000 in 1850 to almost 1,300,000 in 1900. Philadelphia led the nation in shipbuilding, locomotives, and textiles, and poured forth a steady stream of machine tools, saws, watches, soaps, hats, carpets, banjos, shoes, umbrellas, ready-made clothes, and hundreds of other items. These enterprises brought great wealth to some entrepreneurs and solid prosperity to many executives and managers, and to the legal and financial institutions that served them.1 It was immigrant textile workers from England in the early 1800s who brought the game of cricket to the city, especially to the mills in North Philadelphia and Germantown. Although cricket was not a violent game, socially prominent Philadelphians associated it with boisterous working class immigrants who bet on matches, frequented taverns, and fought Saturday-night brawls with opposition teams. Two events made the game respectable. The first was the introduction of cricket at Haverford College in the 1830s by William Carvill, an English-born landscape gardener who worked at the college. The second was enthusiasm for the sport by William Rotch Wister and his five brothers, members of a proper Germantown family, who saw textile workers playing cricket in the 1840s. Their Quaker father disapproved, describing cricket as “that most monstrous of games,” but his sons played anyway and soon made it acceptable to young men of their social background. In 1843, William started a cricket club with fellow students at the University of Pennsylvania, with no betting or swearing allowed.2 Despite initial reservations about the game by genteel Philadelphians, the fact that cricket was an English game made it attractive to an increasingly Anglophile upper class in the city, many of whose ancestors were from the British Isles and who, searching for models of genteel behavior, often looked to England. This Anglophilia included leisure activities besides cricket, such as rowing, fox hunting, and later golf, all associated with the British elite. Membership in the Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, attracted prosperous Philadelphians for the same reason.3 Another factor that drew Philadelphians to cricket and other outdoor sports was an increasing fear that urban life was unnatural, stultifying, and sedentary, especially for the professional and managerial classes. Some religious spokesmen at the time, in both England and America, even associated physical weakness with sin and promoted Oxford and Cambridge vs. the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Cricket Club, September 14, 1895. CHHS.

Cricketing Days

what has come to be called “muscular Christianity.” They recommended team sports in particular--at school and later in adult life--so that players could build their bodies while learning the values of team spirit and fair play.4 Although Philadelphia’s better-off classes became wild about cricket, men from all walks of life played the game and during the second half of the nineteenth century there were dozens of cricket clubs in the city and surrounding communities, few of which survived beyond the early 1900s. The metropolitan newspapers often devoted two full pages to cricket scores, and the railroads ran special trains to the matches, with thousands of spectators turning up at important competitions.5 Most cricket clubs in the region adopted the rules, or “Laws of Cricket,” drawn up by the Marylebone Cricket Club of London, England. According to the regulations, the cricket ball “must weigh not less than five ounces and a half, nor more than five ounces and three quarters. It must measure not less than nine inches, nor more than nine inches and one quarter in circumference.” The cricket bat could not be any longer than thirty inches in length, and “must not exceed four inches and one quarter in the widest part.” The rules continue through forty-seven articles in all, clearly setting out all the dimensions of the playing ground and the regulations for every move and aspect of the game.6 The Philadelphia Cricket Club was founded on February 10, 1854, when several gentlemen players, including alumni from the University of Pennsylvania, met in the Philadelphia office of William Rotch Wister at 47 South Fifth Street. According to the charter, the purpose of the Club was the “practicing and playing of the games of cricket and tennis and the promotion of the health of its members of said corporation by the exercise incidental to the said games.” The Club’s constitution and by-laws specified that all new members had to be elected by ballot, with two “dissenting votes” being sufficient to “prevent any nominee from being elected a member.”7 They also established a William Rotch Wister, special category for junior members, described as men founder of the under twenty-one, who did not have to pay an initiation fee Philadelphia Cricket and who had no vote in the organization. This membership Club. Lippincott, category, with various alterations, would continue Cricket Club, p. 8. throughout the Club’s history and would become a device for attracting young men who hopefully would go on to be full-fledged members and financial supporters of the Club. By early 1855, the Club had 73 members, thirty of them active cricket players. The initiation fee was $2.00 and the annual dues were $5.00--$2.00 for juniors.8 Governing the Club were a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, who were elected at an annual meeting on the second Monday in January, with ten Club members sufficient for a quorum. There was no board of directors, though the grounds committee, which was in charge of securing a place to Cricket scores from an unidentified Philadelphia newspaper. CHHS.

Chapter 1

play cricket and keeping it in good condition, came close to being such a board. The committee had five elected members, one of whom had to be the president of the Club.9 For three decades the members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club had no permanent home. They played in Camden, New Jersey on a field belonging to Club member Hartman Kuhn and on another field near the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Frankford Junction. Their expenses were modest and went for bats, balls, gloves and shin guards, for which the Club spent $58.90 in 1855. They also paid $10.27 for “phosphate of lime” to spread on their playing field, along with $99.22 for a large, horse-drawn roller to flatten out the turf.10 Often the Club had trouble finding enough money even for these modest expenses, mainly because some members did not pay their dues. In 1857 the Club began expelling men who owed back dues as a way of putting others on notice to pay up.11 Four years later, the outbreak of the Civil War began draining the Club of its largely young membership. In December 1864, the grounds committee “found the Club in anything but prosperous condition. Many of its most active members and best players [are] serving their country in the field.” 12 The Club revived right after the war, and by the end of 1865 it had 125 members, the highest number yet in its eleven-year history. The minutes boasted that most of the men were “young, active and enthusiastic cricketers, from whose play the Club may justly anticipate future credit.”13 Membership continued to grow for several years and reached a postwar high of 161 at the end of 1869, but the good times did not last.14 Just two years later the membership slumped to 131 when 29 men were dropped from the rolls for arrears in dues, and in 1876 the membership fell to 85.15 Despite these problems, several men from the Philadelphia Cricket Club joined players from the three other top clubs in 1874 (Germantown, Young America, and Merion) to form a team to compete in the first Halifax Cup match at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Playing against them were a Canadian team and an English team, the Philadelphians defeating both opponents.16 Although sharing the win at Halifax was an exiting experience, the Club still lacked a home and was then paying rent to the Germantown Cricket Club for use of its grounds at Nicetown, an area of Germantown near Wayne Junction. At the end of 1877, it was $154.00 in debt to the Germantown organization, with little prospect of raising the money.17 Sensing that the Philadelphia Cricket Club might be about to disintegrate, the Germantowners proposed a merger of the two groups in early 1879, an offer that angered Club members. What saved the Philadelphia organization was an invitation from the Chestnut Hill Cricket Club to share its grounds near Stenton Avenue and Bethlehem Pike, on a site now occupied by the Fairview Care Center.18

The Club Colors For its colors, the Philadelphia Cricket Club adopted red, yellow, and black. Horace Mather Lippincott, in his centennial history of the Club, attempted to explain this choice: “There is no official reason for the adoption of Red, Yellow and Black as the Club’s colours, but it is known that they were used in blazers and caps, then the vogue among cricketers, prior to 1883 and it is most probable they were chosen after the colours of the Zingari (Gypsies), a famous English Club of amateurs chosen from the best. They had no grounds and, as the name suggests, were wanderers as the Philadelphia Cricket Club was. Thus it was an appropriate choice of colours.”19

Cricketing Days

In 1882 the Chestnut Hill and Philadelphia Cricket Clubs merged, with the Chestnut Hill Club’s name being dropped in the process. A year later Henry Howard Houston, who was beginning his real estate development at Wissahickon Heights on the far west side of Chestnut Hill, agreed to lease 7.25 acres to the Philadelphia Cricket Club for a dollar a year and payment of all property taxes by the Club, the agreement to run for fifteen years beginning June 1, 1883.20 It is unclear whether the Club, hearing of Houston’s plans for Wissahickon Heights, approached him about a possible lease, or if Houston took the initiative, knowing that the Club wanted a better and more permanent headquarters. Whatever happened, the arrangement benefited both parties: The Club secured its first real home, and Houston attracted a recreational feature and social center that would make his development more attractive to prospective residents at a time when he had no immediate plans to develop the cricket ground site and was happy to have someone else pay the taxes on it. A later newspaper article held that the Houston Estate, in the years following Houston’s death, saw the Club as an excellent way of “attracting people to the [area and] . . . increas[ing] the popularity of the vicinity as a place for fashionable homes.”21 Building communities around a club would later become widespread, and they were often called “Country Club Estates,” or some variation on the theme. In this, Houston was ahead of his times, even beating by two full years New York’s Tuxedo Park, established in 1886 and often regarded as the first of the country club estates.22

Henry Howard Houston and Wissahickon Heights A native of Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, Houston (1820-1895) arrived in Philadelphia in 1847 and worked for four years as an agent for David Leech and Company, a shipping firm, before taking a job in 1851 as the general freight agent for the recently chartered Pennsylvania Railroad. During the Civil War Houston laid the basis for his fortune by joining several other men to create a fast freight company using the Pennsylvania railroad and its connecting lines. At his death in 1895, Houston left an estate of just over $14 million (worth at least $300 million in early twenty-first century values). He was also a director of the Pennsylvania railroad during the last fourteen years of his life. Houston began dealing in real estate in 1853, when he purchased a tract of land in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, moving there himself in 1860 with his wife and growing family. In 1879, just after persuading the Pennsylvania Railroad to build a commuter line into the west side of Chestnut Hill, he began buying land for the future Wissahickon Heights, along with other tracts in the surrounding area, including some in West Mount Airy and most of Upper Roxborough, eventually amassing some 3,000 acres of nearly contiguous properties. Just beyond the Wissahickon Heights station (now the St. Martin’s station on the Chestnut Hill-West line), Houston built about 80 houses, designed by the architect brothers, William D. and George W. Hewitt.

Chapter 1

Henry Howard Houston in 1884, the year that the Philadelphia Cricket Club inaugurated its new grounds at Wissahickon Heights. Oil on canvas by David John Gué. Author’s collection.

Houston rented most of the houses instead of selling them in order to control who lived in the neighborhood and to be sure that properties were well maintained. Most of the houses were large twins constructed of Wissahickon schist, the local stone. Houston himself moved with his family to Wissahickon Heights in 1886, where they lived in a large mansion on a fifty-acre estate called Druim Moir, set on a bluff overlooking the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park.23 Since the Club had not yet built its clubhouse at Wissahickon Heights, the members held a “grand opening” at the Wissahickon Inn on October 1, 1884, starting with a cricket match against the Orpheus Club, a Philadelphia singing society, which they handily defeated. (A friendly relationship with the Orpheus Club has continued throughout the life of the Cricket Club.) Lawn tennis courts were inaugurated the same day, “with éclat,” according to the 1884 Annual Report: “Large and small tents were pitched for spectators, which with the new...flags, presented a gala-day effect.”24 That same afternoon, the Reverend J. Andrews Harris, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and an avid, former cricketer himself, presented a set of American and Club flags “on behalf of the ladies of Chestnut Hill.” 25 That evening the grounds of the inn were illuminated with electric lights for the first time as the guests assembled in a dining room resplendent with American flags and the banners of the two teams. The Orpheus Club singers treated the guests to an after-dinner concert, following by a “grand hop” in the ballroom, with music by the Herzberg Orchestra. A description of the evening scene in the Philadelphia Public Ledger was glowingly romantic: “The forest of tall, stately trees in the valley through which the Wissahickon winds its way, beneath the inn, and all the surrounding hills were most beautiful in the moon light. . . . Hanging in the trees about the place were a number of [electrical] arc lamps that added much to the picture.”26 The new home for the Philadelphia Cricket Club could not have been better. There were excellent rail connections to and from downtown, approximately ten miles away, on a just completed commuter line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, opened for service in 1884. This line, along with the earlier Chestnut Hill Railroad, completed in 1854 and later part of the

Druim Moir, residence of the Henry Howard Houston family in Wissahickon Heights, completed in 1886 and designed by the Hewitt Brothers. CHHS. The Wissahickon Inn. Commissioned by Henry Howard Houston, designed by the Hewitt Brothers, and opened in 1884. Beginning in 1898-1900, it was occupied by Chestnut Hill Academy. Photo c. 1895 by J. S. Johnson. Library Company of Philadelphia.

Cricketing Days

The Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-theFields. Commissioned by Henry Howard Houston, completed in 1889, and designed by the Hewitt Brothers. Photo by author.

Reading system, opened the once sleepy village of Chestnut Hill for suburban development. It was also in 1854 that Chestnut Hill became part of the City of Philadelphia, as a consequence of the massive city/county consolidation of the same year. Before that, it had been governed as part of Germantown Township. Although some residents of the community were unhappy about the annexation, which was enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature without any local referendum, many of the newcomers to Chestnut Hill were pleased that they could continue to vote in Philadelphia and participate fully in its civic life. Chestnut Hill became a suburb in the city, in contrast to the suburban communities west of Philadelphia along the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.27 In Chestnut Hill, the Cricket Club was to be an integral part of the new Wissahickon Heights development, and was one of several institutions that Henry Howard Houston fostered or established in the neighborhood. Besides the Philadelphia Cricket Club, these were the Episcopal Church St. Martin-in-theFields, the Wissahickon Inn, and the Philadelphia Horse Show. Houston named the local parish after St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, a church that had once stood in open fields at the edge of a large city. Completed in 1889, the name reflected the Anglophilia of many well-to-do Philadelphians at the time. Designed in the Gothic Revival style by the Hewitt Brothers and built of Wissahickon schist, St. Martin’s was supposed to resemble a well-kept parish church in a quaint English village.28

The Hewitt Brothers George W. Hewitt (1841-1916) and his brother William D. Hewitt (1847-1924) formed one of the most distinguished and versatile architectural firms in Philadelphia during the late nineteenth century. George Hewitt was a graduate of Burlington College in New Jersey, had trained in the architectural firm of Joseph C. Hoxie and John Notman, and went on to become a partner of Frank Furness, Philadelphia’s unique and later much celebrated Victorian designer, before founding his own office with his brother. William Hewitt also graduated from Burlington College and, like brother George, worked for a time with Frank Furness. Henry Howard Houston used the Hewitt Brothers to design virtually everything he built at Wissahickon Heights, and the Philadelphia Cricket Club engaged them to design its first clubhouse on the heights.29

Chapter 1

A) Map showing Horse Show and Cricket Club grounds, center top and surrounding Wissahickon Heights neighborhood as they appeared in 1906. Philadelphia Atlas, 1906 Wards 22 and 42, Plate 37. CHHS. B) Spectators in their four-in-hand coaches. CHHS. Judging an event at the Philadelphia Horse Show, Wissahickon Heights. CHHS.

C) Crowds at the Philadelphia Horse Show. CHHS.

Cricketing Days

The horse show at Wissahickon Heights drew wealthy horsemen and women from up and down the East Coast and helped to raise the prestige of the neighborhood. Houston brought the horse show to the heights in the spring of 1892. The grounds were located along Willow Grove Avenue on a property immediately north and west of the Cricket Club grounds.30 Describing the horse show in May 1894, the Germantown Guide reported, “The great society event of the present week is the horse show at Wissahickon Heights, where pretty women, noble men and blooded stock have combined to present the rarest of attractions.” The article went on to say that the boxes and grandstands “were like a giant bouquet of American beauties, while the promenaders in their lovely spring gowns distracted the attention of many a one who was trying to settle in his or her mind which horse would carry away the blue ribbon.”31 By 1896 exhibitors were coming from Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland, and from as far away as Boston and Chicago. In 1899, more than 800 horses were entered, and two years later the total value of prizes was $11,715--$1,750 in silver trophies and $9,965 in cash—the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars a century later. 32 The exhibitors at the horse show included some of the most prominent men in Philadelphia, such as Alexander J. Cassatt, future president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and brother of the impressionist painter Mary Casssett, and Anthony J. Drexel, the wealthy investment banker. Also exhibiting was Edward T. Stotesbury, a partner of J.P. Morgan and Anthony Drexel, and the future builder of a gigantic Trianon-style mansion east of Chestnut Hill in Springfield Township. The Philadelphia Horse Show was clearly a place to see and been seen. All this came to an end in 1908, when the show moved from Wissahickon Heights, later evolving into the Devon Horse Show.33 The Wissahickon Inn, which opened for business in 1884, was a spacious, three-story U-shaped structure with 250 guest rooms and wide wooden porches surrounding the entire ground floor. For several decades Chestnut Hill had been a major summer resort community, whose breezy heights and forested Wissahickon gorge provided a refuge for wealthy Philadelphians to escape the torrid heat of their downtown residences, in this era before air conditioning. Houston built the inn in order to take advantage of this summer trade, and to attract prosperous Philadelphians to his development and hopefully to buy land or rent one of his houses.34 At first the inn was very successful, with the Germantown Telegraph reporting in July 1887 that “every room at the Wissahickon Inn has been occupied for two weeks back and the rush still exists. . . .”35 During the winter, neighborhood children were allowed to roller skate on the wide, wrap-around porches of the inn. Located directly across Willow Grove Avenue from the Cricket Club, the inn would play an important part in the life of the Club, with visiting cricketers and spectators staying there during important matches, at least until 1900, when the inn closed and the Houston Estate turned the property over for use by Chestnut Hill Academy.36 By then Philadelphians were going to New England, and especially to Maine, to escape the summer heat. (Over the years the sons of many Club members would attend the academy, and the two institutions would share various facilties.) Although the four major institutions on Wissahickon Heights were separate entities, they shared their landscape and created a large swath of open space on the west side of Chestnut Hill. St. Martin’s Church sat at the edge of the adjacent Cricket Club fields, which reinforced its name and kept it from being hemmed in on an undistinguished corner lot. Next to the Cricket Club were the horse-show grounds. Across Willow Grove Avenue, the Wissahickon Inn’s spacious grounds completed this large open space that survives more than a century later. The Cricket Club’s seven and a quarter acres, located on a wide plateau above the Wissahickon Creek extension

Chapter 1

Sketch of proposed clubhouse for the Philadelphia Cricket Club, designed by the Hewitt Brothers, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on April 24, 1885. CHHS.

The old clubhouse of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, c.1898, following a modest enlargement, alteration of the facade, and addition of squash courts (on left) to the facilities. CHHS.

of Fairmount Park, provided a relatively level terrain and ample space for any activity envisioned at the time. The Club’s Annual Report for 1883 described the property in glowing terms: “A new ground has been secured . . ., which, when properly improved, will, in the opinion of the Directors of the Club, be without exception the finest cricket ground in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. . . . The tract is rectangular,. . . the main area of which is almost level. . . . As there is no higher land in the vicinity, and the adjoining fields on two sides descend, it is believed that the natural drainage will be excellent, and the healthfulness of the ground will be assured.”37 Physical, emotional, and spiritual health were very much on the minds of Victorian Americans, no doubt including members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club. The city was becoming more and more a source of disease and emotional stress, as it became overcrowded and epidemics spread rapidly with little to stop them, and as residents were deprived of frequent contact with nature. Sitting in an office all day, contemporaries believed, weakened the body and crushed the spirit. By living in a railroad suburb and playing games in the fresh country air, men could escape the deadening life of the city, at least after work and on weekends. The suburb was a way of recreating village life and the sporting club a way of setting aside a piece of open land that resembled the vanishing rural landscape or a private park.38 Both were revolts against the city and against an increasingly stressful modern world characterized by rapid and often bewildering change. Out of these concerns came the

Cricketing Days

American country club, and although the members who inaugurated their new grounds at Wissahickon Heights were unaware of it, they were in the process of transforming their organization from a cricket club into a fullblown country club. This was a process that many older sporting clubs would experience over the next few decades, though none with older roots than the Philadelphia Cricket Club.39 The Club engaged the Hewitt Brothers to design a clubhouse, which was completed in 1885.40 The Club had considered a cheaper and less substantial structure, but reconsidered: “Having the permanent interests of the Club in view, such a house should be built as will both meet the requirements of an increasing membership and prove an attraction to the cricket ground and the neighborhood.”41 This greater sense of permanency, as signaled by the ownership of a clubhouse, led the Club to become incorporated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in May 1885, with a Board of Governors then numbering seven persons.42 The style of the new clubhouse was Queen Anne, a very popular architectural design at the time, characterized by contrasting textures, porches and galleries, roof gables, and an overall feeling of exuberance, which echoed the growth and optimism of United States in the late nineteenth century. It also exuded a rambling, informal country air so different from the rigidity of city streets and urban architecture. The first floor of the clubhouse was constructed of Wissahickon schist, while the second and third floors were finished with wooden shingles. There was a deep front porch running along the entire length of the first floor and a long balustraded gallery above it. Three steeply pitched roof gables, one of them off center, added to the building’s atmosphere of energy and informality. The Club engaged David Pooley, who had designed the cricket fields for the Germantown and Young America Clubs, to lay out the grounds at Wissahickon Heights.43 Members raised $10,000 to pay for the construction projects. The gentlemen in charge of these arrangements were Club President Charles B. Dunn and a recently created Board of Governors whose members were Albert A Outerbridge, Horace Magee, John B. Watson, Alexander W. Biddle, Victor A. Sartori, and J. B. Copperthwaite.44 By 1889, the Club could report that it was completely free of debt, thanks in part to “the Ladies of Chestnut Hill, who voluntarily, and by their unaided efforts, held an afternoon Tea and Sale for the benefit of the Club, the proceeds of which, a check for $900, was a most acceptable contribution to the Club’s Treasury.”45 The attractive new clubhouse had also paid off in increased memberships, which stood at 387 in 1887 and 464 two years later.46 The move to Wissahickon Heights coincided with the golden age of cricket in Philadelphia, when huge crowds of 5,000 to 10,000 people came up on special trains to see the matches47 Club members and guests from opposing teams could sit in the grandstand, while spectators who came up for the day stood “behind the ropes.” Nathaniel Burt captured the flavor of these matches in his Perennial Program for the cricket match between the Philadelphians: “The fashionables appeared in their University of Pennsylvania and the Cambridge and coaches-and-four, and watched from under parasols and Oxford Eleven, held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, September 14, 1895. CHHS.

Chapter 1

A) A match in progress at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1899. CHHS. B) Program for Philadelphia vs. Gentlemen of England, 1898. CHHS. C) P. F. Warner’s English XI vs. Gentlemen of Philadelphia at Wissahickon Heights, September 16 and 17, 1898. CHHS. Cricketing Days

awnings while they ate their elaborate picnic lunches. Later on there would be tea on the club veranda.”48 Attracting the most attention were the international matches held at Wissahickon Heights. In 1886, the Club played against a team known as the English Gentlemen Cricketers,” after which the Club held a “Cricket Ball” in honor of the visitors. The music began at eight o’clock, with a supper served at ten. In 1895 the University of Pennsylvania team, including alumni who were members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, played a match at Wissahickon Heights against a combined team from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and defeated them. In 1903 the Club’s own cricketers defeated the Kent Eleven, and in 1905 the Club lost to the Marylebone Cricket Club Eleven, both of them English teams. In 1912, the Philadelphia Club took a team “on tour” to England, where they had four wins, three losses, and three draws.49 To prepare for the 1895 match against Oxford and Cambridge, the Club went to great lengths to make the grounds as attractive and comfortable as possible. They removed benches in the grandstand and replaced them with chairs, and built fifteen “commodious boxes” that could be taken apart and rebuilt when needed again. The Club hired the Chestnut Hill Village Improvement Association, which was functioning as a quasi-public streets department in the community, to resurface the carriage drive around the cricket grounds.50

Chapter 1

Invitation to the Cricket Ball, October 1, 1886, CHHS. Below, front cover text from the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Annual Report for 1894. CHHS.

J. Barton King, America’s Greatest Cricketer In the Cricket Club’s centennial history, Horace Mather Lippincott calls Bart King “the greatest cricketing member of the Club and . . . our most distinguished athlete.” Lippincott adds, “At the top of his game [King] was the greatest bowler in the world and well up as a batsman. He is included in the eleven greatest cricketers of all time by English critics. . . . He was first noticed in the American Cricketer in June, 1889 and from then on appeared prominently up to the last game with the Australians in 1912. He was a very fast bowler and kept up his pace for twenty years.”51

Although cricket continued to be a major sport at the Club into the early twentieth century, other athletic activities were growing and attracting Club members. Within another generation, cricket would disappear at Wissahickon Heights along with most of the other cricket clubs in the Philadelphia area, a fate that none of the founders or members of The Philadelphia Cricket Club from the first half a century could have imagined. Most importantly, the Club had found a home at Wissahickon Heights where it began to flourish as never before.

1898 Membership notification signed by Ellen Gowen Hood. J. Barton King, “America’s Greatest Cricketer.” Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 51.

Cricketing Days

Chapter

COURTS AND LINKS

he early twentieth century was a time of growth and change for the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Real estate development brought more families to the West Side of Chestnut Hill. At the same time the Club was moving away from its original emphasis on cricket and focusing primarily on tennis and golf. As the 1920s began, the Club purchased several hundred acres of land near the village of Flourtown, with the initial idea of leaving Chestnut Hill altogether for this suburban site outside the city. In the end, the Club decided to maintain facilities in both locations. It was largely George and Gertrude Woodward, the daughter and son-in-law of Henry Howard Houston, who expanded the neighborhood around the Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill and who changed its name from Wissahickon Heights to St. Martin’s. As George Woodward explained in his Memoirs, the name Wissahickon Heights had “always seemed a cheap [one] for [such] a pretty country.” Using family connections, he persuaded the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1906 to change the name of the Wissahickon Heights station to St. Martin’s, after nearby St. Martin-in-the Fields Church.1 The Cricket Club, which had often been called “Wissahickon,” by both members and competitors alike, came to be known as “St. Martin’s,” and particularly after the Club acquired a second location outside Flourtown. Woodward was a member of the Cricket Club, an avid golfer, Club president in 1920-21, and for many years he served on the Board of Governors. One member remembered Woodward’s “mordant wit [that] went to the heart of the subject”--and Portrait of George the golf knickers that he wore everywhere, whether on or off the links, including the Woodward, which hangs Pennsylvania State Senate, where he was dubbed “the oldest senator in short pants.”2 at the top of the stairAs the Woodwards were creating their St. Martin’s development, the Cricket Club way in the St. Martin’s was already undergoing a transition from cricket to tennis and golf as its main clubhouse. Artist activities. Cricket received less and less attention in the Club’s annual reports, and the unknown. PCC. Club held what was thought to be its last match in 1927.3 There have been several Photo by Jas Szygiel. explanations for the decline of cricket. Some have claimed that it was simply too slow, while others have blamed the increasing popularity of baseball in the early twentieth century. Nathaniel Burt, in The Perennial Philadelphians, blamed cricket’s decline on the rise of tennis, a game considered suitable for women as well as men, and even children to play: “It was tennis that stole the younger generation of sportsmen away from the game of their fathers and uncles, tennis that allowed women to participate rather than merely watch [cricket]--and tennis that finally crowded the elevens off their beautiful turfed Par 4, Hole 9, St. Martin’s Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel

Courts and Links

Philadelphia Cricket Club baseball team, with mascot, 1890s. CHHS.

‘creases’. . . .”4 The old cricket grounds, according to Burt, gave Philadelphia “more beautiful grass [tennis] courts than any other city in the country.”5 Margaret Marsh has written in her studies of the changing American family at the turn of the twentieth century that a new emphasis on togetherness among prosperous suburban families required activities like tennis, which everyone could play. Writing about Overbrook Farms, a planned, upscale suburban community on the western edge of Philadelphia, Marsh remarked that residents established a tennis club for themselves in 1898 and a golf club two years later. Whole families could play tennis, while husbands and wives, sometimes as couples, could “take to the links,” Marsh adding that, “residents found these shared activities, involving entire families, very appealing.”6 She could have said much the same about families in the St. Martin’s community. Games similar to tennis had existed for centuries, but modern lawn tennis was invented in 1873 by a British army officer named Major Walter Clopton Wingfield, and was played in the United States for the first time a year later at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club. There were no standard rules in the country until the establishment of the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) in 1881.7 Members played lawn tennis at the Philadelphia Cricket Club from the opening day of the new grounds at Chestnut Hill in October 1884.8 The courts were laid out on the cricket fields and were open for play except during cricket matches, usually held on Saturdays. As tennis grew in popularity, the Club created more courts and by 1902, there were sixteen of them.9 Because of what Club officers described as “the great revival of tennis which has swept the country,” they provided seven more courts the following year, for a total of twenty-three.10

Chapter 2

In the earliest years of American lawn tennis, members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club dominated the nation’s courts. In 1883, Club member Joseph Sill Clark, Sr., while still a student at Harvard College, won the first Intercollegiate Singles Championship and two years later, pairing with Richard Sears of Boston, won the National Doubles at Newport, Rhode Island. Another outstanding competitor from the Club was Richard Norris Williams, II, who became one of the world’s greatest tennis champions.

Richard Norris Williams, II (1891-1968) A member of an old Philadelphia family and a descendent of Benjamin Franklin, Richard Norris Williams, II, was born in Switzerland, where his father, Richard Norris Williams, I, had gone for his health on the advice of his doctor. Growing up and going to school in Europe, young Richard was fluent in both French and German and became an avid tennis player, winning both the Swiss and French indoor championships in 1911. The following year he and his father were aboard the ill-fated Titanic when it struck an iceberg and sunk on April 12, 1912. The father was killed by a falling ship’s funnel, but Richard managed to jump overboard and cling to a waterlogged raft for six hours in freezing, 28-degree waters before being rescued by the Carpathia. The doctor on the rescue ship wanted to amputate Richard’s legs, but he refused and restored his circulation by constantly walking the decks. Even then the doctors believed that Richard would never regain full use of his legs. After recuperating all summer at his family’s home in Chestnut Hill, Williams won the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s tennis championship that fall and went on to win the United States Singles competition in both 1914 and 1916.11 Williams became an army officer following the American declaration of war in 1917, putting his knowledge of French and German to good use as an interpreter and serving on the American General Headquarters Staff, where he had the opportunity to meet high-ranking allied commanders, including General John J. Pershing and French General Philippe Pétain. Williams won the Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre for his heroism in the Second Battle of the Marne, and while in France he amassed an extensive collection of war documents and memorabilia. After the war Williams became an investment banker in Philadelphia but continued to play tennis. He shared the doubles championship at Wimbledon in 1920, and at the 1924 Olympics he won a gold medal in the mixed doubles. He was elected to the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1957. In addition to his impressive victories, Williams

Tennis champion, Richard Norris Williams, II, Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 56.

Courts and Links

was famous for his form and was known as the “tennis player’s tennis player,” the only Philadelphian capable of defeating the great “Big Bill” Tilden of the rival Germantown Cricket Club. Despite an exciting and heroic life, Williams was a very modest man. Once on impulse, he had 160 of his trophies melted down to make one large silver tray that he used for carving meat. Having participated in so many dramatic events, it is not surprising that Williams had an avid interest in history. He wrote an unpublished memoir about his harrowing experiences on the Titanic (now at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania), added to his World War I collections over the years (which his wife Sue Williams later donated to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania), and during the last two and a half decades of his life was the director of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The other great tennis star of the period was William “Big Bill” Tilden. Although a member of the Germantown Cricket Club, he won his first national title at St. Martin’s in 1913 in mixed doubles with Mary K. Browne, and played many other times on the Club’s courts.12 Tilden won the United States Singles from 1920 through 1925, and was men’s singles champion at Wimbledon in 1920, 1921, and 1930. Tilden was without question one of the top sports heroes of the decade, often classed with such immortals as Babe Ruth, Bobby Jones, Red Grange, and Jack Dempsey.13 The Philadelphia Cricket Club was also in the forefront of U.S. women’s tennis. In 1887 the Club hosted the first women’s National Singles matches, and they continued to be held there annually until 1921. The Club held the first Women’s National Doubles in 1889; and in 1892, it was the scene of the first National Mixed Doubles. From 1918 to 1978, the Girls’ Championships of the United States Lawn Tennis Association took place at St. Martin’s. Club members who won the Girls’ National Singles during the early period were Katherine Porter in 1918 and Louise Dixon in 1920; and winning the doubles in 1920, 1921, and 1922 was Virginia L. Carpenter, playing with different partners each time.14 Through such competitions, Club members contributed to the image of the “new woman,” who had broken away from Victorian restraints to prove herself energetic and competitive in the world of sports. In 1899 the Club was one of four founders of the Women’s Inter-Club Tennis Association, which continued to hold annual tournaments more than a century later. By the 1920s the Cricket Club had participated in the golf craze for an entire generation. In 1895 the Club accommodated a growing interest in this sport by building a nine-hole course behind the clubhouse and cricket grounds. First played in Scotland in the fourteenth or fifteen centuries, golf was far more ancient than lawn tennis. Just when it arrived in the United States is uncertain, though in 1888 the St. Andrews Golf Club of Yonkers, New York became the first golf club in the nation. The ancientness of golf and the need to play it in open fields appealed to those who wanted to escape from modern urban ills; and the fact that golf was of British origin recommended it to upper- and upper-middle class Americans who were becoming increasingly conscious of their roots at a time of mass immigration from southern and eastern Europe. Wearing knickers and Scottish style tweed caps while on the links was a way of emphasizing the game’s national ancestry. Golf was also recommended as a godsend for overworked businessmen. Writing in

At right, Women’s U.S. Lawn Tennis Championship Tournament, Philadelphia Cricket Club, June 1908. Bordering the courts are (from the left) the ladies’ clubhouse, the old squash courts, and the main, or men’s, clubhouse. These last two buildings were destroyed in the 1908 fire. CHHS. 22

Chapter 2

“Anyone for mixed doubles?”, c.1882. CHHS.

Louise Dixon, U.S.L.T.A. Girls’ Singles Champion, 1920. Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 67.

“The Ditches,” the 4th hole of the Cricket Club’s original 9-hole golf course, built in 1895. CHHS. At right, “The Devil’s Own,” the 8th hole of the Cricket Club’s original 9-hole golf course. CHHS.

the early twentieth century about the salubriousness of golf, aficionado Hobart Chatfield-Taylor claimed that American businessmen no longer had to remain “shallow dyspeptics who toil from 8 A.M. till 6 P.M. Golf . . . made their blood flow and color come to the cheeks.”15 Golf made its debut in Philadelphia in the fall of 1891, when Harry C. Groome, the resident secretary of the Philadelphia County Club, then located in suburban Bala, created a crude course consisting of three tin cans set in the ground in a triangle, each side measuring 75 feet. No one there knew anything about golf and most saw the course as a joke, with some members comparing golf with the genteel Victorian game of croquet. One Philadelphian at the time described golf as “a lot of lunatics chasing spit balls.” “Cow pasture pool” was another derisive description by contemporaries who found the game ridiculous.16 Yet only two years later, Philadelphians Marcellus Cox and Montgomery Wilcox became so enthusiastic about the game while “summering” at Campobello, New Brunswick, that they cut short their stay and rushed home to lay out a crude course at Devon on the Main Line. The Devon Golf Club died out a few years later, but it may have stimulated the Philadelphia Country Club to construct a real set of links, and the Club engaged the English-born golf professional Willie

Chapter 2

Women golfers pose before the ladies’ clubhouse at St. Martin’s, early twentieth century. CHHS.

Tucker to design it.17 At a time when no one in the United States had the skill or experience for laying out courses, American clubs tended to import designers, as well as golf professionals, from England or Scotland.18 Although golf had been slow to catch on in the Philadelphia area, enthusiasm for it spread rapidly once it took hold--as it did elsewhere in the country. In 1885, there had been only one course in the entire United States, but by 1900, there were over 1,000 of them.19 According to James Mayo, author of The American Country Club, the golf craze erupted for several reasons. Most people could play the game, if not well then at least adequately; it caused very few injuries unlike other sports; and the equipment (golf bag and clubs) was relatively inexpensive. It offered exercise out of doors in a usually scenic setting and was flexible as to the number of players: It could be played alone, or in twosomes or foursomes, and could include the entire family--parents as well as older children. The pace of the game, with lulls in the play between holes, allowed plenty of time for conversation and comradeship. And although golfers might compare their final scores against the others, the individual golfer, no matter how well he or she had performed, could usually walk off the links with satisfaction over some improvement since the last time--or over an especially good shot that day.20 As new country clubs were springing up all over, the older riding, hunt, and cricket clubs were forced to accommodate the golf craze or fade from the scene.21 In the process they themselves became country clubs. This included the “Country Club” of Brookline Massachusetts, which had been the first to adopt the “country club,” label, but which had actually begun as a horse racing and riding club.22

Courts and Links

Golf required far more space than either tennis or cricket, forcing the Philadelphia Cricket Club to lease additional land from the Houston Estate, largely at the urging of Club member Samuel Y. Heebner, who was the driving force behind the Club’s decision to build its first course, which opened on October 26, 1895.23 The total cost for designing and constructing the course was $3,400, nearly half of which came from a few enthusiastic members, including Heebner himself.24 The original ninehole course designer was Sanders Handford, working under the direction of the golf committee.25 The Golfers’ Record, published in 1903 by the Golf Association of Philadelphia, observed that the course at Chestnut Hill was laid out only weeks after the opening of the links at The ladies’ clubhouse, St. Martin’s, now the Blue Room. Designed by Kennedy, the Philadelphia Country Hayes & Kelsey and built 1896-97. CHHS. Club at Bala, adding that the Philadelphia Cricket Club Ladies’ clubhouse, interior, c. 1915. CHHS. “has been the cradle of golf in the Quaker City.”26 According to the same publication, “more tournaments were arranged there than at all the other [Philadelphia] clubs combined.”27 Although it was one of the earliest courses in the region, it was a fairly crude one according to the Annual Report for 1895: “While the country through which the course of the links runs is an exceedingly beautiful one, . . . it is of a very rough character. . . .” The Club built a second and adjoining nine-hole course, opened on October 17, 1898, and designed by Willie Tucker from the Philadelphia Country Club, where he was the golf professional. The full eighteen-hole course,

Chapter 2

after several additions and alterations, was 6,124 yards long with a par of 73, and it was an immediate hit in Chestnut Hill among men, women, and children.28 This course was famous for its beautiful views over the Wissahickon hills. A century later, the course, though redesigned and reduced back to nine holes, looks very much like a private English estate park, with bands of woods encircling the edges and large old trees dotting the fairways and creating wide shadow lawns. Several holes at the lower end of the course, where the land plunges steeply toward the Wissahickon Creek, remain challenging. Each of the holes originally had a name, several of them colorful, such as “The Ditches” for number 4, “Old Sassafras” for number 7, and “The Devil’s Own” for number 8.29 In 1897 the caddie fee for “a round of nine holes” was 15 cents.30 James W. Finegan, in his March 2001 article for Links, has given a pithy but apt description of what remains of this old course. “They are short holes: The lone one-shotter is 110 yards long; the par-4s range from 243 to 368 yards; there are no par-5s. And these holes are old-fashioned: small, flattish greens, tiny tees, rudimentary bunkering and rather ill-defined fairways.”

The Etiquette of Golf, Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1897 The following customs belong to the established Etiquette of Golf, and should be observed by all Golfers. 1. No player, caddie or onlooker should move or talk during a stroke. 2. No player should play from the tee until the party in front have played their second strokes and are out of range, nor play to the putting green till the party in front have holed out and moved away. 3. The player who leads from the tee should be allowed to play before his opponent tees his ball. 4. Players who have holed out should not try their putts over again when other players are following them. 5. Players looking for a lost ball must allow any other match coming up to pass them. 6. A party playing three or more balls must allow a two-balled match to pass them. 7. A party playing a shorter round must allow a two-balled match playing the whole round to pass them. Source: PCC Annual Report, 1897, p. 27.

The golf courses at Chestnut Hill more than paid for themselves in increased memberships, which rose from 665 in 1894 to 772 in 1895 and to 1,076 in 1903.31 “There seems to be no limit to the popularity of, and enthusiasm for, the game of golf,” the Club reported in 1897.32 Golf also brought increased use of the clubhouse, since it had only been open about five months of the year before the construction of the first course at Chestnut Hill. Now golfers were using the facilities in all but the worst winter weather, “when the course was buried in snow,” forcing the Club to install a boiler for central heating at a cost of $845.33 The new boiler was just the beginning of improvements brought on, at least in part, by the popularity of golf. “We cannot stay as we are,” the leadership insisted. “We are already overcrowded, and will lose members.”34 In

Courts and Links

The junior clubhouse, center, built in 1899 and destroyed by fire in 1927. CHHS.

1896-97 the Club erected a ladies clubhouse to the west of the main building, designed by the firm of Kennedy, Hayes and Kelsey.35 Two years later, in 1899, the main clubhouse, now generally known as the “men’s clubhouse,” was enlarged, requiring alterations to the whole façade, and the same year the Club put up a separate junior clubhouse to the east of the main building.36 This new facility was part of a larger campaign to keep younger members interested, seeing them as an investment in the future health of the Club. As explained in the 1897 Annual Report, “We cannot dismiss the subject of the juniors without asking from all the members of the Club a larger interest in the welfare and development of our boys. What we make of them is what the Club will be in the future. . . .”37 Just a year after the first nine-hole course opened at Chestnut Hill, members of the Cricket Club began to compete in Philadelphia inter-club matches, including the very first of these contests at the Devon Golf Club in October 1896, where they won handily. A month later the Club entered the first out-of town match for Philadelphia golfers, a competition at the Staten Island Country Club, which they lost. On the heels of these competitions, representatives from four Philadelphia clubs met on February 5, 1897 to form the Golf Association of Philadelphia. The founding clubs were the Aronimink Golf Club (then known as the Bala Golf Club), the Merion Cricket Club, the Philadelphia Country Club, and the Philadelphia Cricket Club, whose representative was Samuel Heebner. Their mission was to promote the game in Philadelphia and to regulate competition among the clubs. The first Philadelphia amateur golf tournament, held under the auspices of the golf association, took place at Bala in 1897 and was won by Philadelphia Cricket Club member A. H. Smith. The 1900 amateur took place on home grounds in Chestnut Hill, where the winner was Club member Fergus Mackie. The first Philadelphia Open, sponsored by the golf association, also took place at the Cricket Club in October 1903.38 From the beginning women as well as men played golf at the Cricket Club. Horace Mather Lippincott described the garb that pioneering women golfers wore on the links: “In the early days the women wore flannel ankle length skirts and petticoats. They had a narrow rubber band around their waists [that] they pulled down over their skirts when the wind blew and particularly when putting. No disclosures! They wore high collars, long sleeves and sailor hats.” 39 The men were sometimes impatient with the time that it took the women to play, maybe as long as five hours to complete the 18-hole course. This was a common complaint from male golfers around the country, leading many

Chapter 2

clubs to set aside special times for women, usually on weekdays, when the men were at work and it was assumed the women would be at home. According to one tale, recounted many years later in a Philadelphia newspaper, several men at Philadelphia Cricket became so exasperated by the women that they let loose a bull on the course, “in an effort to drive the female players from the links.”40 Although the story is probably legendary rather than real, it revealed some of the serious strains between the sexes when it came to sharing a golf course. It is unclear just when women began to participate in Club activities. During the years when the Club had no permanent home and was devoted solely to men playing cricket, it is unlikely that women were involved, and they may not have participated in any activities until the Club located in Chestnut Hill. Even then, women occupied an unequal status. Despite the growing emphases on companionate marriages and family togetherness, a widespread belief in “separate spheres” for men and women continued to hold sway, giving way only gradually during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Women were not permitted to vote for the Board of Governors or for Club officers, or to serve on the board and hold office. Instead they had a separate Women’s Associate Branch, which appears to have been established soon after the move to Wissahickon Heights.41 Once their own clubhouse was constructed in 1897, the women held their meetings and socialized there. They elected their own board and officers, organizing and running their own events. Over the years, they planned and managed all the women’s athletic contests, including the major women’s and girls’ tennis and golf tournaments and virtually all the events involving children and junior members.42 The women’s entertainment committee also planned and carried out most of the entire Club’s social activities.43 The women were not allowed into the men’s grill or men’s lounge at the main clubhouse; nor, in later years, into the bar until after six in the evening and then only if accompanied by their husbands or a male escort.44 These arrangements were typical of country clubs at the time. 45 No doubt the women played a central role in planning the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s fiftieth anniversary celebration, the main event being a dinner on February 10, 1904, the exact date of the Club’s founding five decades before. Among the special guests were some of the founders who no longer belonged to the Club, along with some “eminent cricketers” of former years. Round tables set up in the clubhouse that evening were decorated “with lights and flowers in the Club colours.” The seven-course dinner featured terrapin and fillet of beef, served with an assortment of wines, punch, and liquors. After dinner Edward C. Buckley, Club President, talked about highlights in the Club’s history and was followed by several top cricketers, who told exciting and sometimes humorous stories about the game. There was Golfer in a ditch along Hartwell Lane, October 1897. CHHS.

Courts and Links

then a toast to the cricketers from the “sister game” of golf. Although the evening belonged to cricket, it was golf that would attract nationwide attention to the Club in the years just ahead.46 In 1905, a year after the fiftieth anniversary, the Club purchased from the Houston Estate the 7.25 acres immediately surrounding the clubhouses that it had leased since 1883, plus another 10 acres making up the adjoining horse show grounds. The total sale price for the 17 acres (the horse show grounds and the clubhouse grounds) was $83,000. The Club then leased the 10-acre plot to the horse show for three years until it left Chestnut Hill in 1908, at which time the Club built clay tennis courts on part of the horse show site.47 The golf course at Chestnut Hill, with the exception of a small piece south of Hartwell Lane that was part of the 1905 sale, continued to belong to the Houston Estate and was leased to the Club. Although the Club now owned the land around the clubhouses, it was not free to use it any way it wished, for according to the 1905 agreement of sale, the Houston Estate required that, “No games shall be played on the ground herein . . . on Sundays except by the mutual consent of the parties hereto in writing. . . .” 48 Presumably, this prohibition also applied to the leased golf course land. This banning of play on Sundays was Fiftieth Anniversary Dinner Menu. Historical Society because Samuel F. Houston, the son of Henry Howard of Pennsylvania. Houston and the principal trustee of the Houston Estate, was a strict observer of the Sabbath. According to his daughter, Eleanor Houston Smith, he would not even allow a Sunday newspaper in his home at Chestnut Hill.49 In 1913, Houston relented by allowing games after one o’clock in the afternoon, when services would be over at adjacent St. Martin-in-the Fields Church, where he was the rector’s warden.50 This compromise did not sit well with many Club members, and their unhappiness would later play a role in plans to build a new golf course outside Chestnut Hill.51 In 1907 and again in 1910 the Cricket Club had the honor of hosting the U.S. Open, despite complaints that the course continued to be “bumpy and shaggy.” The 1907 winner was Alex Ross, brother of famed golf course designer Donald Ross, who chalked up a remarkable score of 302 for 72 holes. It was also during this match that the first hole-in-one in U.S. Open competition was achieved by Jack Hobens.52 To prepare for the 1910 Open, the Club made extensive changes to the golf course. According to the 1909 Annual Report,

Chapter 2

The eighth green has been entirely remade from its foundations; a pit has been placed to the right of the tenth green, and the monotony of four holes, commencing with the twelfth, has been broken by lengthening the fifteenth hole into a three-shot hole, converting the sixteenth hole into a one-shot hole of about 150 yards. The sixteenth hole is being renovated with pits and other hazards so as to make it a thoroughly sporty hole. The 1910 Open victory went to Alex Smith, who shot a 71 on the final day. Also entered that year was the Cricket Club’s own pro, Scottish-born Willie Anderson, one of four golfers who have won the U.S. Open four times (1901, 1903, 1904, and 1905)--the other four-time winners being Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicholas. Anderson remains the only person to win the open in three consecutive years. A victory in the 1910 U.S. Open would have made Anderson the only five-time winner in golf history, but he was not feeling well that summer and came in Samuel F. Houston in his eleventh behind winner Alex Smith. A. W. Tillinghast, Club member, golf writer, and office at the Real Estate early course designer, was there for the tournament and did his best to comfort Trust Company, c. 1925. Anderson in the small frame pro shop that still stands at the edge of the St. Martin’s Author’s collection. course. Tillinghast, who himself had come in with the second best performance in the open by an amateur, with a total score 316, later recalled their meeting: “I spent a half hour with him in his club shop—his wife and baby were with him. There were tears in his eyes, but he was the same stoic as before the crowd of sympathetic admirers in the afternoon. He was taking his medicine without wincing—and it was bitter. He was a sick man; he knew it, but he had given his best during those two days and his best had been a failure...” Only thirty-two years old, Anderson died later that year and was buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery. The official cause of death was given as hardening of the arteries, but some believed that he had a serious alcohol problem and that drink had actually done him in.53 Coming in second that day at the Cricket Club was Johnny McDermott, a relative unknown who had grown up in West Philadelphia. He won the Philadelphia Open in 1910 and surprised everyone when he came in second at the U.S. Open that same year. The following year McDermott won the U.S. Open at the Chicago Golf Club, and at age 19 became the youngest winner up to that time. In 1912 he again won the open, held at the Country Club of Buffalo. Although he had no direct connection to the Philadelphia Cricket Club, McDermott’s second place finish in1910 helped to launch his meteoric rise as a golfer, which was soon followed by his equally sharp descent into insanity.54 Perhaps because of some criticism of the course during the 1910 competition, the Club undertook further renovations. It made the eleventh hole the fourteen and the fourteenth the eleventh, and moved the twelfth tee to the side of the thin eleventh in order to eliminate cross play. The new twelfth was also extended by seventy-five feet and realigned slightly to the right of its old location.55 A year later, in 1911, the Club made still more adjustments to the course, removing the bunkers guarding the seventh and eleventh greens and placing pits on either side of them. This “made it possible for players to reach these greens in two shots, but a sliced or pulled second [shot would be] penalized by the new pits.”56

Courts and Links

Willie Anderson with his arm around the shoulder of his friend Alex Smith. Courtesy of the Tillinghast Association.

Besides spending time and attention on improving its golf course, the Club had to cope with three damaging fires in the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1900 a fire swept through one of the stables, killing two horses, at the time when the Club had stables for work horses and to accommodate members.57 Two years later, on the evening of June 9, 1902, the main clubhouse was “partially destroyed by fire,” with much additional water damage.58 Surviving Club records do not contain any details of this conflagration, and the extent of damage and subsequent rebuilding is unknown. The worst fire took place on September 9, 1908. Although the cause was never positively confirmed, the newspapers reported that workmen had been at the clubhouse enlarging the locker room on the afternoon before the blaze.59 It was thought that one of them may have dropped a partly lighted cigar or cigarette butt into a pile of wood shavings that smoldered and later ignited the fire. One man, a friend who was visiting the Club steward, was killed as he leapt from a third story window, and two women employed at the Club were seriously injured when they jumped from the burning building. Five fire companies responded but were unable to save the main clubhouse and the attached squash court, which were totally consumed in little more than an hour. The firefighters managed to save the grandstands, the junior clubhouse, and the ladies clubhouse, but lost were all the cricket and golf pictures, memorials, cups and trophies, along with most of the Club’s records.60 At a special meeting members pledged themselves to rebuild the destroyed facilities, and the Women’s Associate Branch opened their undamaged clubhouse for use by the men for the duration.61 Although the Philadelphia Cricket Club seemed singularly plagued with fires, damaging blazes were not unusual at clubs around the country because of the large number of members and employees involved with them and the great possibility of human error in an age before smoke alarms, sprinklers, and other protections. Many clubs found a silver lining to these disasters, since they freed both members and the leadership from earlier clubhouse designs that had become unsuitable for later needs.62 This was certainly true of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, whose large and growing numbers had long outgrown the old clubhouse. At a cost of $65,764, raised from insurance money and subscriptions from the members, the Club erected a handsome row of buildings in 1909-10 in the Georgian Revival style, designed by Philadelphia architect George T. Pearson (1847-1920), who was known primarily for his residential commissions.63

Chapter 2

Use of the golf course continued unabated while the new buildings were going up, and in the years just after completion of the new clubhouse, Philadelphia Cricket’s most outstanding national golfers were women.64 In 1915 Club member Florence Vanderbeck won the U.S. Women’s Amateur, held that year at the Onwentsia Club at Lake Forest, Illinois. The following year, Club member Mildred Caverly made it to the final round of the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Caverly continued to be one of Philadelphia’s best golfers, winning the Silver Cross in 1917 and the Farnum Cup in 1921, and was a finalist for the Philadelphia Golf Association’s Women’s Championship in 1919, 1921, and 1923.65 The Cricket Club was one of several in the Philadelphia area that held golf events to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I. In November 1916, six months before the United States entered the war, the Club held a tournament that raised over $600; and in the summer of 1918 the Club held a “War Chest Tournament” on Memorial Day (then known as Decoration Day). Participating in this tournament was sixteen-year old Bobby Jones, soon to become a golf superstar. He teamed up with the young Alexa Sterling, a U.S. Women’s Amateur winner, to play against Cameron Buxton and Mildred Caverly, both Philadelphia amateur title winners.66 In 1913, several members of the Cricket Club got together to found the Sunnybrook Golf Club, initially located in Flourtown, several miles outside Philadelphia. The founders were William Findlay Brown, Charles T. Copperthwait, James A. Janney, Jr., Samuel Y. Heebner, and George C. Thomas, Jr. Thomas had just designed and built the golf course for the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club on his estate, Bloomfield Farm, a remaining section of which was purchased by John Morris and which would later become part of the Morris Arboretum. Thomas moved to California and designed several great courses there, including the Bellaire Country Club and Riviera Country Club. Thomas Road, which runs along one side of the Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, commemorates his name and his important contributions to golf.67 The men had decided to found Sunnybrook for two main reasons. One was a fear that the golf course property at St. Martin’s, still leased from the Houston Estate, would inevitably be developed, given the demand for housing on the west side of Chestnut Hill and the consequent rise in property values there. The other was the desire for a small club devoted only to golf, with none of the headaches of a large country club, and where golfers would not have to contend with a crowded course.68 Some of the same concerns leading to the establishment of Sunnybrook, especially crowding on the golf course and the uncertain tenure of leased land, convinced the leadership of the Cricket Club that they should also make a move. Discussions came to a head in 1917, when the Houston Estate warned the Club that it was only a matter of time until it decided not to renew the lease on all or part of the golf course land in Chestnut Hill, then valued at about Unidentified newspaper photograph showing ruins of the Cricket Club fire on September 9, 1908. CHHS.

Courts and Links

$200,000. The lease would expire in 1924, with estate managers willing to extend it only for another two years, while the Club made necessary adjustments. One idea proposed as early as 1913 was for the Club to lease estate land just across the Wissahickon Creek in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, where property was not as expensive. But this arrangement depended on the city’s building an expensive high bridge across the gorge from Chestnut Hill to Roxborough, the approaches to which would run through the already existing St. Martin’s golf course. As it turned out, the bridge was never built.69 Another reason for wanting to relocate was the ongoing unhappiness about the Houston Estate’s prohibition of games on the Club grounds until after 1:00 on Sunday afternoons. Because of this, and because of the estate’s notice that it would not renew its lease after 1924 on at least part of the golf course, some members believed that “the Club [should] be moved, bag and baggage, so to speak, to some place farther in the country, where the land for a permanent home can be purchased at a reasonable price.” However, another faction in the Club urged that the main buildings and non-golf facilities remain at St. Martin’s, “for the sake of the women, children, and tennis players,” while the Club built a golf course somewhere farther out, with only a small clubhouse there for the golfers.70 The American entrance into World War I in 1917, and the financial uncertainties that accompanied it, caused the Club to postpone any plans to move. However, in 1920, with the war over, the Club decided on the second of the two options that had been debated three years before: It would build a new golf course “out in the country,” and keep whatever remained at St. Martin’s after the Houston Estate reclaimed its leased land. Making good on this proposal, the Club bought 376 acres of ground in 1920, at a cost of $80,000.71 It was some four and a half miles away from St. Martin’s and located just outside the village of Flourtown in Whitemarsh Township.72 By then, there were over 1,800 Club members, about one-third of whom were interested in playing golf, three times the number who could be easily accommodated at St. Martin’s.73 In 1925, to help finance the new facilities at Flourtown, the Club sold the 17 acres at St. Martin’s that it had purchased in 1905, along with all the Club buildings, back to the Houston Estate for $225,000 and agreed to pay an annual rent of $9,000—amounting to a four percent return.74 Charles Woodward, the son of George and Gertrude Woodward, later wrote that the Club used $145,000 of the proceeds from the sale toward the building of the new golf course at Flourtown and to renovate and enlarge the buildings there.75 Additional financing for the Flourtown venture included the sale of over 500 golf certificates, or “bonds,” at $250 each, at least four mortgages totaling $138,755, and two loans totaling $65,000. The Club continued to raise revenue for the new course through membership assessments, the sale of hay, renting its excess land at Flourtown to local farmers, and general Club funds.76 Because of the unsystematic way in which these various revenue streams and expenditures were recorded, A) Par 3, Hole 5, St. Martin’s. Photo by Jas Szygiel. B) The clubhouse at Flourtown, converted from an old farmhouse on the property, part of which had been built in 1804. CHHS. C) Florence Vanderbeck, National Amatuer Golf Champion, 1915. Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 76. D) The new clubhouse complex in center, built 1909-10 and designed by George T. Pearson. On the far left is the ladies’ clubhouse, undamaged by the fire, and on the far right is the junior clubhouse, which also survived this fire. The photograph was taken sometime between 1910 and 1927. CHHS.

Chapter 2

it is impossible to say just how much the entire Flourtown facility cost the Club, though the total amount spent was clearly several hundred thousand dollars. Although the sale to the Houston Estate of land and facilities at St. Martin’s had been necessary to help fund the new course and other improvements at Flourtown, it meant that the Club would be dependent on the continuing good will of the various Houston descendents.77 It was A. W. Tillinghast, well aware of the shortcomings of the St. Martin’s course, who recommended the Flourtown site and who designed the new course, which opened in 1922. Tillinghast’s original plan had laid out 36 holes, but only 18 were constructed, leaving the balance of the Flourtown properly undeveloped until the Militia Hill course was completed in 2002. A writer for the Philadelphia Bulletin gave a brief description of the 18-hole course soon after it was available for use: Perhaps the most unique feature of the new links is that the straight, long player is rewarded on most of the holes, while it will take the ‘short game’ players an extra shot to reach the green. The greens call for real putting without being too difficult and they are planned remarkably well. Though not all the sand pits and hazards have been placed in the fairways, the traps around the greens show exquisite genius of construction.78

Par 4, Hole 18, Wissahickon Course at Flourtown. PCC. Connection between the clubhouse and the men’s lockerroom at Flourtown. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

After five years of play, the Cricket Club decided to make a few adjustments to the Flourtown course and engaged William S. Flynn (1890-1945), a well-known Philadelphia-based golf architect.79 Why the Club did not bring back Tillinghast to do the renovations is unknown, but he was then at the height of his career as a course designer and may not have had the time. Tillinghast may have also come at too high a price by then, given that he was paid $10,000 for designing the Flourtown Course a half dozen years earlier.80 According to newspaper accounts and architectural drawings, the Club reseeded the fairways, modified several holes, and rerouted others. “Several yards have been sacrificed, one article reported, “but the new shots will be more fair rather than easier.”81 Despite these alterations, the 6,890-yard course has changed little in the past eight decades, and it may be the most intact of all the courses designed by Tillinghast. Golf historian James Finegan has written the best and most colorful description of the Flourtown course as it appeared toward the end of the twentieth century:

Chapter 2

Map of the Club property at Flourtown. Atlas of Montgomery County, Pa., Vol. D, Plate 17. Published by the Philadelphia Survey Company, 1938. Courtesy of Historical Society of Montgomery County. Bottom. Barn and various outbuildings that came with the purchase of the Flourtown property. CHHS.

. . . Length is only part of the story. Sand is . . . a major element, particularly at the greens, where bunkers invariably pitch the putting surface to snare the “almost good” shot. In truth, the bunkering at Flourtown lies somewhere between penal and merciless. Water menaces the shot several times—on the 185-yard 8th, where a narrow creek crosses in front of the green; on the 9th, where a broad stream will swallow the thinly hit drive with any tendency to fade; and on the last hole, where advancing our drive and second shot total of 400 yards will put the ball squarely in the center of that same broad stream. Boundaries bedevil us more often than water, but never so chillingly as on the 15th. This superb 201yarder plays from knob to knob, with three bunkers and a steep falloff at the left of the green.82

Albert Warren Tillinghast (1874-1942) Born in Philadelphia, A. W. Tillinghast became the premier American designer of golf courses in the early decades of the twentieth century and was also an accomplished golf writer and editor of golf magazines. Tillinghast grew up in a prosperous family, was pampered as a child, and was later expelled from school. As a youth he drank excessively and was in no hurry to find a job or take up a profession. He became a golf enthusiast in the 1890s and made several trips to Scotland, where he took lessons from “Old Tom Morris,” one of the most famous golfers of the day. Back home he continued to play whenever he could, and had respectable showings in early U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open competitions. Tillinghast’s career as a designer began in 1907, when he laid out a course for some wealthy friends on a farm at Shawnee-onthe-Delaware. The course was a great success, and it led to many commissions over the next three decades. Altogether Tillinghast created over 60 courses and redesigned about 50 others. Those which have hosted major golf tournaments include Winged Foot in Westchester County, New York, the San Francisco Golf Club, the East Course of the Baltimore Country Club, Somerset Hills, Ridgewood and Baltusrol in New Jersey, and the Black Course at Bethpage on Long Island. Tillinghast’s greatest success came in the 1920s, described as a golden age of golf course A. W. Tillinghast in 1906. creation, joining other great designers such as Charles Blair Macdonald, Alister Courtesy of the Tillinghast Mackenzie, Donald Ross, George C. Thomas, Perry Maxwell, and William Association. Flynn. Known as “Tillie the Terror,” because of his challenging creations, he is credited with introducing the term “birdie” to the golf lexicon. The Philadelphia Cricket Club course at Flourtown, laid out by Tillinghast and completed in 1922, is one of the few designed by him that has undergone only minimal changes over the past 80 years.83

Chapter 2

By the early 1930s it was clear that the decision to maintain the Cricket Club at two different locations had paid off. The Houston Estate did, in fact, decline to renew the lease on half the golf links at St. Martin’s, leaving the Club with approximately 40 acres, enough land to create a nine-hole course by making use of some of the original holes, by reshaping others, and by making one new hole.84 According to an article in the Philadelphia Public Ledger this redesigned “old course” suited a loyal cadre of golfers, who “never liked the Flourtown course and will continue to play at St. Martin’s as long as there is any land left to play over. They have a sentimental regard for the old course, and also it’s much more accessible to their homes.”85

Description of the Remaining Nine Holes at St. Martin’s, from the Philadelphia Evening Ledger, November 6, 1931 “The original first, second and third holes had not been affected by the sale, . . . and remain pretty much as they were except that the trapping was brought up to date and the old chocolate drops that used to dot the terrain were removed. A new fourth hole, a 200-yard one-shotter, was built to hook up the old third with the old tenth, which became the new fifth. The new sixth is the old fourteenth, the new seventh is the old sixteenth, the new eighth is the old seventeenth, and the ninth is the former eighteenth, a hard par 3 affair, as it measures 227 yards, requires a carry over a sunken lane and is heavily trapped. The [total] yardage [of the redesigned nine-hole course] is 3168 and the par is 37.” The variety of activities and interests at the Club attracted a growing membership, which climbed steadily, from 201 in 1893 to 879 in 1897, 1068 in 1903, 1165 in 1906, and 1813 in 1917. The Club managed to build a new 18-hole golf course at Flourtown and continued to produce a number of champions in several major sports. By any measure the Philadelphia Cricket Club had become a great success.

Courts and Links

Chapter

COUNTRY CLUB

y the 1920s the Philadelphia Cricket Club was in every way a full-fledged country club, despite its original dedication to cricket and its continued use of the original name. Although the personalities and events that shaped the Cricket Club were in certain ways unique, there was much about the Club that echoed issues and themes common to the American country club. The first organization to call itself a country club was “The Country Club” of Brookline, Massachusetts, founded in 1882 by a group of socially prominent Bostonians. The idea caught on, and the growth in country clubs was explosive. By 1901, there were 1,000 country clubs in the United States, and by the late 1920s, there were over 5,500.1 The American-born novelist Henry James, living in England, commented tellingly on this new phenomenon, attempting to explain how it was similar to and yet different from sporting clubs in England. It was true that the English were also drawn together by interest in a particular sport, such as golf, but sociability was a secondary consequence rather than a conscious goal of English clubs. But in America, according to James, the country club existed “as a kind of center of the social life of the neighborhood. Sport is encouraged by these clubs for the sake of general sociability. In England sociability is a by-product of an interest in sport.”2 The locations of most country clubs were the suburbs, made possible by the railroad and then by the “Sulgrave Manor,” a replica of the Washington automobile. Both the suburb and the country club were, ancestral home in England. Originally built for the according to the Chestnut Hill – born social historian E. 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the Digby Baltzell, “product[s] of the same desire for Woodwards had the house disassembled, moved, homogeneity and a nostalgic yearning for the simplicities and rebuilt in Chestnut Hill. Photo by author. of small-town life.”3 Although prosperous families were using improved methods of transportation to escape the heat, noise, dirt, crime, and increasing ugliness of the industrial metropolis, the city continued to play an important part in their lives, especially for the family breadwinner. Suburbs might be attractive as quiet, green retreats, but the center of economic activity remained in the city, and the only way for most to earn a good enough income to sustain a suburban family was a job in the city. Fathers and husbands commuted daily downtown, continued to belong to

Lush summer foliage along St. Martin’s Lane. Photo by Carol L. Franklin.

Country Club

city clubs, sat on civic and philanthropic boards in the city, and supported the city’s cultural institutions. Unlike the sprawling suburbs a century later, these early suburban communities shared a dual identity with both city and suburb. 4 The west side of Chestnut Hill, renamed St. Martin’s by the Woodward family, was a good example of the commuter suburb, although it was inside the boundaries of Philadelphia, where residents could enjoy the wealth and culture of the city and the country atmosphere of their outlying neighborhoods and homes. While Philadelphia’s Main Line suburbs, located west of Philadelphia along the “main line” of the Pennsylvania Railroad, were often better known as elite enclaves, and especially to outsiders, Chestnut Hill could be considered more of an upscale suburb than any on the Main Line according to Baltzell, who once described the Hill as “ more. . . exclusively upper-class” than any other community in the whole metropolitan area.v An examination of the 1929 Philadelphia Social Register, a directory of perceived socially prominent people, supports Baltzell’s claims. Approximately 550 entries of the 9,000 or so in that year’s register were from Chestnut Hill—or just over 6 percent of the total. Considering that Chestnut Hill’s 8,500 residents at the time represented less than one half of one percent of the region’s total population, these Social Register numbers are even more impressive. Also telling was the fact that there were more Chestnut Hillers in the Social Register than residents of Haverford and Bryn Mawr combined, even though these were among the most prestigious addresses of the Main Line suburbs. By any measure, Chestnut Hill was home to some of the most successful and influential individuals in the region. Of the approximately nine hundred entries in the 1930 Who’s Who in America, at least forty were living in Chestnut Hill, or 4.4 percent of the city total. Many of the officers of Philadelphia’s leading banks lived in the community, including Joseph Wayne, Jr., president of the Philadelphia National Bank, William J. McGlinn, president of the Continental Title and Trust, and Albert Atlee Jackson, president of the Girard Trust. Among the many corporate executives who made their homes in Chestnut Hill were Frederick H. Strawbridge, senior director of the Strawbridge and Clothier department store; John E. Zimmerman, chairman of the board, Philadelphia Electric Company; Mahlon C. Kline, president of Smith Kline and French pharmaceuticals; William D. Disston, vice-president of Henry Disston and Sons Wedding party of Bertha Smythe and Fred Graham, Saw Works; and William McLean, Jr., secretaryOctober 12, 1929, posing in front of the ladies’ clubhouse at the Cricket Club. Courtesy of Avery Tatnall. Ladies clubhouse, 2004, St.Martin’s. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Chapter 3

treasurer of the Philadelphia Bulletin, a major metropolitan newspaper at the time. Wellknown artists and musicians of the day who lived on the Hill included muralist Violet Oakley, painter Jessie Wilcox Smith, and Leopold Stokowski, the famed director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Many of these individuals were members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, especially those from the business and banking sectors.6 The daughters of these and other families often had coming out parties and weddings at the Cricket Club that were preceded by years of dancing classes in the Club’s ballroom. Mary Wickham Bond (1898-1997), who grew up in the St. Martin’s neighborhood, fondly remembered these classes. “We all went to dancing class, which the boys hated and the girls loved. We’d walk over in everyday shoes, and we always had a pretty little silk bag to carry our slippers in, and when we got to the Cricket Club, we’d put on our patent leather slippers . . . and we had a wonderful time.”7 Without doubt, the most influential family in Three houses in George Woodward’s Cotswold Village, Chestnut Hill remained the Woodwards. George designed by Edmund B. Gilchrist and built in 1921 on the and Gertrude Woodward commissioned 8000 block of Crefeld Street. Photo 1920’s. Architectural approximately 180 houses in West Chestnut Hill Archives, University of Pennsylvania. and West Mount Airy, in addition to the original A Cotswold house on the 8000 block of Navajo Street, 80 houses built by Gertrude’s father, Henry designed by Edmund B. Gilchrist and built in 1916. Photo by Howard Houston.8 The high quality of author. construction, the wide variety of housing types, the care with which the Woodwards chose their architects, and the fact that the family had great wealth and could control large pieces of property were all reasons for the success of their developments. Following Houston’s practice, the Woodwards rented the houses that they built in St. Martin’s. While tenants were responsible for keeping up the interiors of their homes, the Woodwards assumed full responsibility for the exteriors, as well as for any major landscaping. This allowed them to maintain control of the design elements that they and their architects had planned initially. The Woodwards also rented their properties at somewhat below market value in order to keep tenants for long periods, and to convince them that their failure to build up any equity was more than compensated by the lower rents and the attractiveness of the neighborhood.

Country Club

Although the tenants had to sign yearly leases, they could look forward, if they wanted, to living in a “Woodward House” for the rest of their lives. In an article that George Woodward wrote for The Survey magazine in 1920, he stated that he would not increase rents so long as the same tenants remained in a house. The only exception was when the City of Philadelphia raised real estate taxes, and in this case he passed along the whole amount in order to make his tenants tax-conscious voters in municipal elections.9 He would even accommodate changes in family size. A newly married couple could start out in one of the smaller rentals and “graduate” to a larger house after they began to have children. Once the children were grown and had left home, the parents could move into a Woodward court, where the units were smaller and more compact. The Woodwards themselves lived in the neighborhood, in a large residence they called “Krisheim,” and took a personal interest in maintaining the houses and streetscapes. Although these arrangements with tenants might seem paternalistic and controlling, George Woodward was a friendly, outgoing man, who appears to have managed landlord-tenant relations with a light touch. It should be noted that, following the prejudices of the day, he rented almost exclusively to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants.10

George and Gertrude Woodward Trained as a medical doctor, who did not practice medicine during most of his life, George Woodward (1863-1952) came from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. He was active in a host of social and political reforms and especially in housing for the working poor. He won election, as a Republican, to the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1919 and went on to serve seven consecutive terms at Harrisburg before stepping down in 1947. Woodward was a central figure in the Friends of the Wissahickon, a member of its board and the head of its tree planting committee. Gertrude Houston Woodward (1868-1961) echoed many of her husband’s concerns for the less fortunate and joined his enthusiasm for repairing and replanting the Wissahickon, but as a proper, upperclass Victorian wife, she did not participate extensively in public life. She was greatly interested in the arts, was a major patron of women artists, including neighbor Violet Oakley, and she became a good amateur water colorist herself. Gertrude shared her husband’s keen interest in architecture and frequently discussed plans for the developments in St. Martin’s, but took no public credit for them, even though money from her father’s estate made them possible. The Woodward family in the garden at Krisheim, c. 1915. Author’s collection.

Chapter 3

Par 3, Hole 15, Wissahickon course. Photo by Russell Kirk. Abandoned railroad bridge bordering the 9th and 11th holes at Wissahickon golf course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

The area around the Cricket Club’s golf course at Flourtown was very different from St. Martin’s in Chestnut Hill. At the time, Flourtown was still a small strip village, hugging both sides of Bethlehem Pike, as the road made its way north from Chestnut Hill. Maps from the time show several old taverns that had once catered to stagecoach travelers, along with a few local stores and modest dwellings. There were only 427 people living there in 1920, the majority of them skilled or semi-skilled workers.11 Although the Flourtown site was about four and a half miles from St. Martin’s, Club spokesmen thought that it would be very accessible, citing one railroad that ran through the property and another that passed nearby. The railroads were the “Trenton Branch” of the Pennsylvania Railroad, more popularly known as the Trenton cut-off, and the “Plymouth Branch” of the Reading line. They hoped that at least one of these railroads would agree to build a station close to Club grounds, especially given plans for the adjoining Fort Washington State Park, established to commemorate the Revolutionary War encampment there in 1777.12 The stations were never built, but the increasing use of automobiles made it easy for Club members to drive out to Flourtown, a trip that took them through a beautiful rolling countryside that in some places looked just like a Constable painting. At the time, there were plans to build a parkway along the Wissahickon Creek that would connect Fort Washington with Chestnut Hill, the route running directly beside the Club grounds and using, for a stretch, the same right of way as Valley Green Road.13 This idea did not materialize, but Club members found it convenient to use either Stenton Avenue or Bethlehem Pike as a route from the city. Especially attractive on the drive out to Flourtown was Erdenheim Farms, then a 225-acre private estate known for its prize-winning racehorses and livestock. A graceful, stone-arched bridge across the Wissahickon added to the picturesque scene at Erdenheim, as did the autumn fox hunts, one of which was described by a local newspaper in October 1925: “Throngs of men and women prominently identified in social, club, financial, and professional circles, were augmented by many of the hunting set, from New York, Long Island, Washington and Baltimore. . . . Several officials met on horseback, in their pink riding coats.”14 One of Erdenheim’s owners, Robert N. Carson, had left 87 acres of the property and nearly all his $5 million estate to establish and endow Carson College for Orphan Girls, which opened in 1918 and was later renamed the

Country Club

Carson Valley School. On this site architect Albert Kelsey designed what he called a children’s fantasy village, with cottages built of Wissahickon schist in the Tudor-Gothic style. There were conscious efforts to create a picturesque landscape at Carson, with scenic drives and points of interest, under the direction of Arthur Paul, the chief landscape designer for the Andorra Nurseries.15 Beyond Carson and Erdenheim Farms, and directly adjacent to the Cricket Club’s new property, was Fort Washington State Park. In 1913, a group of Chestnut Hill residents led by John Morris, whose estate would later become the Morris Arboretum, had formed the Park Extension Committee and began pressing for the creation of parkland along the Wissahickon outside the city limits. Although the state legislature authorized the purchase of 1,100 acres in what was to be an extension of Fairmount Park, limited funding allowed the state to acquire only 350 acres by 1935. Even so, Fort Washington State Park, along with the Club grounds and the surrounding institutions and estates represented a large piece of open land that would become increasingly important as time went on and development pressures mounted.16 The state park also formed a buffer on three sides of the Club grounds at Flourtown, protecting it from unsightly or intrusive development and would later abut the Club’s Militia Hill course. Both the Flourtown and St. Martin’s sites resembled country estates in many ways, as did most other country clubs around the nation, allowing middle class members, who could never hope to own a large country place themselves, to enjoy some aspects of estate life.17 Robert Fishman, in his book Bourgeois Utopias, which explores the uppermiddle-class suburb of the early twentieth century, has compared country clubs and their golf courses to the carefully cultivated

Stone barn at Erdenheim Farms, surrounded by lawn and trees. Photo by Carol L. Franklin.

The Whitemarsh Valley Hunt. Courtesy of the Highlands Mansion and Gardens.

English countryside: “The fairways captured for suburbia the large scale landscaping derived ultimately from Capability Brown and the other English country house designers, which had previously been available only to the very rich. The beautifully planted grounds of the older country clubs may be the most perfect realization of the cultural ideal of the picturesque ever created in the United States.”18 Given this context, it is not surprising that clubhouses were usually designed to resemble large country houses, and allowed members to enjoy an “estate life” that they could never afford themselves.19 Although they were far larger than members’ own residences, it was important for clubhouses to exude an air of domestic comfort and hospitality, along with a level of prosperity that reflected worldly success. For the most part, clubhouses were similar in design to the prevailing architectural styles in the neighborhood or region. In addition, the clubhouse had to accommodate all the activities and interests of members to ward off complaints that too much attention was being paid to certain groups within the club. In this way, the clubhouse came to symbolize the hoped-for unity of its members.20 The two clubhouses built in Chestnut Hill clearly echoed the prevailing architectural styles of their place and times. The first clubhouse, completed in 1885, was designed in the popular Queen Anne style. It was similar to many of the larger houses nearby, and most resembled the 1885 Sauveur house on Seminole Avenue, commissioned by Henry Howard Houston, and like the original Cricket Club buildings, designed by the Hewitt Brothers.21 The row of Georgian Revival buildings, designed by George T. Pearson, that The old clubhouse at St. Martin’s, c. 1900. Courtesy of the replaced the original clubhouse after the fire Tillinghast Association. of September 1908 fit well into the larger Colonial Revival movement that swept the The 1885 Queen Anne “Sauveur House” at 8204 Seminole Eastern United States during the late Avenue, designed for Henry Howard Houston by the Hewitt Brothers. Photo by author.

Country Club

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When completed, the new complex had a frontage of 365 feet facing Willow Grove Avenue, which one newspaper article proposed had been designed “to suggest Independence Hall in general outline.” The Club buildings did follow the Palladian five-part plan, used at Independence Hall, which consisted of a large central structure, two smaller buildings evenly spaced at ether side, and a set of rounded archways joining these dependencies to the main structure. The main building at St. Martin’s also had a clock tower and gable ends that were reminiscent of Independence Hall.22 The new men’s “locker hall,” measured 33 by102 feet and featured an interior gallery around the second level. The main clubhouse was 45 by 80 feet, with a

Aerial view of the complex at St. Martin’s in 1922. At center right are the clay tennis courts built on the former horse show grounds, along with a surviving horse show building, and at the upper left is the Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the Fields Church. Library Company of Philadelphia. A postcard advertisement for a c. 1910 Oakland Roadster, with the new St. Martin’s clubhouse in the background. CHHS.

Chapter 3

A) Photograph and floor plans of the new St. Martin’s clubhouse, published in The American Architect, November 1913. CHHS. B) The card room at St. Martin’s, c. 1915, later the “bar”. CHHS. C) Alcove in the ballroom at St. Martin’s, c. 1915. CHHS.

Country Club

portico 15 by 18 feet. This section contained a “large clubroom, 24 by 80 feet, “with a beam ceiling and with a wonderful view of the Club grounds through the wide windows at each end.” The basement contained bowling alleys, dressing rooms, and a serving pantry.23

The Colonial Revival In addition to being a popular architectural style, the Colonial Revival was part of a larger cultural phenomenon among prosperous, native-born Americans. Made conscious of their own ethnic roots by the large numbers of so-called “new immigrants” entering the United States from southern and eastern Europe, old stock Americans founded lineage societies like the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames to emphasize their ancestry. There was also nostalgia for a supposedly simpler pre-industrial past, at a time when large cities like Philadelphia were undergoing rapid industrialization and with it the growth of slums, crime, and disease in the city. Members of lineage societies, along with local historical groups, engaged in vast genealogical projects, preserved and restored Colonial era buildings, and often commissioned new houses and other structures in styles reminiscent of the Colonial period.24 There were many handsome new houses on the west side of Chestnut Hill built in the Colonial Revival style, especially on West Moreland Avenue, only two blocks south of the Cricket Club. Back in 1891, the Germantown Cricket Club had erected a handsome clubhouse in the Georgian style, designed by the nationally famous firm of Colonial Revival house on West Moreland Avenue, McKim, Meade and White, a building that Chestnut Hill. Photo by author. may have inspired Philadelphia Cricket to adopt the same motif for its new clubhouse complex two decades later.

The facilities at Flourtown were far more modest. The Club converted a stone farmhouse, part of which had been built in 1804, into a clubhouse, and a stone barn on the property into a locker room.25 In 1931 the Club constructed a lounge and dining room between the barn and house that featured a large stone fireplace, common features in country clubs that helped to create a cozy, homelike atmosphere.26 At first the Flourtown facility served only lunch for golfers.27 One large headache at Flourtown was the Blue Bell Lime Products Company, which bought an adjoining property soon after the new golf course was opened there. In August 1926 the Club filed suit in the Common Pleas Court of Montgomery County to enjoin the company from continuing its operations, claiming that “rocks and stones of large size are thrown on the . . . grounds by blasting.” In at least one instance, the Club alleged, a golfer

Chapter 3

Left, Flourtown clubhouse complex, c. 1940, showing the lounge and dining room built between the house and barn in 1931. CHHS. Below, women playing squash, 1941. CHHS. Bottom, tennis match at St. Martin’s, 1930s. CHHS.

was seriously injured by falling rocks. Smoke, gas, particles of coal, and lime were also blown all over the course and onto Club members.28 The parties apparently reached a settlement before going to court, since there are no records of a decision rendered from the bench, but whatever agreement the two parties may have reached is unknown.29 The ruins of these lime quarries would later be incorporated into the design of the Militia Hill golf course. With its two locations, the Philadelphia Cricket Club supported as many activities as any major country club in the nation, though golf and tennis remained the most important for the largest group of members. The Club had established its first soccer team in 1902, but the game made a slow start. In 1904 there was so little interest in the sport that it was impossible to field a team, and only after World War I did the Club have much to brag about.30 In1919-20, the soccer team won the divisional championship of the local Football League of the Associated Cricket Clubs, and in 1923-24 they won the league’s championship, with additional championships in 193435 and 1936-37.31 Squash also made its debut at the Club in 1902, when the first squash courts were built. These were destroyed in the 1908

fire, and the Club did not manage to build new squash courts until 1929, on the site of the old junior clubhouse, which was destroyed by fire two years earlier. George and Gertrude Woodward donated the $31,500 for the new courts, which were designed by Chestnut Hill resident Robert R. McGoodwin (1886-1967), who was one of the Woodwards’ principal architects.32 The Club could boast a number of champions in the Philadelphia Inter-Club Squash League. Its most outstanding player of the era was Stanley W. Pearson, Jr., who won the National Championship Singles in 1948, and the doubles in both 1947 and 1948.33 The Cricket Club started women’s field hockey in 1903, under the leadership of Helen Krumbhaar, just two years after English-born Constance Applebee had introduced the sport to the United States. The Club’s field hockey team quickly took the lead in the Philadelphia area, and was especially impressive during the 1930s. In 1934 the Philadelphia Cricket Club held the first international tournament in the United States, with teams coming from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Krumbhaar became the first president of the United States Field Hockey Association in 1922, and in 1924 she became the vice-president of the newly Tennis on the grass courts, August 2004. Photo by Jas Szygiel. formed International Field Hockey Federation. Because of Above, Field Hockey game, 1930s, with parish house of St. Martin-in-thethe attention that she and the Fields and residences on St. Martin’s Lane in the background. CHHS.

Chapter 3

Top, The Philadelphia Cricket Club soccer team, 1920-21, photographed on the porch of the ladies’ clubhouse. CHHS.

Stanley W. Pearson, Jr., National Squash Racquets Champion, 1948 and National Racquets Champion, 1952. Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 91.

Above, Helen Krumbhaar, President of the U.S. Field Hockey Association and Vice President of the International Field Hockey Federation. Oil portrait by Jessie Wilcox Smith. Courtesy of Freeman’s.

Country Club

The first swimming pool at St. Martin’s was designed by Robert R. McGoodwyn and built in 1930. Pictured here is the “new” pool at St. Martin’s, as of August 2004. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Cricket Club drew to field hockey, both were instrumental in spreading it to many schools and colleges in the region.34 Beginning in the 1920s, bridge became a competitive activity at the Cricket Club, led by John Randolph Crawford. Crawford also won a number of national and international bridge championships, wrote several books on various card games, and helped to popularize the game of canasta in the United States. Mrs. Christian S. McCain organized the first women’s bridge group at the Club in 1933, which went on to win several inter-club competitions.35 In 1915, the Club offered ice-skating when George Woodward built a pond on the grounds, located where the indoor courts now stand.36 Woodward also introduced swimming to the Club scene in 1930, when he built a pool on the grounds at St. Martin’s, designed by McGoodwin and costing $30,000.37 A life-long swimmer himself, Woodward used the pool several times a week.

Chapter 3

The new facility also allowed the Club to form swim teams for “juniors,” who competed against other clubs in the Philadelphia area.38 From the beginning, the Women’s Associate Branch had charge of the pool, mainly because of its use by junior members and because it was assumed that the women, most of whom did not work outside the home at that time, would be on hand to look after arrangements at the pool on weekdays.39 Bowling, and especially for women, began sometime in the early twentieth century, with alleys in the basement of the clubhouse. The Women’s Inter-Club Bowling League was established in 1938, the Cricket Club having three teams, with five bowlers on each.40 Considerable embarrassment for the Club resulted when local prohibition agents raided the St. Martin’s clubhouse on April 24, 1930, after an undercover agent successfully purchased a quart of gin there. According to the newspapers, the agents seized 275 quarts of both whiskey and gin, 315 pints of whiskey, 268 bottles of beer, two one-half gallons of champagne, two quart bottles of champagne, five pints of champagne, one five-gallon can of alcohol, and seven one-half gallons of alcohol. The police also broke into the lockers of Club members, as the Philadelphia Bulletin explained, “to get at the bottles that could be seen throug the grading partitions. From one locker were removed bottles bearing the labels of a choice brand of Scotch whiskey. . . . Another locker yielded a gallon of liquor a raider identified as apple-jack, while pints, half-pints and quarts of liquor were taken from hiding places in lockers behind bags of golf clubs and sweaters. . . .”41 Newspaper headlines Police arrested the Club steward and two waiters. A large crowd, including a from the Philadelphia number of students from Chestnut Hill Academy across the street, assembled as Bulletin, April 26, 1930 officers loaded two patrol wagons with the contraband and drove off.42 The city’s and May 25, 1931. chemist, after testing the booze, declared that it was not poisonous, but that it “was just fair bootleg liquor.” The gin especially was “a very poor mixture of alcohol and other matter,”—what contemporaries would have dubbed bathtub gin.43 There was some talk in the press that police might arrest “higher-ups” in the Club, meaning officers and board members, since it seemed unfair that the employees were bearing the brunt of the raid. Those arrested were released on bail that was probably posted by the Club, and they refused to implicate any of the so-called “higher ups.” At trial a year later, in May 1931, two of the defendants were acquitted and a third was found guilty of possessing illegal alcohol and was placed on probation for one year.44 Anti-prohibition politicians and groups in Philadelphia were delighted about the raid, believing that it could only hasten the day of repeal. Francis Bohlen, Jr., then a “wet candidate” for a U.S. Senate nomination, told the press, “The more of these raids they pull, the better it will be for the wet ticket . . . [since they show] the conditions of intolerable persecution and the violation of individual rights. . . .”45

Country Club

For a while it looked as if the raid would do some lasting damage to the Club. A year later, with the case still pending in court, the police department denied the Club a dance license because it had violated the prohibition laws. When Mayor Harry A. Mackey sensed that this action could cost him politically, he disavowed the police decision and quickly sent his secretary to the office of Joseph Wayne, Jr. who was then president of the Philadelphia National Bank, as well as president of the Cricket Club, to assure him that there had simply been a misunderstanding and that that the Club would be granted its dance license right away.46 Possibly the most bizarre reaction to the Club’s troubles was a decision by the Philadelphia Social Register in early 1932 to drop the Club from its publication, meaning that the abbreviation for Club membership would no longer appear beside persons’ names in the book. Joseph Wayne told the press that he did not think the decision had anything to do with the raid, but the idea seemed to persist among members as well as others.47 Whatever the reason, the Social Register reinstated the Club the following year. Bedeviling to the Club was a brief caddy strike in the late summer of 1936. This was a time of nation-wide labor actions encouraged by recent federal legislation that guaranteed workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. Whether or not the caddies were influenced by news about strikes or by family members who belonged to unions is unknown, but this was a distinct possibility. The strike began the last week in August when the caddies asked for an increase from forty to fifty cents for nine holes, and from 75 cents to a dollar for eighteen holes. As a way of picketing, the strikers followed the golfers around the course, harassing them on every shot. Sometimes they sang or whistled to interrupt the golfer’s concentration. They also made comments such as, “Why doncha try throwin’ it!”—or, “Ain’t yuh gonna count the three strokes in the bunker?” When Club officials called the police, the boys “separated and spread over the course like driven golf balls. They hid in bunkers and behind the greens and dived into the woods.” But as soon as the police left, they resumed their catcalls and general harassment.48 On September 4, the Club settled the work stoppage by giving the caddies a pay increase, though the actual amount was not released to the newspapers.49 Exactly how the Great Depression of the 1930s may have affected the Cricket Club is unknown, since there are very few records from the period, probably due to fire. The

Philadelphia Bulletin, August 27, and September 5,1936.

Chapter 3

Club experienced a decline in membership during these years and may have reduced or deferred dues and engaged in a number of campaigns to attract new members, as did many hard-pressed country clubs around the United States. The war years, with many younger members in the military, also took a toll on membership.50 In a 1955 memorandum about the history of the properties at St. Martin’s, Charles Woodward wrote, on behalf of the Houston Estate, that “loss of membership during the Depression and World War II put the Club in such a bad financial condition that it was not able to pay its rent and taxes in full.”51 The Houston Estate was forced to forgive rent payments during the Depression and the war, and in 1947, when it renewed the lease on the nine-hole St. Martin’s golf course, it gave up on receiving any rent, asking for only a dollar a year and real estate taxes to be paid by the Club. At the same time, the estate paid $25,000 in back taxes that the Club had failed to pay during the Depression and the war.52 The generosity of the Houston Estates saved the Club from having to resort to drastic measures, such as opening its golf courses to the public, a strategy adopted by many clubs during the Depression.53 During the war, the Women’s Associate Branch pitched in on the home front. In September 1942, Ellen Gowen Hood informed the women’s board that the Philadelphia Civil Defense authorities needed 26,000 messengers in case of a disaster, and she urged the women—and all Club members—to volunteer for this

Ethel Yarnall Earnshaw, from the Philadelphia Bulletin of October 9, 1942.

Country Club

work.54 In October of the same year, the women held a bridge party and dinner to benefit Philadelphia’s Stage Door Canteen.55 Anticipating fuel shortages the following winter, they voted to close their clubhouse until spring.56 That same month the Philadelphia Bulletin carried a story about Ethel Yarnall (Mrs. Boulton) Earnshaw, a Club member, avid tennis player, and president of the Women’s Interclub Tennis Association of Philadelphia. She had taken a job as an inspector at the Electric Storage Battery Company in the city as a contribution to the war effort, and told the newspaper reporter, “I

Fire at St. Martin’s clubhouse, photo published in the Philadelphia Bulletin, April 6, 1943.

Chapter 3

don’t get any more tired here than I did playing sports [at the Cricket Club] and I feel that I’m helping [the country].” She was putting all her earnings into war bonds, she added, as an additional contribution to the war.57 Although there were few direct effects from the war in Chestnut Hill, at least compared to other Philadelphia neighborhoods where there were large military bases and defense industries, disaster struck the Cricket Club when a fire broke out in the St. Martin’s clubhouse on the evening of March 5, 1943. This was the fifth fire in less than fifty years, counting those at the stables (1900), the clubhouse (1902), the clubhouse again (1908), and the junior clubhouse (1927). Investigators believed the most likely cause of the 1943 blaze was sparks from a defective chimney that ignited the roof, with flames whipped by a stiff March wind. When word of the conflagration reached some Club members, a number gathered at the site, “many [dressed] in evening clothes from dinner parties,” and helped to stamp out small grass fires started around the grounds. “Groans were heard from spectators as bottles of choice liquors burst under the intense heat in the bar.”58 Besides the bar, the flames gutted the main clubroom, sleeping quarters on the second floor, and the clock tower, which collapsed and fell through the roof. Neither of the side wings was damaged and there were no injuries or loss of life, as there had been during the 1908 fire. Damages were estimated at $50,000.59 Gertrude Woodward contributed $10,000 to the rebuilding fund, but wartime restrictions on building materials forced the Club to improvise for the duration. The ballroom became a dining room, and a former dining room became the main Club lounge.60 Complete repairs would have to await the return of peace, as would a recovery from the economic difficulties of fifteen years of Depression and war.

Country Club

Chapter

THE CLUB FAMILY

he war and the Depression were finally over, and Philadelphia Cricket Club members, like other Americans, looked forward to years of peace and prosperity. Better times allowed the Club to pay off its mortgage on the Flourtown facilities, to buy back the St. Martin’s clubhouses and the

acreage immediately surrounding it, and to make a number of improvements at both locations.

Responding to the postwar baby boom and the family orientation of the times, the Club went out of its way to pro-

vide activities for married couples, children, and whole family groups. The postwar period at the Club started with great fanfare in July 1946, as described by the Philadelphia Bulletin: With all the flair of a Hollywood premier, the Middle States Men’s Professional grass court championship tennis tournament got off to a flying start yesterday at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, St. Martin’s. Among the spectators was Diana Barrymore, daughter of the late John [Barrymore], who flew here from LasVegas, Nev., to see the event in which her fiancé, John Howard, is participating.1 Besides the Hollywood contingent, all the tennis greats were there, including Frank Kovacs, Welby Van Horn, Gene Mako, John Faunce, Jack Jossi, John Howard, Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, and former Wimbledon champion, Fred Perry. Also present was Bill Tilden, manager of the tournament, who at age 53 was now past his prime, but still hailed as a great tennis hero, especially in his own hometown. Jack Rossi and Bill Tilden at St. Martin’s To accommodate the crowds, the Club erected temporary stands for at the beginning of the Middle States 3,000 spectators.2 In an upset victory Welby Van Horn defeated Bobby Men’s Professional Tournament, July Riggs, then the men’s world professional tennis titleholder, in the final 1946. CHHS. match.3 Less exiting, but more revealing of the actual postwar Club, was the Annual Report for 1947. There were 997 members that year, or just over half the membership of the early 1920s, seeming evidence that the Club had suffered severe losses during the years of Depression and war. However, the president was happy to report that the clubhouse at St. Martin’s had finally been repaired and refurbished as a result of the 1943 fire. The repairs and renovations, at a cost of $35,494, were designed by Robert McGoodwin, who, because of Woodward family

The swimming pool as of August 2004. Photo by Jas Szygiel. The Club Family

patronage, had become something of an unofficial “house architect.”4 The Club had also signed a ten-year lease with the Houston Estate for use of the nine-hole golf course acreage at St. Martin’s, for a dollar a year, with the stipulation that the Club must pay the taxes and insurance, and keep the property “in good repair.” A special point of pride was a new clubhouse for juniors, which “will be the focal point for an extensive program of supervised junior activities.”5 The small, red brick junior The “new” junior clubhouse, 1947. Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 102. clubhouse was built near the swimming pool, on the site of an old horse show building, long used as a storage facility and employees’ dormitory, that burned down in 1947. The new junior clubhouse was paid for from the insurance proceeds.6 Having long taken responsibility for all junior activities, it was not surprising that the Women’s Associate Branch took charge of the junior clubhouse. The women were also clearly relieved to have a new junior facility, since the youngest members now had no excuse for invading their mothers’ clubhouse. According to one set of minutes of the Associate Branch, “At last the Juniors have a place to themselves where they [can] make all the noise they [wish], and at last the Seniors [can] sit on their own front porch undisturbed (or nearly so).”7 Another set of minutes warned, “Juniors are forbidden to enter the Ladies’ Club Room at any time unless accompanied by a Senior Member.8 Use of the porch and steps leading to the porch [are also] prohibited except when accompanied by a senior member.” 9 It is also evident from the minutes that the new facility meant children could be dropped off to spend the entire day at the Club: “Lunches are available to the Juniors at very reasonable prices and [are] a boon to parents who [can] leave their children at the Club early in the morning and pick them up well fed, tired but happy, in the evening.10 Annual reports over the next decade reveal steady progress in many areas. In 1956, for approximately $210,000, the Club bought back the buildings at St. Martin’s and the 17 surrounding acres that it had sold to the Houston Estate in 1925. Necessitating this transaction was the death of Samuel F. Houston in 1952, the son and one of the heirs of Henry Howard Houston. Because Samuel Houston had left a number of bequests to charities that involved the Cricket Club properties, the Orphans Court would no longer allow the Houston Estate to lease the Club buildings and immediately surrounding land on a rent free basis.11 As part of the terms for selling the property, the Houston Estate placed deed restrictions on the land for 33 years, which forbade the Club from building apartment houses or hotels, or any single residences on lots smaller than a half an acre.12 The Club financed this purchase through a mortgage that was finally paid off in 1966.13 The 1956 settlement did not affect the nine-hole golf course at St. Martin’s, which the Houston Estate continued to lease to the Club for a dollar a year, with the Club paying the real estate taxes. That same year Charles Woodward, the son of George and Gertrude Woodward (and a nephew of Samuel F. Houston), purchased the land from the Houston Estate, including the nine-hole golf course at St. Martin’s and the land that had once comprised

Chapter 4

the other half of the former 18-hole golf course, but which had been reclaimed by the Houston Estate in the mid1920s. It was on this second parcel of land that Woodward undertook the St Andrews Road development north and west of Hartwell Lane.14 The Club also purchased a soccer field in 1956 for $11,000 from the Houston Estate, which it had been sharing, rent free, with Chestnut Hill Academy.15 Between 1956 and 1959, the Club spent about $200,000 on improvements that included redecorating the ballroom and enlarging the dining room and lounge at St. Martin’s and purchasing new furniture at Flourtown. This was done without an increase in dues, probably as the result of increased membership, which reached nearly 1,200 by 1958.16 The initiation fee that year was $350.00 for a family membership, with annual dues of $275.00, or $195.00 for non-golfing members.17 It was in the mid-1950s that the Club allowed electric golf carts at both Flourtown and St. Martin’s for the first time.18 A few years earlier, the Women’s Branch, under the direction of its arts committee, began to arrange for artists to exhibit their paintings at the Club, usually for a period of three months, after which another artist or group of artists would be invited to exhibit.19 Without doubt the high point of the postwar period was the Club’s celebration of its one-hundredth anniversary in 1954. The kickoff event was a lavish dinner on February 10, exactly 100 years to the day, when the founders had met in the office of William Rotch Wister to establish the Club. For ten dollars per person, guests enjoyed cocktails and canapes, followed by a dinner that featured diamond back terrapin and prime English beef tenderloin.20 There was a “magnificent ice swan,” bearing caviar, that was hand-carved by chef Otto Leich. The centennial cake was described by the Philadelphia Bulletin as “an architectural, many tiered triumph of imported chocolate flecked with cream and gold. . . . Four Grecian maidens supported the top deck of tiers, crowned with

1959 Philadelphia Cricket Club soccer team. CHHS.

The Club Family

Centennial Dinner, St. Martin’s, February 10, 1954. CHHS.

huge, multi-colored and edible roses.”21 Background music was provided by the Charles Gresh Trio. Special guests that evening included the presidents of the Germantown Cricket Club and the Merion Cricket Club and the vicepresident of the Orpheus Club. Also among the honored guests were Francis Wister, daughter of the Club’s founder, and Ellen Gowen Hood, a member of the Club since 1887 and an outstanding early golfer, after whom had been named an important Philadelphia women’s golf tournament played annually at the Club, the Ellen Gowen Hood Shield.22 The main speaker of the evening was Edward Hopkinson, Jr., a former cricket champion who talked about cricketing days at St. Martin’s and of his trips to Canada and elsewhere to compete for the Club. President John B. Hendrickson cutting the Centennial Cake, February 10, 1954. Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 110.

Chapter 4

Hopkinson paid special tribute to J. Barton King, present at the dinner, with his wife, describing him as “the greatest bowler in the world.”23 Although golf and tennis had overtaken cricket in popularity more than a generation before, there were still living reminders on that winter night of cricket’s glory days.24 The climax of the anniversary, according to Club historian Horace Mather Lippincott, was the Centennial Ball on May 29, attended by 550 members and guests. Decorations featured scarlet climbing roses along with floral arrangements that emphasized the Club colors. According to Lippincott, “All porches and available rooms were set up with gaily decorated tables [,] and to provide additional space for the celebrants a large marquee was erected along the grass tennis courts. . . .”25 Music was provided by the Russ Morgan Orchestra of Boston and the local Bill Davies Dixieland Band, with dancing from 9:00 in the evening until 3:00 A.M., followed by breakfast.26 Earlier on the 29th, there had been a Centennial Mixed Foursome at the Flourtown golf course.27 Both of these centennial events were formal affairs, and in the generation after World War II, the Club continued to maintain strict rules about dress. According to the Rules and Regulations for 1958-1959, “Coat and tie are required at all times for gentlemen using the St. Martin’s clubhouse and for the evening meal and activities at night at Flourtown.” Regulations were relaxed a little in the warmer months--meaning that “knee-length shorts with knee-length stockings and coat and tie may be worn.”28 Members and guests in “athletic attire” who wanted lunch had to be served on the porch, or in “designated areas in the clubhouse.” “Bathing attire” was prohibited anywhere in or around the clubhouse.29 From time to time, the Club’s monthly bulletins listed and explained various rules, as in September 1949 when members were reminded that the same guest could not come more than four times in a given year. Children seemed to be especially guilty of bringing friends too often to the pool, causing the Club to require parents to sign in any junior guests. That same year ”Lady members” were told that they could not wear shorts “or other informal attire in the main lounge, cocktail-television room and indoor dining room at St. Martin’s.” The Bulletin also repeated the Club’s ban on tipping employees for “normal Club facilities,” but tipping was allowed for added services such as when locker room attendants shined or cleaned members’ shoes.30 There were special regulations for “juniors,” defined as family members who were under twenty-one. As spelled out in the Junior Bulletin for 1955, younger members were reminded of the obligation to respect their elders at all times, remembering that the main clubhouse was “intended for the use of Senior members.” If juniors found it necessary to be in the clubhouse, they should “make every effort to conduct themselves in such a way as not to draw unfavorable attention or adverse comment from older members.”31 Juniors were liable at any time to show their membership cards and had to register any guests. They were reminded not to bring dogs onto the grounds unless kept on a leash and not to ride their bicycles over Club property, except on the entrance and exit driveways. On behavior in the junior clubhouse, the Bulletin advised, “Conduct yourselves as you would at home or in a friend’s house. Do not throw papers or other refuse about the Club House or adjacent grounds; and do not deface the walls or windows with lipstick or other materials.”32Although the regulations did not address the question of alcohol, the Bulletin for June 1957 warned that bar tenders had been instructed not to serve anyone under twentyone, adding that adults were not allowed to buy drinks for minors.33 All this suggested that underage drinking must have been something of an issue, if only in a few instances. The Club offered both tennis and golf lessons for juniors, though any golfer under 18 was not allowed to use either the St. Martin’s or Flourtown courses on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays, which were reserved for adults

The Club Family

whose opportunities to play were limited. Juniors could enter tennis and golf competitions at other area clubs, or participate in matches at home. There were no written rules about golf attire for juniors, but the tennis committee asked everyone “to wear complete navy blue outfits,--blouses for girls, tee shirts for boys, shorts, socks, sneakers, and caps, if needed for protection from the sun.”34 (All white dress continued to be required for adults on the courts.) Swimming competitions were entirely junior events. In 1955 there were swim meets with Philadelphia Country Club, Manufacturers Golf Club, Philmont Country Club, Aronomink Golf Club, and Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, among others.35 In 1960, the Club’s Nina Harmer won the 100-meter backstroke in the Pan American games in Sao Paulo, Brazil and qualified for the U.S. swim team at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. In 1961 she defeated the favored Donna de Varona in the Women’s Senior Championship held at Santa Clara, California.36 In recognition of these accomplishments, the Cricket Club awarded her a lifetime honorary membership.

Swimmers Nancy Fischer, Ann Fischer, Leslie Bland, and Mary Schoer, Junior Week, 1962.

Emily Hawsley, Runner Up, Junior Golf Championship, 1946. CHHS. Tennis Pro William Kenney conducts the Junior Tennis Clinic, June 1966. This court is now the site of the “new” swimming pool. The junior clubhouse is in the background. CHHS.

Resolution of Honorary Membership for Nina Harmar WHEREAS, Nina Harmar has been a member of the Philadelphia Cricket Club since her birth, and WHEREAS, she has been a member of the United States Olympic Swimming Teams for the years 1960 and 1964, has won National Championships in the backstroke in 1961 in both the one hundred and two hundred meters, and won the Gold Medal in the Pan American games in 1962, and WHEREAS, her conduct, sportsmanship, and athletic ability have reflected great credit upon her family, the Philadelphia Cricket Club, and her community, NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT in recognition of her outstanding sportsmanship and athletic ability, the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Cricket Club hereby confers upon her a life time honorary membership in the Club.

Olympic Swimmer Nina Harmar, 1962. CHHS.

The Club Family

The annual Junior Week, first held in 1946 and managed by the Women’s Associate Branch, marked the high point as well as the end of summer for younger Club members.37 The event began every year on the Tuesday after Labor Day and lasted through the following Saturday, at a time when most colleges and private schools did not start classes until mid-September. The week featured Club championships in golf, tennis, and swimming, which were often covered by the local newspapers, as they were in 1958 when 125 boys and girls participated.38 The year before, the Germantown Courier reported the golf championships as if they were real professional competitions: Bill Walker, Wendy Wright, Robbie Bradley and Barbara Bell were the recipients of the top prizes in the Junior Week Golf program at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Walker won the boys under 21 title by defeating Bill Roper, the medallist, one up in a 36 hole final. . . . The defeat was a bitter pill for Roper who has yet to beat Walker. . . . Wendy Wright easily won the girls under 21 title as she defeated Barbara Barnes. . . . Robbie Bradley . . . proved the conquering hero as he easily disposed of Peter Liebert . . . in the Junior-Junior Boys (under 13). . . .Barbara Bell also had an easy time as she won the JuniorJunior Girls title by defeating Jane Roper.39

Junior Week Awards Banquet, 1948. CHHS. Junior Golfers, 1964: Ted Seelye, Stew Mittnacht, Billy Mittnacht, and Perky Costello. CHHS.

Chapter 4

Junior Week Awards Banquet, 1964. CHHS.

Coming Out Party, 1967. CHHS.

There were non-athletic events for the younger members of the Club, such as informal dances in the summer months, and an annual Christmas dance. The local dancing classes continued to take place at the Club, as did many coming-out parties.40 A typical newspaper announcement, with accompanying photograph, from in 1967 told readers about one of the debutant events that year: “Miss Alice Welsh Churchman (left) dances with H. Marshall Perot, while Miss Lea Manly-Power dances with Carl F. Sheppard, Jr. The two debs were presented by their parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. Horace Churchman, of Lafayette Hill, and Mr. and Mrs. Donald A. Manly-Power, of Chestnut Hill, at a dinner dance.”41 Still other events were designed for smaller children and their parents. During the winter months in the 1950s, there were two Sunday afternoon family hours that featured adventure movies.42 The family hour was till going strong in 1970, when there was

The Club Family

entertainment by the Kerr Dance Group.43 During the mid1950s, the Club offered a “Family Dinner Night” every Wednesday at a cost of $1.75 for adults and $1.25 for children under 12.44 Beginning in the early 1970s, children one to six could visit Santa Claus in the Blue Room at St. Martin’s on a Sunday afternoon in December.45 The annual New Year’s Day Open House luncheon was limited to adult members, but juniors could enjoy a tea dance later that afternoon, from 3:30 to 6:30.46 Another popular family event was the annual water carnival during an evening in late August, with fancy and comedy diving and water ballet. As many as 500 family members and friends attended the show each year.47 There were several activities and events especially for couples. One of these was the Mixed Foursome Golf Tournament, where each of the partners teed off separately and then had to take his or her second shot by hitting the partner’s ball from wherever it might land on the first drive. After their second shots, the pair had to chose which ball “to play out the hole.” There was a prize for the “lowest gross” score, along with prizes for the first, second, and third “net pair” scores. After the tournament there were cocktails on the terrace and a buffet supper and dancing, with music by the The Fleer Family at the old pool, 1957. CHHS. Bill Davies Orchestra.48 Members could bring guests without having to pay a greens fee. Men and women also played duplicate bridge together during the mid-1950s, though one husband complained that this meant giving up the Marciano-Moore boxing match. He described his terrible sacrifice for the October 1955 Bulletin: “Perhaps no greater love hath man for bridge than that he lay down his precious ringside seat for the Marciano-Moore prize fight, in favor of our Wednesday Evening Duplicate [Bridge] (name withheld, pending search for suitable medal for this heroic act).”49 Although men and women enjoyed bridge together, Tuesday afternoon bridge, a mainstay at the Club for decades, was a wholly female affair.50 For those who did not savor bridge, there was a mixed bowling league--or the many social events held at the Club.51 In March 1957, couples could go to a concert by the Orpheus Club, performing in the St. Martin’s ballroom at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon, followed by cocktails and a buffet supper, accompanied by more musical entertainment from the Orpheus singers.52 In October 1959, the Club offered cocktails and a “scrumptious buffet” following the Penn-Princeton football game, with dancing from eight to midnight to the strains of the Howard Lanin Trio, which became an annual event for a number of years, as did similar entertainments after the ArmyNavy games.53

Chapter 4

Beginning in the mid-1960s, theater and “motion picture” parties provided evenings out for couples. In December 1965, Club members could have dinner and then attend The Agony and the Ecstasy, starring Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison. In August 1969, they went to see the movie, Goodbye Mr. Chips. During the summer, there were trips to see the shows at the Valley Forge Music Fair, as in August 1963, when they attended Irma la Douce.54 In October 1964, the Club chartered a bus for a daylong excursion to the New York World’s Fair, at a cost of $10.00 per person.55 Other occasions were stag events, such as a Friday night baseball party in August 1957. The men gathered at the St. Martin’s clubhouse at 6:00 P.M. for a “modest buffet supper” and then took a chartered bus down to Connie Mack Stadium. The whole evening cost just $5.50 per person.56 These baseball outings continued well into the 1970s. In 1963, the Club added bus trips to Eagles football games, sometimes preceded by a picnic or brunch, depending on the weather.57 Another stag event was the annual spring golf dinner at Flourtown, a tradition that was still in place forty years later.58 Also presumably a stag activity was pheasant shooting, first organized in the fall of 1954.59 The shooting took place at Flourtown, on what would later become the Militia Hill golf course, with pheasants bread in captivity and held in a special coup on the grounds until released for the sportsmen. In 1957 the men killed 84 of the 130 birds released, with a careful record of the number shot by each participant. The “top guns” that year were Sid Keith, 19 birds; Jim Masland, 15 birds; Chip Pilling, 14 birds; Stan Ketcham, 10 birds; and Logie Bullitt, 6 birds. In a humorous aside, the Bulletin explained how the score might have come out differently: “Chip Pilling would have been second, if we had counted the sick bird that he got by climbing a tree and pulling it off a limb, and discounted the bird that Jim Masland’s dog caught after a long chase through Pheasants in coop at the honeysuckle with no shots fired.”60 In 1999, under the able leadership of John Mutch, trap Flourtown. PCC. shooting replaced the pheasant shoots, which had to be discontinued because of the construction of the the Militia Hill golf course on the site where they had taken place. Every winter the cart barn at the Flourtown practice range is transformed into a handsome trap lodge, providing a warn welcome for competitive but friendly shoots with other clubs. The Club’s softball team, winning interclub champions in 1956, 1957, and 1958, and its soccer team were also for men only. Then there were the men’s tennis, squash, and golf competitions—within the Club as well as with other clubs. In 1961, Harold “Bub” Cross won his eleventh golf championship at the Club, since first capturing it in 1946.61 One of the high points of this era was an informal talk by champion golfer Gene Sarazen on April 18, 1958, at a stag dinner at Flourtown. At the time Sarazen was the winner of

Sesquicentennial trapshooting card and pin modeled after original versions of PCC membership cards.

The Club Family

the British Open and a two-time winner of the U. S. Open.62 Three years later, in 1961, the Club had a group of trees planted near the 12th hole at Flourtown to screen the unattractive view toward the Corson lime works. The trees were carefully selected for tolerance to the lime dust that blew over onto the course.63 For women there was tennis, golf, squash, and bowling. Although the Club had once had its own bowling lanes, these became outmoded in the postwar period with the advent of large new facilities with automatic pin-setting equipment, and during the late 1950s, the women used the lanes at the Flourtown Shopping Center.64 Women golfers regularly entered interclub matches, though none appeared to equal the competitive triumphs of the early twentieth century.65 The women’s tennis program was more ambitious than ever. In May 1948, Frances Roberts, the “chairman of ladies’ tennis” was planning “an expanded . . . program at St. Martin’s.” In order to stimulate interest in junior tennis, Roberts held the Philadelphia interclub matches at the Cricket Club in early June, which home competitors won and would continue to win with regularity in the years ahead.66 In July the Club hosted the women’s Middle States Championships, and in August the girls’ Championships of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, an event held there annually since 1918.67 Competitors in this national event were put up for the week at the homes of Club members in Chestnut Hill. The Club typically put on a dinner for the players, and in 1955 held the annual swim carnival in their honor.68 Several tennis greats played and won

Chapter 4

Top, Gene Sarazen, other golfers, and onlookers at the Flourtown course, April 1958. CHHS. Above, Hope Knowles Rawls, Club Tennis Champion, 1940, 1948, and 1950. Also U.S.L.T.A. Girls’ Doubles Champion, with Patricia Cumming, in 1935, National Squash Doubles Champion, with Elizabeth Pearson, in 1941, and, with Jane Austin, in 1950. Lippincottt, Cricket Club, p. 71.

singles championships at St. Martin’s during this period, including Helen Wills, Helen Jacobs, Sarah Palfrey, Margaret Osborne, A. Louise Brough, Doris J. Hart, Maureen (Little Mo) Connolly, Peaches Bartkowicz, Chris Evert, and Tracy Austin.69 The two and a half decades after World War II were good times for the Philadelphia Cricket Club on every front. What members could not know was that some difficult times, followed by a period of renewal, lay just beyond the horizon.

Philadelphia Cricket Club Women’s A and B Tennis Squad – 1949. CHHS.

The Club Family

Chapter

CLUB RENEWAL

uring the past quarter century the Philadelphia Cricket Club has gone through a time of adjustment and renewal. This resulted from local and regional demographic shifts, as well as from changing attitudes about social life and personal style in American culture as a whole. Although the Club did not undergo a complete transformation, it coped successfully with

changing times and was in excellent shape as it celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2004. By 1970, Philadelphia had lost much of its preeminence as a leading American city. When the Cricket Club had been founded in 1854 the city was an industrial powerhouse and the second largest in the United States, a position that it maintained three decades later when the Club moved to its first permanent home at Wissahickon Heights. Philadelphia continued to grow, reaching a peak population of nearly 2.1 million in 1950, after which the city lost inhabitants in each subsequent census, declining to 1.95 million in 1970 and to just over 1.5 million in 2000, falling into fifth place among American cities.1 With the exception of certain gentrified neighbor-hoods near center city and middle-class neighborhoods in the far northwestern and northeastern parts of the city, those who remained behind were the poorest and the least skilled. Part of Philadelphia’s decline was due to the movement of jobs and people to the southern and western parts of the United States—the so-called Sunbelt—in the post World War II period, but part of it was because of the suburban tide that swept over Delaware Valley and much of the rest of the country. Of course, suburbs were over a century old by the postwar period. In fact, Chestnut Hill and much of northwest Philadelphia had been railroad suburban communities inside the City of Philadelphia from the middle of the nineteenth century, but the proliferation of automobiles in the second half of the twentieth century opened new possibilities. Freed from inflexible public transportation routes, this new generation of motorists could live wherever there was a road, and they put increasing pressure on local, state, and federal governments to improve old roads or build new ones. This suburban growth was unmistakable in the two townships just beyond Chestnut Hill. To the east in Springfield Township, the population increased from 11,000 in 1950 to around 20,000 in the year 2000. Whitemarsh Above, Women’s Member-Guest Tournament, 2002. PCC. Right, Paddle Tennisat St. Martin’s.

Par 5, Hole 9, Wissahickon Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Club Renewal

Aerial view of the Cricket Club property at Flourtown, showing in lower right corner the houses on lots sold by the Cricket Club along Cricket Road and Valley Green Road. Also clearly visible are the golf course (now known as Wissahickon), the Corson Lime Quarry, and the partial site in the upper left of the future Militia Hill Course. CHHS.

Township, to the north of Chestnut Hill, grew from 6,000 inhabitants in 1950 to nearly 17,000 fifty years later.2 Flourtown, where the Club had built its golf course in the early 1920s, went from just a few hundred people at that time to nearly 4,000 inhabitants in the early twenty-first century. The Cricket Club itself had contributed modestly to this suburban growth when it decided in the early 1920s to divide the southeast corner of its Flourtown property into residential building lots along Cricket and Valley Green Roads.3 A 1938 map of the area shows that only a few lots had been sold by the onset of the Depression, while financial documents and the styles of architecture along the road would suggest that the bulk of the lots were not sold until the 1950s. Although the area around the Cricket Club at St. Martin’s, and most other parts of Chestnut Hill remained as attractive and well cared for as always, the Hill had a smaller upper-class population than before, as measured by Social Register listings. There had been approximately 550 local residents listed in the late 1920s, but by the late 1980s, the number had dropped to around 350, for a decline of 40 percent. A cursory examination of recent editions of the Social Register showed that the descendents of some upper-class Chestnut Hill families had moved to the newer suburbs outside the city. Club members’ addresses in 2004 showed that 35 percent of them lived in the Philadelphia suburbs and that 35 percent lived in Chestnut Hill or the immediately adjacent community of Wyndmoor, long considered a social extension of the Chestnut Hill community. Of the rest, 10 percent came from elsewhere in Philadelphia and 20 percent were “non-resident” members.4 A second factor, somewhat reflected in the number of non-resident members, was probably the increased geographical mobility of all Americans. In order to take advantage of better job opportunities, some members of

Chapter 5

prosperous Chestnut Hill families, particularly the younger ones, had left for other parts to the country (and the world). In addition, well-to-do children could no longer count on acceptance by their parents’ colleges, and might find themselves on a campus hundreds or even thousands of miles away from Chestnut Hill, where there was a good chance of meeting and marrying a spouse who had no ties to the Hill and who had no intention of living there. Reinforcing this trend was the fact that young women in the area had started going to college in large numbers, and, like their brothers, some married out-of-towners and settled elsewhere.5 Added to these factors was a major paradigm shift in American society and culture during the 1960s and 1970s that is known as the counterculture. Although members of the Philadelphia Cricket Club were not swept up by this movement, they, and especially their children, were influenced by it in varying degrees. Aspects of the counterculture included challenges to traditional authority, heightened individualism, mistrust of institutions, criticism of social privilege, and a more casual attitude toward grooming and dress.6 For many prosperous adolescents and young adults, such things as fraternities, sororities, country clubs, and coming out parties, seemed elitist, irrelevant, and even potentially embarrassing.7 One can only suppose that such attitudes affected the Cricket Club, however mildly. If all these shifts were not enough, high inflation during the late 1960s and 1970s made it difficult for families to afford the initiation fees and dues to social clubs. At the same time, club budgets were strained by rising prices and wage demands. Such financial pressures, along with all the other changes in American life, made for some difficult times at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Just as these changes were unfolding, but apparently not yet felt at the Cricket Club, the Bulletin for December 1968, announced that membership policies would remain unchanged: We should continue to be a private Club that strives toward a membership with similar athletic, social and geographical characteristics. Race, color and creed are not, in themselves, a factor in our admissions policy. We will continue to be selective in our admissions policy, as our membership is full and resignations and deaths permit the entry of very, very few new members each year. For the foreseeable future, we should continue our role as a community Club, essentially serving a homogeneous group of residents within a close radius of our two Club locations.8 Only a few years later, this optimism about maintaining a full membership was gone, as revealed in the minutes of the Club’s Board of Governors during 1970, 1971, and 1972. Applications for membership were down and there were 50 to 60 openings for new members, “because of deaths and resignations without an increase in the level of membership,” at a time when the total number of active members was hovering around 900.9 The Club was also running with significant operating losses: $18,000 during the summer of 1970 and $10,381 during the first quarter of 1972.10 One approach to boosting numbers and to keeping present members happy was by making social events more attractive. There were fewer formal dinners and balls, which were replaced by a number of more casual events. Throughout the 1970s there were informal dances, including a Porch Dance at St. Martin’s and a Terrace Dance at Flourtown. Some of these events had special themes, such as a “Surf ‘N Turf Dance” at Flourtown in June 1975, or “Prohibition Night,” when members were invited to “bring out your favorite ‘20’s and ‘30’s outfits and join in the fun when Flourtown draws down the curtain on the ‘70’s, [and] cocktails ala Capone begin at 7:00.”11 In June 1980,

Club Renewal

Flourtown hosted a Polynesian Night, with the Club grounds “transformed into a tropical paradise,” complete with “a fantastic Hawaiian floor show.”12 The following year there was a “Rock and Roll Party” at Flourtown and a poolside family picnic at St. Martin’s on Labor Day, both of which became annual events for many years. Another poolside event was the annual “Nantucket Clam Bake.”13 Still another annual event in the 1980s was an Octoberfest, with a German band, German food, and informal dress.14 Football fans could attend the annual “Super Bowl Party,” at Flourtown, and beginning in the late 1980s watch the game on a big screen television. A typical menu for this party was draft beer, chili, hot dogs and sauerkraut, soft pretzels, salad bar, and dessert.15 In the nineties, Flourtown often held a “Football Commissary” on Sunday afternoons during the professional football season, where members could watch the Philadelphia Eagles and enjoy drinks and snacks.16 Also in 1990s, there was an annual “Wild Game Dinner” at Flourtown, featuring such things as wild duck and wild turkey, pheasant, brook trout, and antelope.17 Likewise at Flourtown, there were informal “Fireside Dinners” on Saturday nights, beginning in December and running through the winter months; and char grilled steaks on the terrace, with live music and dancing in Lani and Bart McCall and Samuel L. Sagendorph, with Canine Classic Winner “Scoozi” McCall, 1995. Courtesy of Lyn Montgomery.

Chapter 5

warmer weather.18 Small children could continue to see Santa Claus at St. Martin’s on a December Sunday afternoon, and starting in 1999, there was an Easter Egg Hunt.19 Several social events focused around athletic activities, such as the annual croquet match in the late 1980s, held at St. Martin’s, in competition with another club in the Philadelphia area, followed by a “Croquet Party.”20 In the 1990s there was the “Squash Ball,” each January, also held at St. Martin’s.21 At Flourtown during the same period, there was the Canine Classic, started in 1985 by Club member Samuel L Sagendorph and then golf professional Bruce MacDonald, both proud owners of very fast dogs, and later chaired by Lyn and David Montgomery, daughter and son-in-law of Mr. Sagendorph. The event was a race among members’ dogs on a Sunday in early January, with coffee, doughnuts, and Bloody Marys served by long-time Club bartender, Buddy Raucci. The contest in 2001, “was comprised of over 40 registered dogs, ranging in size from the Griffin family’s very large pooch, Griffin, to the very small but speedy Maxwell Evans. . . . The ultimate winner was a very quick Brittany Spaniel named Emma Delacato. . . . The second place Longtime Philadelphia Councilman Thatcher Longstreth trophy went to Sadie Rubincam.”22 admires poster for the movie Stealing Home, starring Jodie Hollywood came to the Cricket Club for the Foster and Mark Harmon, parts of which were filmed at the filming of Stealing Home, a 1988 film staring Cricket Club in 1988. Courtesy of Chestnut Hill Local. Mark Harmon and Jodie Foster. Scenes were shot at both St. Martin’s and Flourtown, with the nearby houses of some Club members appearing in the film. Many members also served as “extras” in a funeral scene shot at St. Thomas Church in Whitemarsh, and member Ed Cullen was captured on film fishing golf balls out of the creek at Flourtown.23 Movie making provided exciting but limited fare. The entertainment committee, which was responsible month in and month out, tried very hard to think up events that would appeal to the “different demographic . . . [groups]

Club Renewal

of the Club,” namely the various age and interest groups.24 Their decision to hold so many more social events at the Flourtown site, where the clubhouse and immediately surrounding grounds Tennis at youth Sports Camp, Summer 2002. PCC. were smaller, more country like, and less formal than the facility at St. Martin’s, was itself an indication that Club members were moving away from the more formal practices of the past. Black tie affairs were increasingly limited to the Holiday Dinner Dance held in December in the St. Martin’s ballroom.25 Even the New Year’s Eve celebration, though still a black tie affair, temporarily moved from St. Martin’s to Flourtown in the late 1980s and featured a “Midnight Putting Contest.”26 To celebrate the nation’s 200th birthday in 1976, the Club put on a black tie Bicentennial Ball in the St. Martin’s ballroom on Saturday, July 3, with music by the Romig Orchestra, but members could opt for a less formal event in a tent set up on the tennis courts, with entertainment by the Washington-Trinidad Steel Band. The next day, July Fourth, there was a picnic on the grounds at 5:30 and fireworks after dark.27 During the 1970s and 1980s, the Club worked hard to strengthen its programs for juniors. These would not only help to retain families, but the juniors, recalling their fun as youngsters, would hopefully become members themselves at some future time, a refrain that dated to the very earliest years of the Club. The traditional Junior Week, which had been held during the week after Labor Day, had come to an end about 1973, as schools and especially colleges began their fall terms in late August or early September.28 Somewhat in its place—though not the same--the Club began holding a Summer Sports Camp for children 5 to 12, typically running for six weeks, from the third week in June through the end of July. They received coaching in golf, tennis, squash and swimming, and were also given lunch.29 There were tournaments in all these sports, with an awards dinner each year in early September.30 For a while the term Junior Week continued to be attached to these contests, but by 1985, they were simply called the junior championships.31 In May 1999, the Club stated that the camp, “has positioned us as a leader among clubs in this area.”32 Twenty years earlier, officers of the Women’s Branch, which ran the camp, could rightfully say, “No junior program the size of ours could succeed without the women of this Club.”33 Something good was clearly happening with the juniors, when eleven-year-old Hal Martin scored a hole-in-one on the fifth hole at St. Martin’s on July 1, 1997, while in the company of Club professional Derek Grill.34 Despite changing times, the Cricket Club worked hard to maintain a traditional dress code. Organizers of the national junior lawn tennis tournaments were particularly strict about permitting only white balls and all white dress on the courts. According to an August 1974 article in the Philadelphia Bulletin, the referee, “quietly officiating from his high chair’s perch, stoically keeps his narrow tie up to his neck, acknowledging the hot sun’s presence only by removing his suit coat. His white shirt remains buttoned at his sleeves.”35 The strict rules both annoyed and amused some of the competitors. By the mid-1970s many of them were not showing up at St. Martin’s with all white dress, and had to compromise by donning white shorts with tops

Chapter 5

showing varying amounts of color. One young lady from Beverly Hills, California told a Philadelphia newspaper reporter, “Oh, it’s ten times stricter than the rule book.” However, another girl admitted that there were some compensations: “I’m only living in a mansion [while staying in Chestnut Hill]. And maybe if I keep playing at tournaments like this, I’ll get one of my own.”36 Proper dress on the courts also applied to Club members, but by 1984 there was some compromise for them too, in allowing a splash of color, as announced by the Club’s monthly Bulletin: “All players must wear tennis clothes that are white or white with colored trim on all courts at all times. Solid colored shorts and/or shirts are not permitted.” Men were expected to wear “shirts with collars,” T-shirts being acceptable only for those under 18, and these were expected to Although the Club had relaxed its dress code, be “in good taste.”37 there were still formal affairs during various When it came to dress for dining, there were also times of the year. Here tables are set for an compromises during the 1980s. In the main dining room at St. elegant dinner in and just beyond the 1998 Martin’s gentlemen were required to wear coats and ties, and addition to the St. Martin's ballroom. PCC. ladies could not wear “slacks or pant suits,” with “informal attire” permitted only in “the bar and Men’s Grille area.”38 By 1986, the porch at St. Martin’s was divided to allow both “tennis and casual attire.” The dress code for dinner at Flourtown was “coat and tie for men and dresses for ladies on the terrace,” though more casual clothing was allowed at other times of the day. Men wearing hats into the clubhouses had clearly become a problem by 1990, when a humorous but biting article signed “Ad Hoc Etiquette Committee” (more informally known as the “Committee on Hats”) appeared in the May Bulletin for that year: It may be legend or myth but we are told that certain Clubs in Japan employ the services of a Samurai warrior who may have aged but who can still wield a keen blade with skill. His job, it is said, is to remove the cap of any golfer that enters the Grill without removing said cap. It is also said that if his terrible, swift sword also removed that head of the offender, it may not be quite by accident. Our Club has not yet employed such a service but it is being contemplated.39 Hats inside either the St. Martin’s or Flourtown clubhouses were officially banned in a boxed section of the August 1995 Bulletin. Also proscribed were jeans, which were “not considered acceptable dress at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and are prohibited at all Club facilities.” “The Philadelphia Cricket Club is a distinguished Club,” the admonition went on, “and appropriate attire while at the Club should be of concern to all members.”40 Two years later Club officials felt compelled to remind golfers about proper dress on the links, which suggested that not everyone was complying with the rules. As the August 1997 Bulletin pointed out, “Conventional golfing attire must be worn on the golf course and practice field. Sweat suits, cut-off jeans, blue jeans and jogging shoes

Club Renewal

are not considered proper attire. All men’s shirts must have sleeves and collars. Ladies’ shirts and tops must be of a type designed and tailored for golf purposes. Short shorts, other than Bermuda type, are considered inappropriate.”41 Still, as of April 1, 2000, the House Committee gave in on a large part of the dress code at Flourtown. “Casual clothing, including suitable golfing attire,” members were informed, “will be permitted in all dining areas at Flourtown. . . .”42 In another sign of the times, the Club banned smoking in all dining rooms at both sites, beginning in January 1994, and in the summer of 2000 it forbade the use of cell phones in the dining rooms. Cell phones had already been prohibited on the golf courses.43 Perhaps the most dramatic change of the era was the decision, in 1990, to allow women to become full members of the Club, to vote and to hold office. This decision reflected the nationwide women’s movement and trends at other private clubs in the United States, as well as changing realities for women at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.44 Beginning in 1978, for example, the Women’s Associate Branch held its annual meeting on a Saturday for the first time, instead of on a weekday, because so many of its members now held jobs.45 There were also increasing problems for married women, since they belonged to the Club by virtue of their husband’s membership rather than their own. With a rising divorce rate, nationally as well as locally, divorced women had to apply for membership in their own right and face being turned down, or at least having to go through a period of nonmembership while the admissions process ran its course. If a single female member married a man who did not belong to the Club, she also lost her membership until or unless her husband was admitted.46 Full membership in the Club for women would solve these often embarrassing problems, at the same time that it would recognize the equality of women and the many contributions that they had made, and were continuing to make, to the Club. The Women’s Associate Branch began petitioning for changes in April 1979 when they asked to elect a delegate to the Club’s all-male Board of Governors. She would be able to participate in all discussions but have no vote.47 In a unanimous decision, the board turned down the request.48 The women then asked if they could at least receive copies of minutes from board meetings and were successful this time.49 In 1987, they decided to try again, now asking for “full membership for women.” The Board of Governors agreed to set up a joint committee with the women to explore the request, and at the Annual Meeting in May 1989, the women were given an equal voice in membership and governance by a vote of 66 to 19, to take affect the following year. 50 The Women’s Associate Branch held its last board meeting on December 20, 1990, called to order by its president, Betty McGinnis, who opened the meeting by commenting on the “long journey for women to be able to become full voting members at [the Philadelphia Cricket Club].”51 Clearly times were changing. Just fourteen years later, the Club elected Barbara M. Daly as its first female president. Besides easing up on dress regulations, trying to provide an array of social activities that would be of interest to most every individual or family, and admitting women to full membership, the Club added to its physical facilities. In 1974-75, it built an indoor tennis court at St. Martin’s. According to the announcement, “the surface for the two courts will be a resilient urethane rubber which provides a medium to fast pace. . . . Electric heating, fluorescent lighting and air conditioning will make this a year-round resource to the Club. . . .”52 In 1981 the Club built a new 25 meter swimming pool at St. Martin’s, complete with a heater for early summer use, underwater lights, and a spacious “kiddie pool.”53 Over 700 members attended the official opening on May 23. The first person into the pool was Margaret Dougherty, who had the distinction of being the first one into the old pool almost exactly fifty years before. This was followed by a deluge of excited youngsters, to the strains of Al

Chapter 5

Leopold’s Dixieland Jazz. The new pool was a gift from Charles Woodward in memory of his father, George Woodward, who had donated the Club’s first pool back in 1930.54 In 1998, to honor Woodward’s grandfather, Henry Howard Houston, the Club named the small dining room above the porte cochere the “Houston Room”. This large Georgian Revival style structure had been added a dozen years before as part of a new entrance on the Hartwell Avenue side of the clubhouse, which had served as a main but uninspiring entry for many years.55 Also in 1998, the St. Martin’s ballroom was enlarged on the Willow Grove side of the clubhouse, expanding the facility by 2,400 square feet and providing seating for an additional 140 persons. The addition featured “expanded window treatments to capitalize on the spectacular view of the tennis courts.”56 For most Club members, athletics remained a focus and the major reason for membership. There continued to be men’s and women’s bowling teams, pheasant shooting (to which duck and goose hunting were added), and competitions, both internally and with other clubs, in soccer, squash, bridge, and, of course, golf. A new activity, paddle tennis, was added in First Annual Junior Activities Tri-athlon, one of the sesqui1973. To accommodate this activity the Club built centennial activities. Juniors and coaches competed side two lighted outdoor courts at St. Martin’s, by side in events in swimming, golf, and tennis. PCC. consisting of raised wooden platforms, each measuring 30 by 60 feet and surrounded by a New porte cochere, finished 1988. Photo by Jas Szygiel. tightly stretched 12-foot fence.57 In June of 1998 cricket returned to the Club for the first time in many years. The game was organized among some 20 Club members by tennis pro Ian Crookenden, a native New Zealander, assisted by Jonathan Barber, who was born in England. Club members instrumental in this renewal were Tom Culp and Bill Rorer. By the spring of 2000, the Club had eight cricket matches on its schedule, not including participation in the recently created Philadelphia Cricket Festival, some of whose games were played at St. Martin’s.58 In 2003, the Club’s cricket team won the newly restored Halifax Cup. The Philadelphia Cricket Club played host to several important tournaments, including the National Mixed Squash Championship in 1986; the Philadelphia Squash Open in 1994, which drew players from as far away as

Club Renewal

Australia, France, and Egypt; and the Philadelphia Junior Squash Championship starting in 1999.59 In 2001, the Club hosted the USTA Men’s 70s Grass Court Championships, which featured the best senior players in the country.60 The Club was also proud to have several outstanding athletes, especially among its younger members. In 1998, ten-year-old Alex Mueller was praised by the press as the top ranked tennis player in the Middle States Girls 12 and Under division, and the same year Margaret Elias represented the United States at the Junior Women’s World Squash Championships in Brazil. In 2000, Gilly Lane won the Boys Under 15 National Squash Championship “without dropping a game” and two years later he won the Boys Under 17 Mid-Atlantic Squash Championship. Members continued to excel at golf, which remained the greatest single attraction at the Club. It still hosted the Ellen Gowen Hood Shield, a regional women’s golf tournament that had been held at 2004 Squash Member-Guest Championship: James McHugo, Kenny the Club every year since 1929. In Pollack, Kirk Heilbrun, Marshall Pagon. PCC. 1999, the Cricket Club lady golfers held a luncheon honoring Annette Cricket match at St. Martin’s, 2003. Courtesy of Philadelphia Inquirer. Kane and Elaine Swope for their distinguished golfing careers at both the local and state levels. Annette had been a member of the Club for seventy years, and Elaine, a legend in her own time, had played on the Club's golf team for a record of five decades, beginning as a teenager. Harold “Bub” Cross achieved the unequaled record of being a Club champion in seven different decades.

Chapter 5

Top, Women’s lounge, Flourtown clubhouse. Photo by Jas Szygiel. Right, Portrait of Ellen Gowen Hood. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

In 1981, the Flourtown course was selected to be the site of the Mason-Dixon Matches, which drew some of the best amateur golfers in the Eastern States. Flourtown was also the venue for the Patterson Cup in 1986, an amateur tournament established in 1900 and conducted by the Golf Association of Philadelphia; the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Opens; and numerous other state and local championships. In 1998, for example, the Club hosted not only the Pennsylvania Open, but also the regional qualifying round for both the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens. In 2000, the Super Senior Pro-Am tournament took place at Flourtown, drawing such well-known figures as Tommy Aaron, Bob Charles, Harold Henning, Jim Feree, Gibby Gilbert, J. C. Sneed, Jim Colbert, and Gary Player.61 Player was especially impressed with the course, commenting on the severely undulating and challenging greens, adding, “If members had to make a living putting on them, they’d go crazy.” That year Flourtown received the Instinet Classic Award for being the course the senior professionals most enjoyed while playing on tour; and Georgia Pacific, title sponsor of the Super Senior Division, presented its “2000 Excellence Award” to the Philadelphia Cricket Club.62 According to Philadelphia Golfer Magazine in April 2001, the Flourtown course “is consistently ranked in America’s Top One Hundred Classic Courses, and the ninth hole was included in Golf Magazine’s Top Five Hundred Golf Holes.” Other competitions were smaller in scale, such as the intraclub R. Norris Williams Cup, established early in the twentieth century and named for R. Norris Williams, I, who was lost on the Titanic.63 The A. W. Tillinghast Cup was also an annual intra-club competition. However, the Harold Cross Invitational, drawing top amateur players from Pennsylvania and neighboring states, was named for one of the Club’s most outstanding golfers.64 At a special reception in 1993, the Club honored Cross, who had been a golf champion in seven different decades – in competitions held at the Cricket Club and at other courses in the region.

Above, Harold “Bub” Cross, makes history as a Club champion in seven different decades.

Club Renewal

Although the serious competitions took place on the Flourtown golf course, the Club continued to maintain the old nine-hole course at St. Martin’s. In 1971 it renewed its lease with Charles Woodward for $1.00 a year, plus real estate taxes and various utility costs.65 At this point, and for many years before, Woodward and all the other descendants of Henry Howard Houston enjoyed” free lifetime memberships” in the Club. In 1985, with the lease again coming up for renewal, Woodward himself proposed that these free memberships be ended at a time when the Club was continuing to experience financial difficulties, and the Board of Governors agreed.66 Still, the demand for golf at the Club far outran the available facilities, part of a nationwide trend that saw the numbers of golfers quadruple between 1960 and 1990, according to feature article in Sports Illustrated, which added that there were more people playing and talking about golf than at any other time in the twentieth century.67 At the Philadelphia Cricket Club alone there was an eight-year wait by the mid-1990s for golf privileges, a situation that seriously impeded the Club’s ability to attract new members. Understandably, potential members who wanted Par 3, Hole 8, Wissahickon Course. to play golf joined other clubs where there was little or no wait. Photo by Jas Szygiel. At the time, active membership hovered around 1,000, a drop of 68 some 500 from the “twentieth-century historical average.” Attracting new members was absolutely essential according to President Jack Jennings, who reported in 1999 that new members were critical for the continuation of both the Flourtown and St. Martin’s facilities. He added that it was especially important to attract younger members at a time when the largest age group in the Club--23 percent-- was over 70 years old. He believed that expanded golf facilities were the key to turning the situation around, particularly since the Club owned so much land at Flourtown that was not being used.69 The solution, after much study, was a recommendation in 1999 by the Club’s Land Use Committee, chaired by former president Bill Surgner, to build a second 18-hole golf course at Flourtown, realizing a dream that had begun with the acquisition of the Flourtown site nearly eighty years before.70 Members approved the idea at the 1999 Annual Meeting and the Board of Governors made the final decision to go ahead with the project. The course would be built on 174 acres next to Joshua Road and Stenton Avenue, part of which the Club had thought of selling to developers several times over the years. Meanwhile, there had been talk in the surrounding community of building a bike path and walking trail through the center of the tract, which, if completed, would have adversely impacted any future course design. After submissions by several top designers, the Club selected Michael Hurzdan and Dana Fry, who had already designed a number of highly rated courses throughout the United States and Canada. 71 The course was built by Highland Golf, Inc., a Florida based company that was renowned both for its new course constructions and its remodeling of older championship courses.72

Chapter 5

Wissahickon Course

Aerial view of the famous par 4, Hole 9, Wissahickon Course. PCC.

Wissahickon Course

Par 4, Hole 2, Wissahickon Course.

Lorraine Run in winter, winding through the picturesque Wissahickon Course at Flourtown. PCC.

Chapter 5

Par 4, Hole 14, Wissahickon Course.

Above, Lorraine Run in summer at Wissahickon Course. PCC.

Par 4, Hole 18, Wissahickon Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Club Renewal

The Club named the new course “Militia Hill,” in honor of the adjacent Militia Hill section of Fort Washington State Park, which had been occupied during the American Revolution by the Pennsylvania Militia just before moving on to their legendary winter encampment at Valley Forge. The name chosen for the “old” course at Flourtown was “Wissahickon,” in reference to the Wissahickon Creek, which runs near one side of the property. In addition, the Club dedicated the Militia Hill Course to the memory of Willie Anderson, the only person to ever win three consecutive U.S. Opens, as well as the winner of a fourth U.S. Open, and the golf pro at St. Martin’s at the time the 1910 Open was held there. The Wissahickon course was dedicated to A. W. Tillinghast, a Cricket Club member who had designed these links at Flourtown in the early 1920s and who had brought Willie Anderson to the Club as its golf pro.73 In characterizing the new Militia Hill course, architect Dana Fry told the Philadelphia Golf Magazine, “The great thing about it is the natural ridge that goes through it. How it’s used on so many different holes. And the creek that we cross seven times. Topographically, it’s a tremendous piece of land.”74 Partner Michael Hurdzan added, “The third hole and the fourth hole are certainly going to be two of the very best golf holes. . . . Fabulous, fabulous golf holes, but everybody will select their own personal signature holes.”75 Later Hurdzan wrote, “Philly Cricket already had a famous Tillinghast-designed golf course, and we knew that there would be comparisons between it and our new course. So we borrowed some of Dana Fry, Wally Evans, Jack Jennings, Bill Surgner, Bill Tillinghast trademarks, such as bunker placement Roberts, Michael Hurzdan, Opening Day of Militia Hill and presentation, and incorporated them into a Course, April 27, 2002. Courtesy of Bill Roberts. Former Club more contemporary look.”76 President Bill Surgner, who had been an integral part of the entire process, gave some account of the tremendous effort it had taken to obtain all the permits necessary to transform “that raw piece of land. . . . At one point we had applications out for 42 or 43 permits.” 77 Michael Hurdzan was more blunt in later writing about these frustrations: “I personally saw this as a situation where small-time [local government] agency employees simply jumped at the chance to rake big time country club members over the coals for no real reason.” 78 Par 4, Hole 18, Militia Hill Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Chapter 5

Militia Hill Course

Militia Hill clubhouse. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Par 5, Hole 3, Militia Hill Course. View from atop the encircling quarry showing the relocated pond and limestone ruins

Club Renewal

Militia Hill Course

Par 5, Hole 14, Militia Hill Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Par 3, Hole 11, Militia Hill Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Par 4, Hole 8, Militia Hill Course. Photo by Jas Szygiel.

Par 5, Hole 17, Militia Hill Course. View from the tee with the trees and bunker directing the golfer toward the green. Photo by Jas Szygiel. Club Renewal

Militia Hill Course

Above, Par 5, Hole 3, Militia Hill Course. View from the tee. Right, view from behind the green. Par 5, Hole 14, Militia Hill Course. Opposite page bottom, par 4, Hole 12, Militia Hill Course. View highlights Militia Hill Ridge. Photos by Jas Szygiel.

Chapter 5

Top left, The tunnel at Militia Hill which golfers pass through twice on each round. Top right, par 4, Hole 18, Militia Hill Course. View from behind the green.

Jack Jennings hitting first ball at Militia Hill, April 27, 2002. PCC.

Perhaps the most difficult and frustrating approvals were required for the third and eighteenth holes. On the site of the third hole, the mining rights for a large quarry pond were owned by an adjacent property holder, Highway Materials, Inc. Since the course design called for the drainage and relocation of the pond, there were yearlong negotiations with both the landowner and the Federal Bureau of Mines before construction could even begin. The problem at the proposed eighteenth hole stemmed from its location in a wetland that required mitigation permits from both federal and state officials. These were not obtained until seven weeks before the course was slated to open, forcing superintendent Bill Johnson to work feverishly to finish the last hole in time.79 The new course at Flourtown was opened with a gala celebration on April 27, 2002, complete with speeches, prayers, songs, and bagpipes in honor of the Scottish origins of golf. Jack Jennings, the immediate past president who had done so much to make the new course a reality, cut the ribbon and took the first ceremonial shot with an antique putter, once owned by Willie Anderson and used by him at the 1910 U. S. Open, held on the St. Martin’s course.80 Following this ceremonial shot a golf tournament took place on both the Flourtown courses for the first time in Club history, followed by a cocktail reception and awards ceremony. The first foursome consisted of past presidents Jack Jennings and Bill Surgner, newly elected president Wally Evans, and grounds chair Bill Roberts, while a foursome of G.A.P. golf professionals, led by Bob Ross, the Club’s beloved former “pro,” and Terry McDowell were next off the tee. Besides the Militia Hill course, the Club made extensive renovations to the clubhouse at Flourtown, completed at about the same time as the new golf course. The interior of the facility was reduced to little more than a shell, as construction crews expanded the bar area and seating space in the Terrace Room and created new lounge areas. The locker rooms were air-conditioned, with new lockers and fixtures, and the pro shop was completely

Chapter 5

renovated. The Club also erected a new maintenance facility at Flourtown and the initial structure of a two building satellite facility on the Militia Hill Course. Future plans called for a small clubhouse at Militia Hill, which was later completed in 2004. These renovations and the new golf course, along with the expansions and new facilities, a more appealing array of social activities, and a less traditional attitude toward dress were all helping to bring about a renewal of the Philadelphia Cricket Club as it stood poised to celebrate its 150th anniversary with 450 new members. On the evening of May 15, 2004, over 800 members and guests gathered at St. Martin’s for the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Sesquicentennial Ball. It had been an unusual ninety-degree spring day, with thundershowers threatening, but blue skies, puffy clouds, and a light breeze greeted celebrants on the porches and edges of the lawn tennis courts for cocktails at 6:30. At 8:00 Barbara M. Daly, the Club’s first woman president, greeted diners in the tennis pavilion, where she spoke of the many national and world events since the founding of the Club back in 1854. Then Jack Jennings, former Club President and Chair of the Sesquicentennial Committee, Photos from the Sesquicentennial Ball, Saturday, May 15, 2004. Top of page, diner menu. Above left, The cake in club colors. Middle right, Cocktails on the lawn. Bottom right, Dancing in St. Martin’s ballroom. PCC.

Club Renewal

narrated a brief history of the Club, interspersed with thematically related songs by the Orpheus Club singers, who had first helped to inaugurate the grounds at St. Martin’s (then known as Wissahickon Heights) back in 1884 and who had performed at the Centennial in 1954. Solos were sung by outstanding tenor Brian Woodward. In contrast to the fiftieth anniversary dinner in 1904, and even to the centennial dinner in 1954, there were only a few references to cricket, which had not been a major sport at the Club for eighty years. Decorations for the evening featured flower arrangements in club colors and brightly colored tablecloths. Club members Vicki Winter and Bob Wurtz utilized Lili Pulitzer, the ladies sportswear company, to help provide the arrangements. The menu featured spring greens, European cucumber crusted salmon, pan seared filet mignon, and Parisian vegetables. For dessert there were bananas foster, cherries jubilee, large ripe strawberries, and fountain chocolate fondue, presented buffet style in the remodeled and expanded ballroom, where Club President Barbara M. Daly cut a many-layered birthday cake. On one of the dessert tables there was a large ice sculpture of the Club’s logo, with its Indian head and crossed cricket bat and bag of golf clubs. There was also dancing in the ballroom, with music by the GTO Park Avenue Orchestra. Soon after the dancing began, a brief thundershower swept through the grounds, contributing some natural fireworks to the festivities. The Club that evening was a far cry from the enthusiastic young cricket players who had founded it 150 years before. Then the Club had no real estate and no home. A Century and a half later it owned several dozen buildings and hundreds of acres of land, with facilities for every taste and interest. The Club had endured despite world crises and dramatic changes in American life. This was testament to the foresight of its leaders, the willingness of members to adapt to changing times, and the generosity of its benefactors. It had more than survived; it was flourishing as America’s oldest country club.

Chapter 5

Musical History of the Philadelphia Cricket Club – Sesquicentennial Program Saturday, May 15, 2004 • Narrated by John E. “Jack” Jennings Songs by the Orpheus Club and tenor Brian Woodward Our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.” by Brian Woodward. For 150 years the Club has been served by a number of distinguished presidents, and for 38 years we also had associate branch presidents. The associate branch was disbanded in 1990 when women became voting members. “We Love our Presidents” Our history begins with our founding in 1854, under the guidance of William Rotch Wister. In 1855, Thomas Bayard joined our Club. This is significant, because Mr. Bayard became our Club’s first public servant when he was elected U.S. Senator from Delaware. We’ve always had Club members active in public service. At one time we had senators on both sides of the aisle – Senator Joseph Clark, a Democrat, and Senator Hugh Scott, a Republican. That tradition continues today with our Club members who are judges, elected officials and of course, we now have Senator Arlen Spector, Governor Edward Rendell, and Judge Marjorie “Midge” Rendell. When we were founded, our Club consisted of young men, many from the University of Pennsylvania, who gathered together to play cricket. We weren’t as enlightened then as we are now, since it was an all men’s club. “Brotherhood of Man” For the next 30 years, our Club members wandered in search of ball fields. Finally in 1884, thanks to the vision and the generosity of Henry Howard Houston, we were provided with seven acres here at St. Martin’s. The rent was $1.00 per year and we had a cricket match, a concert, and a “hop” to celebrate our opening. Our honored guests included the Orpheus Club, who you might say were the ancestors of these fine fellows sitting here before you. The Orpheus Club performed in a beautiful concert that night, and Club members were thrilled as they looked over their new grounds. “Hey, Look Me Over” With our new facility and increasing activities, enthusiasm for our Club grew by leaps and bounds. Club membership rose to 1,831 – which was an all time high – in 1921. Members also enjoyed each others’ company, most of whom were gentlemen, but probably not all. “Evil Companions” During our Club’s 150-year history, there have been a number of events that put the Club at risk. There have been five fires at the Club – two serious ones, in 1909 and 1943. We have repeatedly felt the effects of war years. Perhaps the greatest challenge that our Club faced, like all clubs, was during the Great Depression. Thanks to the generosity and effort of past Club members, and especially the generosity of the Woodward and Houston families, we have rebuilt, we have survived, and we have prospered. “Never Walk Alone” During World War I, Club events focused on benefits for the Red Cross and for our troops. One example was the War Chest Golf Tournament in 1918, which featured our own local star, Mildred Caverly and the great Bobby Jones. Many club members served in that war and several died overseas. Hennie Houston and Houston Woodward – two of Henry Houston’s grandsons – were among those who died in the service of our country. “Naval Hymn” After World War I we began adding to our facilities. We opened our new Tillinghast golf course in 1922 at Flourtown. We opened new squash courts in 1929 and our first swimming pool in 1930, both of which were donated by Dr. George Woodward. Our facilities have helped us host national championships. In golf, we hosted the men’s U.S. Open in 1907 and 1910. In tennis we held the women’s tennis championships from 1887 until 1921. The first National Doubles Championship was held here in 1921. It’s been over eight years since the tennis Club Renewal

championships moved to Forest Hills, and after listening to Hase Griffin you may not miss it too much. “Trouble” In addition to hosting national competitions, we’ve had over seventy national champions in golf, tennis, squash, swimming, field hockey, and bridge. Perhaps our greatest example of a champion was R. Norris Williams, II. In 1912, Williams was a passenger on the ill-fated Titanic. After seeing his father perish before him in the icy waters, Williams spent the next six hours clinging to a raft. Of the 1,677 people in the water that night, Williams was one of 42 who survived. After Dick Williams recovered, and fought off a doctor’s advice to amputate his legs, he accomplished the following: He won two national singles championships in tennis, two national championships for doubles, a Wimbledon Championship and an Olympic Gold Medal. He also served in World War I, were he won the highest medals that both this country and France could award. “Guadeamus Igiture” “ Stout Hearted Men” (Women!)? While our Club members are good at everything we do, we’re also good at some things we shouldn’t do. In 1930 we made headlines in the largest prohibition raid in Philadelphia history. According to the Philadelphia Bulletin, the agents seized 275 quarts of whiskey and gin, 315 pints of whiskey, 268 bottles of beer, 3 gallons of Champagne, 12 gallons of alcohol, and 1 gallon of apple jack – whatever that is! “Drinking Man’s Diet” After World War II was over, we began a new round of improvements here and took time out in 1954 to celebrate our Centennial. We purchased our soccer field in 1956, built our paddle tennis courts in 1973 and our indoor tennis courts in 1975. In 1981, Charles Woodward donated our new pool and in 1992, our new squash courts were built. We didn’t overlook entertainment either, when we enlarged our ballroom in 1998. We wonder what our founders would say if they could see us now. “If They Could See Me Now” In 2002 all our new Flourtown improvements were completed – except for the Militia Hill clubhouse, which opened last month. Militia Hill was dedicated in the aftermath of September 11th, and in the shadow of the field where soldiers had died earlier in the American Revolution. Rev. Marek Zabriskie reminded us that day of how fortunate we were to all be together, having fun, instead of some other terrible place. Marek’s words then, and Brian Woodward’s anthem, are perhaps even more appropriate tonight. “Let there be Peace” We’re the oldest country club in America still in existence. We’ve had an eventful, and for the most part – a wonderful 150 years. We’ve been energized by the addition of 450 new members in the last five years, and we face a future full of promise. Before we officially say goodnight, the Orpheus Club has one more thing to say. “Thank You Very Much” Thank you to Brian Woodward and the Orpheus Club and we hope you enjoyed our musical history of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

100

Chapter 5

Appendices

Presidents of The Philadelphia Cricket Club 1854

J. Dickerson Sargeant

1947

Philip H. Strubing

1983

Joseph Stulb, V

1861

William Rotch Wister

1950

John B. Hendrickson

1985

B. Graeme Frazier, III

1868

J. Dickerson Sargeant

1954

Henry K. Kurtz, Jr.

1987

Thomas W. Smyth

1871

A. Charles Barclay

1957

Lowell S. Thomas

1988

Richard E. Buck

1883

Charles B. Dunn

1961

Gerald F. Rorer

1990

William H. Surgner

1892

Edward S. Buckley, Jr.

1964

Thomas P. Mikell

1992

Logan M. Bullitt, IV

1917

Henry H. Kingston

1967

Gordon H. Chambers

1996

James S. Walker

1920

George Woodward

1970

Stuart H. Henshall

1998

John E. Jennings

1921

William E. Goodman

1973

William C. Browning

2002

Walter C. Evans

1922

John H. Mason

1975

Nelson G. Harris

2004

Barbara M. Daly

1925

Joseph Wayne, Jr.

1977

Robert Glendinning, II

1942

Herbert W. Goodall

1981

Thomas S. Greenwood

The Philadelphia Cricket Club National Champions Tennis 1885

Joseph S. Clark – Men’s Doubles

1914, 1916

R. Norris Williams, II – Men’s Singles

1925, 1926

R. Norris Williams, II – Men’s Doubles

1920

R. Norris Williams, II – Wimbledon Doubles Champion

1924

1965, 1966

Men’s Doubles 1974, 1976

1918

Katherine Porter – Girls’ Singles USLTA

1920

Louise Dixon – Girls’ Singles USLTA

1920

Virginia Carpenter- Girls’ Doubles USLTA

1921

Virginia Carpenter- Girls’ Doubles USLTA

1935

Hope Knowles- Girls’ Doubles, USLTA

1946, 1947

Edward Edwards & William Lingelbach –

Edward Edwards & William Linglebach, Sr. National Doubles

1981, 1982

R. Norris Williams, II – Olympic Mixed Doubles Champion

* Ian Crookenden - National Intercollegiate

* Charles W. Oliver – Men’s Sr. Grass and Clay Court Singles

1984

* Charles W. Oliver – Men’s Sr. Clay Court Singles and Doubles

1999

Alexandra Mueller – Girls’ Singles Hard

2002

Michael Beautyman – Men’s Sr. Grass

and Clay Court Champion Court Doubles

National Court Doubles

Presidents and Champions

101

The Philadelphia Cricket Club National Champions Golf 1915

Florence Vanderbeck – Women’s National Amateur

1902, 1904

* Willie Anderson – Men’s U.S. Open, PCC Golf Pro, 1909 – 10

1905, 1906

(Championships won while at other clubs)

Swimming 1961

Nina Harmar – Women’s 100 Meter Backstroke

1961

Nina Harmar – Women’s 200 Meter Backstroke

1960, 1964

Nina Harmar – U.S. Olympic Team Member

Squash 1915-17, 1921-23

Stanley W. Pearson, Sr. – National Men’s

1995

Hardball Singles Champion

Women’s Under 19 Champion 1997

1941

Hope Knowles Rawls & Elizabeth Pearson – National Women’s Doubles Champions

1947-48 1948 1950

1998

Mrs. Ellwood Beatty, Jr. – Women’s Singles

1953-54

Betty Newlin & Louisa Manly-Power – Sylvia Knowles Simonin & and Louisa

1987-88 1990-91, 1993

Emery Maine – National Junior Women’s Under 12 Doubles Champion

1999

Duncan Pearson – National Collegiate Doubles Champion

2000

Thomas C. Culp III & David H. Hilton III –

Richard Sheppard (with Scott Ryan) –

National Men’s Under 11 Doubles

National Men’s Doubles Champion

Champions

James Holden Jones (with Donald Boyko) –

2000

National Seniors Doubles Champion 1991

Emery Maine – National Junior Women’s Under 12 Singles Champion

1999

Manly-Power – National Women’s Doubles Champions

Tyler Kyle – National Junior Men’s Under 14 Doubles Champion

National Women’s Doubles Champions 1957-59

Eric Garfield Pearson, Jr. – National Junior Men’s Under 19 Champion

1999 1999

1950-54

Alexandra Pearson - National Junior Women’s Under 16 Champion

Stanley W. Pearson, Jr. – National Racquet Champion

Tyler Kyle – National Men’s Under 12 Doubles Champion

1998

Hope Knowles Rawls (with Jane Austin) – National Women’s Doubles Champion

1952

1997

Stanley W. Pearson, Jr. – National Men’s Singles Champion

Alexandra Pearson – National Junior Women’s Under 14 Champion

Stanley W. Pearson, Jr. - National Men’s Doubles Champion

Stephanie Howard Teaford – National Junior

Richard Sheppard (with William Ramsay) – National Men’s Doubles Champion

102

Appendices

Francis Gilpin Lane – National Men’s Under 15 Champion

2000

Emery Maine – National Junior Women’s Under 13 Champion

The Philadelphia Cricket Club National Champions Squash 2000

Emery Maine – National Junior Women’s

2002

Under 13-15 Doubles Champion 2001

Aly Brady & Emery Maine – National Junior

National Mixed +40 Doubles Champions 2003

Women’s Under 15 Doubles Champion 2001 2001

Tyler Kyle – National Junior Men’s Under

Richard Sheppard & Sandra Worthington John Canning & Anderson Good – Junior Men’s Under 11 Doubles Champions

2003

Shannon Harrington and Emery Holton –

15 Champion

National Junior Women’s Under 15-17

Emery Maine – National Junior Women’s

Doubles Championships

Under 13 Singles Champion 2001 2001

Emery Maine & Nick Pearson – National

Julianne Harris (Head Squash Professional,

Junior Mixed Under 15 Doubles Champions

The Philadelphia Cricket Club)

Richard Sheppard (with Gregg Finn) – National Men’s + 40 Doubles Champion

2002

19 Singles Champion 2002

2002

1984

Francis Gilpin Lane – National Men’s Under

U.S. National Women’s Softball Singles Champion

1986

John Maine III & Nicholas Schreiber –

U.S. National Women’s Softball Singles Champion

National Men’s Under 11 Doubles

1991

U.S. National Women’s Doubles Champion

Champions

1992

U.S. National Women’s Doubles Champion

Richard Sheppard (with Gregg Finn) –

1995

U.S. Women’s National Doubles Champion

1939-59

Betty Shellenberger – All American Field

National Men’s + 40 Doubles Champion

Field Hockey 1922

Helen (Mrs. Edward B.) Krumbhaar – All American Field Hockey

Hockey Player, ranked Number One in the

Player and first President of the U.S. Field

United States for 15 years.

Hockey Association

Bridge 1936-53

John Randolph Crawford – Life Master at age 22, winner of 26 national and world championships, 1936-53

* Philadelphia Cricket Club Head Professional ( ) Non PCC Members

Champions

103

Club Champions Tennis Men, Single 1904

Lynford Biddle

1939

Carl Fischer

1974

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1905

William Henry Trotter

1940

Carl Fischer

1975

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1906

William Henry Trotter

1941

Carl Fischer

1976

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1907

Joseph R. Carpenter, Jr.

1942

Carl Fischer

1977

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1908

William Henry Trotter

1943

Carl Fischer

1978

James M. Talbot, II

1909

William Henry Trotter

1944

Carl Fischer

1979

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1910

Joseph R. Carpenter, Jr.

1945

Carl Fischer

1980

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1911

Joseph R. Carpenter, Jr.

1946

Carl Fischer

1981

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1912

Richard Norris Williams, II

1947

W. L. Cahall, Jr.

1982

James M. Talbot, II

1913

Joseph R. Carpenter, Jr.

1948

William S. Rawls

1983

Scot W. Semisch

1914

Alexander D. Thayer

1949

Thomas P. Crolius

1984

James M. Talbot, II

1915

Alexander D. Thayer

1950

William S. Rawls

1985

Scot W. Semisch

1916

Joseph R. Carpenter, Jr.

1951

Charles C. Rieger, Jr.

1986

Michael J. Beautyman

1917

no contest

1952

Charles C. Rieger, Jr.

1987

Michael J. Beautyman

1918

no contest

1953

Stewart McCracken

1988

Michael J. Beautyman

1919

Alexander D. Thayer

1954

Charles C. Rieger, Jr.

1989

Michael J. Beautyman

1920

Alexander D. Thayer

1955

Stewart McCracken

1990

Michael J. Beautyman

1921

Edward C. Cassard

1956

Stewart McCracken

1991

Michael J. Beautyman

1922

Alexander D. Thayer

1957

Stewart McCracken

1992

Scot W. Semisch

1923

J. Beetman

1958

William S. Rawls

1993

Scot W. Semisch

1924

Stanley W. Pearson

1959

Stewart McCracken

1994

Scot W. Semisch

1925

Stanley W. Pearson

1960

Stewart McCracken

1995

Scot W. Semisch

1926

Stanley W. Pearson

1961

William Lee Rawls

1996

Scot W. Semisch

1927

Edward M. Edwards

1962

Stewart McCracken

1997

Scot W. Semisch

1928

Stanley W. Pearson

1963

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1998

Scot W. Semisch

1929

Edward M. Edwards

1964

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1999

Peter Redpath

1930

Edward M. Edwards

1965

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

2000

Scot W. Semisch

1931

William E. Lingelbach, Jr.

1966

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

2001

Bruce L. Redpath

1932

William E. Lingelbach, Jr.

1967

John A MacColl

2002

Bruce L. Redpath

1933

William E. Lingelbach, Jr.

1968

James M. Talbot, II

2003

Scot W. Semisch

1934

Edward M. Edwards

1969

James M. Talbot, II

2004

Michael J. Beautyman

1935

William E. Lingelbach, Jr.

1970

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1936

Edward M. Edwards

1971

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1937

William E. Lingelbach, Jr.

1972

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

1938

Carl Fischer

1973

L. W. von Seldeneck, Jr.

104

Appendices

Club Champions Tennis Women, Single 1931

Allison Harrison

1966

Penny Rubincam

2001

Ginger Sabia

1932

Catherine Kendig

1967

Penny Rubincam

2002

Kate Freeman

1933

Virginia Hilleary

1968

Barbara Wickes

2003

Kate Freeman

1934

Catherine Kendig

1969

Barbara Wickes

2004

Nina Talbot Robertson

1935

Catherine Kendig

1970

Lani McCall

1936

Allison Harrison

1971

Robin Lewis

1937

unknown

1972

Robin Lewis

1938

Nancy D. Ritchie

1973

Adele Boyd

1939

Catherine K. Clegg

1974

Penny Rubincam

1940

Hope Knowles

1975

Barbara Kyle

1941

Louise Moessner

1976

Robin L. Kennedy

1942

Edith H. Beatty

1977

Wendy Talbot

1943

no contest

1978

Wendy Talbot

1944

no contest

1979

Wendy Talbot

1945

no contest

1980

Trina Jones

1946

Sylvia Knowles

1981

Trina Jones

1947

Barbara N. Newlin

1982

Nina Talbot

1948

Hope K. Rawls

1983

Leslie Blankin

1949

Amolie R. Rorer

1984

Leslie Blankin Lane

1950

Hope K. Rawls

1985

Mary Schwartz

1951

Sylvia K. Simonin

1986

Lani McCall

1952

Sylvia K. Simonin

1987

Leslie Blankin Lane

1953

Barbara Ward

1988

Nina Knowles Talbot

1954

Sylvia K. Simonin

1989

Mary Coleman

1955

Sylvia K. Simonin

1990

Anne Love Hall

1956

Sylvia K. Simonin

1991

Nina Knowles Talbot

1957

Sylvia K. Simonin

1992

Ginger Sabia

1958

Gloria Young

1993

Ginger Sabia

1959

Barbara Newlin

1994

Ginger Sabia

1960

Barbara Newlin

1995

Ginger Sabia

1961

Gloria Young

1996

Ginger Sabia

1962

Gloria Young

1997

Ginger Sabia

1963

Barbara Newlin

1998

Ginger Sabia

1964

Barbara Newlin

1999

Deborah Wharton Lippincott

1965

Lani McCall

2000

Deborah Wharton Lippincott

Champions

105

Club Champions Paddle Tennis

Paddle Tennis

Men

Women

1975

Martin Heckscher – Karl Spaeth

1975

Georgia Carrington – Sarah Heckscher

1976

Bill Helm – Karl Spaeth

1976

Nell Helm – Babbie Miller

1977

Bill Helm – Karl Spaeth

1977

Sarah Hechscher – Babbie Miler

1978

Martin Heckscher – Charles Tyson

1978

Ann Spaeth – Sally Sears

1979

Ludlow Miller – Charles Morrow

1979

Georgia Carrington – Sarah Heckscher

1980

Ludlow Miller – Charles Morrow

1980

Sarah Heckscher – Babbie Miller

1981

Sandy Drinker – Jono Frank

1981

Sarah Heckscher – Babbie Miller

1982

Sandy Drinker – Jono Frank

1982

Babbie Miller – Lani McCall

1983

Sandy Drinker – Jono Frank

1983

Tinky Brooks – Carol Lamberton

1984

C. R. Stauffer – William Goodwin

1984

Tinky Brooks – Carol Lamberton

1985

C. R. Stauffer – William Goodwin

1985

Lani McCall – Sally Johnson

1986

Dick Boothby – Charlie Harmar

1986

Babbie Miller – Lani McCall

1987

Sandy Drinker – Jono Frank

1987

Marcia Jones – Sarah Heckscher

1988

Jim Studdiford – Jono Frank

1988

Marcia Jones – Sarah Heckscher

1989

Sandy Drinker – Jono Frank

1989

Holly Barry- Ellen Goodwin

1990

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1990

Liz Wyeth – Lani McCall

1991

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1991

Marcia Jones – Ellen Goodwin

1992

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1992

Marcia Jones – Liz Wyeth

1993

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1993

Marcia Jones – Liz Wyeth

1994

Jono Frank – Gary Pearson

1994

Marcia Jones - Ginny Pearson

1995

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1995

Marcia Jones – Ginny Pearson

1996

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1996

Kat Van Blarcam – Ginger Sabia

1997

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1997

Beth Hyde – Ginger Sabia

1998

Larry Hyde – Jordie Maine

1998

Kat Van Blarcam- Ginger Sabia

1999

Bruce Redpath – Tom Harris

1999

Kat Van Blarcam – Ginger Sabia

2000

Bruce Redpath – Peter Redpath

2000

Leslie Lane – Ruthie Ferraro

2001

Bruce Redpath – Peter Redpath

2001

Marcia Jones – Ginger Sabia

2002

Bruce Redpath – Tom Harris

2002

Kat Van Blarcam – Leslie Lane

2003

Bruce Redpath – Peter Redpath

2003

Kat Van Blarcam – Leslie Lane

106

Appendices

Club Champions Golf Men 1897

William Henry Trotter

1934

Horace B. Swope

1971

Harold S. Cross

1898

A. W. Biddle

1935

Clinton H. Brown

1972

John G. Hendrickson

1899

Richard V. Buckley

1936

Horace B. Swope

1973

Harold S. Cross

1900

A. H. Smith

1937

G. Paul Seabrease

1974

Robert P. Mann

1901

William F. Brown

1938

William J. Platt

1975

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1902

H. W. Perrin

1939

William J. Platt

1976

John G. Hendrickson

1903

H. W. Perrin

1940

G. Paul Seabrease

1977

Chris Cross

1904

H. W. Perrin

1941

William J. Platt

1978

Steve Loughran

1905

W. C. Downing

1942

Philip H. Strubing

1979

Chris Cross

1906

H. W. Perrin

1943

no contest

1980

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1907

H. W. Perrin

1944

no contest

1981

Harold S. Cross

1908

Herbert G. Kribs

1945

Raymond McCabe

1982

Steve Loughran

1909

Berthold Bartholomew

1946

Thomas C. Jordan

1983

Steve Loughran

1910

Berthold Bartholomew

1947

Harold S. Cross

1984

James S. Gudger

1911

Ira Jewell Williams

1948

Harold S. Cross

1985

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1912

A. C. Williams

1949

Harold S. Cross

1986

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1913

Herbert P. Fisher

1950

John G. Hendrickson

1986

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1914

George C. Thomas, Jr.

1951

William H. Jackson, II

1987

Morton H. Fetterolf, III

1915

George J. Cooke

1952

Harold S. Cross

1988

James S. Gudger

1916

George C. Thomas, Jr.

1953

Harold S. Cross

1989

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1917

no contest

1954

Harold S. Cross

1990

James S. Gudger

1918

no contest

1955

Harold S. Cross

1991

Richard D. Lownes, Jr.

1919

James H. Gay, Jr.

1956

Peter E. Costello

1992

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1920

James H. Gay, Jr.

1957

Harold S. Cross

1993

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1921

James H. Gay, Jr.

1958

Harold S. Cross

1994

James S. Gudger

1922

John A. Brown

1959

John G. Hendrickson

1995

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1923

Wilson Potter

1960

Harold S. Cross

1996

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1924

Clifford B. Hawley

1961

Harold S. Cross

1997

Peyton Wallace

1925

William G. Hamilton

1962

Harold S. Cross

1998

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1926

Patrick Grant, II

1963

Harold S. Cross

1999

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1927

James H. Gay, Jr.

1964

Harold S. Cross

2000

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1928

Horace B. Swope

1965

Harold S. Cross

2001

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1929

William G. Hamilton

1966

John G. Hendrickson

2002

James R. White

1930

Horace B. Swope

1967

John G. Hendrickson

2003

James Donnelly

1931

no contest

1968

Jack Hendrickson

2004

Robert S. Savarese, Jr.

1932

Horace B. Swope

1969

William T. Walker

1933

Endsley Fairman

1970

William T. Walker

Champions

107

Club Champions Golf Women 1902

Agnes Irene Richardson

1938

Elsie L. Garthwaite

1974

Sallie B. Perkins

1903

Louise Isabella Lorrimer

1939

Marie L. D. Button

1975

Sallie Cross

1904

Sarah Draper Lewis

1940

Margaret D. Dilks

1976

Sallie Cross

1905

Agnes Irene Richardson

1941

Marie L. D. Button

1977

Elaine Swope

1906

Pauline Scull Pennock

1942

no contest

1978

Elaine Swope

1907

Annette Kennedy Davis

1943

no contest

1979

Annette Kane

1908

Ellen Gowen Hood

1944

no contest

1980

Annette Kane

1909

Margaret Crozer Fox

1945

no contest

1981

Annette Kane

1910

Florence Condon Vanderbeck

1946

Charlotte H. Landreth

1982

Sallie Cross

1911

Margaret Crozer Fox

1947

Elaine Swope

1983

Annette Kane

1912

Margaret Crozer Fox

1948

Elaine Swope

1984

Annette Kane

1913

Florence Condon Vanderbeck

1949

Elaine Swope

1985

Ann Morton

1914

Florence Condon Vanderbeck

1950

Doris K. Welsh

1986

Ann Morton

1915

Mildred Irving Caverly

1951

Catherine K. Clegg

1987

Anne M. Helfrich

1916

Mildred Irving Caverly

1952

Catherine K. Clegg

1988

Heidi Dollenberg

1917

Mildred Irving Caverly

1953

Dorothy M. Pearson

1989

Ann Morton

1918

no contest

1954

Dorothy M. Pearson

1990

Ann Morton

1919

Mildred Irving Caverly

1955

Deborah G. McLaughlin

1991

Ann Morton

1920

Mildred Irving Caverly

1956

Dorothy M. Pearson

1992

Ann Morton

1921

May Bell Hutchinson

1957

Helen C. Hazlett

1993

Edie Castor

1922

Ruvetta Peyton Turnbull

1958

Jane Ryan

1994

Anne Helfrich

1923

Marion Naylor Swartley

1959

Mary C. Lueders

1995

Elaine Swope

1924

Ruth Anne Perry

1960

Dorothy M. Pearson

1996

Edie Castor

1925

Sarah Myers Disston

1961

Helen G. Hazlett

1997

Dale H. Gress

1926

Ann H. Akeroyd

1962

Mary B. Ramsey

1998

Anne M. Helfrich

1927

Sarah Meyers Disston

1963

Ann C. O’Hey

1999

Susan Beausang

1928

Mary Lowe Nixon

1964

Deborah C. McLaughlin

2000

Marcia Jones

1929

Ruth Anne Perry

1965

Rosanne Klinefelter

2001

Barbara Papso

1930

Marie Dunham Button

1966

Anne C. O’Hey

2002

Lyn S. Montgomery

1931

Marie Dunham Button

1967

Jane Ryan

2003

Melana Regan

1932

Sarah Meyers Disston

1968

Mary B. Ramsey

2004

Sandra Miller

1933

Ruth Anne Perry

1969

Jane Ryan

1934

Louise Dixon Mohr

1970

Elizabeth Perrott

1935

Marie Dunham Button

1971

Sallie Cross

1936

May Allis Keefer

1972

Sallie Cross

1937

Margaret T. Day

1973

Frances F. Woerner

108

Appendices

Club Champions Squash Men, Single 1930

S. W. Pearson

1965

Donald A. Scott

2000

Eric G. Pearson, Jr.

1931

H. I. Brown, Jr.

1966

Donald A. Scott

2001

Richard Sheppard

1932

S. W. Pearson

1967

Peter A. Benoliel

2002

Eric G. Pearson, Jr.

1933

David McMullin, Jr.

1968

John D. Dennis

2003

Richard Sheppard

1934

David McMullin, Jr.

1969

William M. Davison, 4th

1935

David McMullin, Jr.

1970

Donald A. Scott

1936

S. W. Pearson, Jr.

1971

Lawrence D. Brownell

1937

David McMullin, Jr.

1972

Lawrence D. Brownell

1938

S. W. Pearson, Jr.

1973

Lawrence D. Brownell

1939

William G. Foulke, 2nd

1974

Samuel Bradbury, IV

1940

A. W. Patterson

1975

Lawrence D. Brownell

1941

William G. Foulke, 2nd

1976

William M. Davison, 4th

1942

George P. Miley

1977

Craig McManus

1943

no contest

1978

Donald A. Scott

1944

no contest

1979

Stephen Loughran

1945

no contest

1980

Stephen Loughran

1946

William G. Foulke, 2nd

1981

Stephen Loughran

1947

S. W. Pearson, Jr.

1982

Stephen Loughran

1948

Charles P; Pearson, 2nd

1983

Stephen Loughran

1949

Hugh N. Scott

1984

Stephen Loughran

1950

Hugh N. Scott

1985

Stephen Loughran

1951

Donald A. Scott

1986

Richard Sheppard

1952

E. Walter Hammer, Jr.

1987

William Iselin

1953

E. Walter Hammer, Jr.

1988

Richard Sheppard

1954

Charles C. Rieger, Jr.

1989

Richard Sheppard

1955

Charles C. Rieger, Jr.

1990

W. Keen Butcher

1956

Thomas B. K. Ringe, Jr.

1991

Richard Sheppard

1957

S. W. Pearson, Jr.

1992

no contest

1958

E. Walter Hammer, Jr.

1993

no contest

1959

Donald A. Scott

1994

Richard Sheppard

1960

Donald A. Scott

1995

Richard Sheppard

1961

Donald A. Scott

1996

Richard Sheppard

1962

Donald A. Scott

1997

Eric G. Pearson, Jr.

1963

John D. Dennis

1998

Eric G. Pearson, Jr.

1964

John D. Dennis

1999

Eric G. Pearson, Jr.

Champions

109

Philadelphia Amatuer Golf Champions

Club Champions Squash

Men

Women, Single 1931

Margaret F. Bieler

1969

Lani McCall

1897

A.H. Smith

1932

Sarah M. Disston

1970

Lani McCall

1900

Fergus Mackie

1933

Margaret F. Bieler

1971

Lani McCall

1903, 1905 Howard Perry

1934

Charlotte Darling

1972

Lani McCall

1940

William J. Platt

1935

Charlotte Darling

1973

Penny Rubincam

1951

Harold Cross

1936

Elizabeth Pearson

1974

Lani McCall

1963

John G. Hendrickson

1937

Hope Knowles

1975

Penny Runincam

1938

Elizabeth Pearson

1976

Penny Rubincam

1939

Frances Roberts

1977

Penny Rubincam

1940

Hope Knowles

1978

Penny Rubincam

1916, 1918 Mildred Caverly

1941

Hope Knowles

1979

Penny Rubincam

1920

May Bell

1942

no contest

1980

Penny Rubincam

1921

Mrs. C.H. Vanderbeck

1943

no contest

1981

Penny Rubincam

1967

Mrs. Paul Klinefelter, Jr.

1945

no contest

1982

Sandy Worthington

1946

no contest

1983

Sandy Worthington

1947

Hope K. Rawls

1984

Sandy Worthington

1948

Edith H. Beatty

1985

Sandy Worthington

1949

Louisa Manly-Power

1986

Sandy Worthington

1950

Hope K. Rawls

1987

Sandy Worthington

1951

Edith H. Beatty

1988

Sandy Worthington

1952

Hope K. Rawls

1989

Sandy Worthington

1899-1905

Samuel Hebner

1953

Hope K. Rawls

1990

Sandy Worthington

1947-1951

Joseph Eshrick

1954

Barbara Newlin

1991

Sandy Worthington

1960-1961

Morton Fetterolf, Jr.

1955

Betty Shellenberger

1992

Sandy Worthington

1989-1991

Logan Bullitt, III

1956

Louisa Manly-Power

1993

Kathryn van Blarcom

1957

Sylvia K. Simonin

1994

Sandy Worthington

1958

Betty Shellenberger

1995

Sandy Worthington

1959

Barbara Newlin

1996

Margaret Elias

1922-1929

Mrs. W.W. Justice, Jr.

1960

Betty Shellenberger

1997

Margaret Elias

1937

Mrs. Eugene Button

1961

Louisa Manly-Power

1998

Alexandra Pearson

1974-1975

Mrs. Fred W. Ryan, Jr.

1962

Louisa Manly-Power

1999

Kathryn van Blarcom

1988-1989

Ms. Ann Morton

1963

Louisa Manly-Power

2000

no contest

1964

Louisa Manly-Power

2001

Sandy Worthington

1965

Barbara Newlin

2002

Emery Maine

1966

Louisa Manly-Power

2003

Emery Maine

1967

Lani McCall

1968

Lani McCall

110

Appendices

Women

Golf Association of Philadelphia Presidents Men

Women

Sesquicentennial Committee Jack Jennings, Chairman Barbara M. Daly Wally Evans Liz Jarvis Marcia Jones Lyn Mongomery Jean Roberts Vicki Winter Bob Wurtz Jim Walker

About the Author David R. Contosta is Professor of History at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. He is the author of 15 books on such subjects as urban and suburban history, architecture and landscape, orphanages, higher education, and various topics in social, cultural, and intellectual history. Among his books are Henry Adams and the American Experiment; America in the Twentieth Century; Suburb in the City: Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia; and Philadelphia’s Progressive Orphanage: The Carson Valley School. He is the author of a centennial history of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Chestnut Hill and is now writing a sesquicentennial history of St. Paul’s, Chestnut Hill. He is also collaborating with Carol L. Franklin on a book to be called Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley.

Committee

111

Chapter Notes Introduction Even the Country Club of Brookline, Massachusetts, the first to call itself a country club, was mainly a horse racing and riding club when it was founded in 1882, and it did not come to resemble the standard country club with a golf course and a variety of other sports until around 1900. The Olympic Club of San Francisco, the only close rival to the Philadelphia Cricket Club as the nation’s oldest country club, was founded in 1860. The Germantown Cricket Club, also founded in 1854, did not evolve into a full-fledged country club. See Richard J. Moss, Golf and the American Country Club (Urbana, Ill., 2001), p. 17 and Philadelphia Golfer Magazine, April 2001.

Chapter 1

Minutes., January 14, 1856.

Ibid., January 5, 1857.

Ibid., December 31, 1864.

Ibid., January 8, 1865.

Ibid., November 15, 1869.

Ibid., November 20, 1871 and November 20, 1876.

Horace Mather Lippincott, A History of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1854-1954 (Philadelphia, 1954), pp. 10-11.

Minutes, December 27, 1877. The author is indebted to James Duffin for the location of Nicetown.

On Philadelphia’s industrial expansion in the latter third of the nineteenth century see Nathaniel Burt and Wallace E. Davies, “The Iron Age, 1876-1905,” in Philadelphia: A 300-Year History, edited by Russell F. Weigley (New York, 1982), pp. 471-523. Census figures are taken from Kenneth Finkel (ed.), Philadelphia Almanac and Citizens Manual (Philadelphia, 1995), p. 182.

Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy (Boston, 1963), pp. 303-05.

Minutes, April 9, 1879.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, 11.

Annual Report, Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1883.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 31, 1895.

3 On Anglophilia among the American upper classes during this period, see two books by E. Digby Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment (New York, 1964), pp. 4, 66-68, 113; and Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class (1958; reprint, Philadelphia, 1979), pp. 226-227. See also Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, pp. 74-77.

Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind (New Haven, Conn., 1957), pp. 202-204; John K. Walton, “Home and Leisure,” in John M. MacKenzie (ed.), The Victorian Vision (London, 2001), pp. 64-65.

Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, p. 307.

The Laws of Cricket as Revised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and Adopted by the Philadelphia Cricket Club, CHHS.

On the phenomenon of county club estates, see James W. Mayo, The American Country Club (New Brunswick, N.J., 1998), pp. 116-133; and Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, pp. 95-96.

On Henry Howard Houston, see David R. Contosta, A Philadelphia Family: The Houstons and Woodwards of Chestnut Hill (Philadelphia, 1988), pp. 3-35.

Annual Report, 1884.

Ibid.

Public Ledger, October 2, 1884.

David R. Contosta, Suburb in the City: Chestnut Hill Philadelphia, 18501990 (Columbus, Oh., 1992), pp. 36-77.

The earliest copy of the Club’s Constitution and By-Laws appears in the minutes of the Club’s organizational meeting, February 10, 1854. This minute book is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. See also The Constitution and By-Laws of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1858, p. 2, Archives, Chestnut Hill Historical Society (CHHS).

Minutes, January 8, 1855.

David R. Contosta, A Venture in Faith: The Church of St. Martin-in-theFields, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, 1889-1989 (Philadelphia, 1988), pp. 9-18.

Sandra L. Tatman and Roger W. Moss, Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects: 1700-1930 (Boston, 1985), pp. 367-368, 375-376.

Contosta, Suburb in the City, p. 85.

Germantown Guide, May 3, 1894.

Constitution and By-Laws of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, 1858.

112

Appendices

Chapter Notes 32

Ibid., May 4, 1901.

Contosta, Suburb in the City, p. 87.

Contosta, A Philadelphia Family, pp. 27-28.

Germantown Telegraph, July 20, 1887.

Between 1898 and 1900, both the inn and the academy operated out of the building, with the students coming during the school year and the inn operating during the summer months.

Chapter 2 1 George Woodward, Memoirs of a Mediocre Man (Philadelphia, 1935), p. 103.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 32; Contosta, A Philadelphia Family, p. 92.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 31; Philadelphia Bulletin, February 14, 1954.

Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, p. 308.

Ibid.

Margaret Marsh, Suburban Lives (New Brunswick, N.J., 1990), p. 100.

Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, pp. 308-309.

Annual Report, 1883.

Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 91.

For more on this interpretation, see Ibid., pp. 5-14.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 25. In 1883 the Philadelphia Cricket Club affiliated itself with the Chestnut Hill Tennis Club, though they ended this arrangement five years later. For the separation agreement of the clubs, see “Report of the Managers of the Chestnut Hill Tennis Club, May 10, 1898, CHHS.

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 24, 1885. A good description of the clubhouse, both interior and exterior, appears in this article.

Annual Report, 1884.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club Charter, signed May 15, 1885, filed May 19, 1885, and recorded June 17, 1885. A copy of this charter was supplied to the author by Nick Smith, the manager of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Annual Report, 1902.

Ibid., 1903.

Main Line Times, December 7, 1989.

Philadelphia Bulletin, July 7, 1946.

Annual Report, 1883.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 25.

Ibid., p. 26.

Annual Report, 1887, 1889.

Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, p. 307.

Ibid.

Burt, Perennial Philadelphians, 309-310; Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 5761; Rich Westcott, Philadelphia Sports, (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 44-45. For perspective on Tilden’s later ostracism by Philadelphians because of his homosexuality, see Philadelphia Inquirer, February 23, 1997.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 39-41; Invitation, “The Cricket Ball,” October 1, 1886, CHHS.

Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, “The Middle West Discovers Outdoors, “ Outing (1904), p. 446, as quoted in Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 36. 16

Annual Report, 1895. The Chestnut Hill Improvement Association had been established in 1882 by leading members of the community, including the Reverend J. Andrews Harris, Samuel Goodman, and Samuel Y. Heebner, all members of the Cricket Club, at a time when Philadelphia refused to pave roads and make other improvements in outlying parts of the city such as Chestnut Hill. For more on this improvement association, see Contosta, Suburb in the City, pp. 163-168.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 73.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 8, 1938.

James W. Finegan, A Centennial Tribute to Golf in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1996), pp. 10-11.

Mayo, American Country Club, p. 103.

Ibid., pp. 71-72.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 52.

Chapter Notes

113

Chapter Notes Ibid., p. 72. The author is also indebted to Jack Jennings for the conversation about golf on May 8, 2003. 20

Finegan, Philadelphia Golf, pp. 17, 51; Samuel Y. Heebner, in Golfers’ Record, pp. 14-15.

Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 27.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 75.

Ibid, pp. 16-17.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 4, 1938.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 67.

It is unclear whether the Houston Estate also allowed the Club to lease this land for a dollar a year or if it charged more substantial rent on the property. 23

See for example, the minutes of the Women’s Associate Branch for May 7, 1934.

Annual Report, 1895, 1896. It is unclear when the Women’s Associate Branch began operating as an organized entity within the Club.

Sanders Handford is listed as the designer of this first nine-hole course in the Annual Report for 1898. 25

Betty McGinnis, interview by author, January 6, 2004.

Golf Association of Philadelphia, Golfers’ Record (Philadelphia, 1903), p. 154. 26

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 66, 111, 193-195; Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, pp.63-64.

45 27

Ibid.

Golf Association of Philadelphia, A Centennial Gala, November 8, 1996, p. 19; Finegan, p. 12. The golf course was lengthened in 1899 when the Club leased the adjoining Herkersheimer farm. See Annual Report for 1899. 28

Annual Report, 1897, p. 23. Printed on the same page is the Plan of the Wissahickon Links.

This account is based on a scrapbook about the event entitled “The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, Wissahickon, February 10, 1905.” This scrapbook is part of the Philadelphia Cricket Club collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Ibid.

Ibid., 1896, 1902.

Ibid., 1897.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 31, 1905; Annual Report, 1905.

Edward S. Buckley, Jr., President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, June 16, 1913. Through the courtesy of Sarah “Sallie” L. O. Smith, the author was able to research this letter in her collection of Houston Estate papers relating to the Cricket Club properties at St. Martin’s. The term “Smith Collection” will be used in subsequent references to these papers, now at CHHS.

Ibid., 1896. The quotation about the course being buried in snow is from Ibid., 1899. 33

Ibid., 1897.

Jefferson M. Moak, Inventory of Buildings Within the Chestnut Hill Historic District, p. 369, CHHS. 35

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 26; Charles H. Woodward, The Philadelphia Cricket Club: Request for renewal of lease; Discussion of future ownership, May 20, 1955, PCC Papers, Box 16, CHHS. 36

The 1904 Annual Report expressed similar sentiments: “Each member should induce as many boys as possible to become Junior members, for from this class of membership must come our future cricketers, golfers, and tennis players. . . .” 37

114

Appendices

Eleanor Houston Smith, interview by author, December 11, 1984.

Ibid.; Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 32.

The prohibition of games on Sundays at country clubs was very widespread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and they were often prohibited by local laws. See Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, pp. 93-94.

PCC Bulletin, April 2001.

A W. Tillinghast, “Willie Anderson, Four Time Open Champion,” in Reminiscences of the Links, edited by Richard C. Wolffe, Jr. et al. (Rockfield, Maryland, 1998), p. 79; Finegan, Philadelphia Golf, p. 52.

Chapter Notes 54

Westcott, A Century of Philadelphia Sports, pp. 35-36.

Annual Report, 1910.

Ibid., 1911.

Ibid., 1900.

Ibid., 1902.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 14, 1920. Shedding light on the financing is an old ledger entitled “Golf Certificates,” found in the safe at the Philadelphia Cricket Club and now at CHHS.

Such an arrangement was not unique to the Philadelphia Cricket Club, since similar clubs around the country often depended on one or more wealthy backers for financing. See Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 68-69, 93-94.

In 1907 the Club had decided to enlarge the men’s clubhouse at a cost not to exceed $12,000. See Annual Report, 1907.

Philadelphia Bulletin, July 11, 1922.

Philadelphia Bulletin, September 10, 1908; Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 29; Annual Report, 1909.

Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten, The Architects of Golf (New York, 1981), p. 362.

The amounts paid to Tillinghast are recorded in “Golf Certificates,” p. 56. 80

Annual Report, 1909. 81

Philadelphia Bulletin, April 17, 1928.

Finigan, Philadelphia Golf, p. 106.

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 113-114.

Moak, Inventory of Buildings, pp. 368-369; Charles Woodward, Philadelphia Cricket Club. On Pearson see Tatman and Moss, Biographical Dictionary of Philadelphia Architects, pp. 595-597.

According to the Annual Report for 1909, the golf course was used move than ever, despite the fire.

Finegan, Philadelphia Golf, pp. 91-92.

Ibid., p. 86.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 79.

Finegan, Philadelphia Golf, p. 82.

Annual Report, 1913; Philadelphia Bulletin, June 6, 1917.

Philadelphia Bulletin, June 6, 1917.

Ibid.

Wolffe et al., Reminiscences of the Links, pp. 4-5; Finegan, Philadelphia Golf, pp. 106-108; Fred Byrod, “Philadelphia Cricket Club: Designed by Tillie the Terror,’” Philadelphia Golfer, April 1995, pp. 8, 19; Geoff Shackelford, “Tilly’s Legacy,” Golf Magazine, June 2002, pp. 183188; Frank Hannigan, “Golf’s Forgotten Genius, The Golf Journal, May 1974, pp. 14-27; Pamela Emory, “Tillying the Soil,” Golf Illustrated, June 1993, pp. 97-101. 83

As of 1971, the land for the nine-hole course, which the Club continued to lease, totaled 40.5 acres. See Charles H. Woodward to the President of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, August 25, 1971, PCC Papers, Box 16.

Public Ledger, November 6, 1931.

Chapter 3 1

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 64, 66, 134.

Henry James, The American Scene, quoted in Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen, p. 357. 2

Jane Campbell, Scrapbooks, XLIV, 72, in archives, Germantown Historical Society.

Annual Report, 1921; Philadelphia Bulletin, March 14, 1920; Lippincott, Cricket Club, p.32.

Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment, p. 121.

Contosta, Suburb in the City, pp. 52-53.

Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen, p. 205.

Philadelphia Bulletin, February 6, 1925.

Charles H. Woodward to Henry Kurtz, President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, February 20, 1956, Smith Collection.

For sources as well as more details, see Contosta, Suburb in the City, pp. 119-123.

Chapter Notes

115

Chapter Notes 7

Mary Whickham Bond, interview by author, March 5, 1985.

On these two families see Contosta, A Philadelphia Family.

George Woodward, “Landlord and Tenant,” The Survey, December 11, 1920, p. 389.

1996), pp. 283-320. On the Colonial Revival as a whole see Karal Ann Marling, George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture, 1876-1986 (Cambridge Mass., 1988) and Alan Axelrod, ed., The Colonial Revival in America (New York, 1985).

In the article that Woodward wrote in 1920 for The Survey, he stated, “I have always inquired into antecedents. I have never taken a Jewish family or allowed one to be taken as a subtenant.” See Ibid., p. 391. See also Contosta, Suburb in the City, pp. 112-113. 10

For a more detailed description and analysis of Flourtown in 1920, see David R. Contosta, Philadelphia’s Progressive Orphanage: The Carson Valley School (University Park, Pa., 1997), pp. 71-73. 11

The farmhouse had been built by Martin Hocker (1762-1830), who owned the land around it. See “Martin Hocker,” PCC Papers, Box 1, CHHS.

Francis A. Taylor, Chairman, Board of Governors, Philadelphia Cricket Club, to Charles H. Landreth, March 25, 1931, PCC Papers, 1884-1934, CHHS. On the role of fireplaces in country clubs, see Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 126.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 14, 1920. Ibid., August 19, 1926.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 14, 1920.

Ibid.

Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy Herald, October 23, 1925.

The author is grateful to Jack Jennings for trying to find records of this case at the Montgomery County Court House in July 2003.

Annual Report, 1904.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 86-90.

Contosta, Philadelphia’s Progressive Orphanage, pp. 22-38.

Germantown Independent-Gazette, December 7, 1916; Philadelphia Bulletin, April 9, 1927; Fairmount Park Commission, Annual Report, 1929, p. 5; 1930, pp. 6-7; Theresa Stuhlman, archivist, Fairmount Park Commission, Memorandum to Fort Washington Park file, September 8, 1999. 16

Ibid., p. 33. According the Charles Woodward, his parents also donated $7,800 in 1930 for a new Club dining room. See Woodward, Cricket Club.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 92-93.

Ibid., 94-95.

Ibid., pp. 96-97.

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 81, 84.

Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopians: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (New York, 1987), p. 147. 18

Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 61.

Annual Report, 1915.

Mayo , American Country Club, pp. 77-81.

Philadelphia Bulletin, June 18, 1930.

Inquirer, April 24, 1885.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, p. 101.

Philadelphia Bulletin, March 6, 1943. This article dealt with the 1943 fire, and it was here that the newspaper writer made the reference to the clubhouse’s resemblances to Independence Hall. 22

Undated clipping from the files of the Philadelphia Bulletin, in the urban archives of Temple University.

On the Colonial Revival locally see David R. Contosta, “Philadelphia’s Miniature Williamsburg”: The Colonial Revival and Germantown’s Market Square,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (October 24

116

Appendices

The board minutes of the Women’s Associate Branch show that one of their members was chosen to head a pool committee each year and that the women handled most of the concerns about the pool, except for financial matters, which had to be submitted to the all-male Board of Governors. According to the minutes of June 15, 1943, the new chair of the swimming committee was Mrs. Charles Landreth.

Betty Shellenberger to author, March 2004.

Philadelphia Bulletin, April 24, 1931.

Chapter Notes 42

Ibid.; Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 1930.

Annual Report, Year ended May 31, 1947, PCC Papers, Box 3, CHHS.

Philadelphia Bulletin, April 25, 1930.

Woodward, Cricket Club.

Ibid., April 26 and 28, May 25 and 26, 1931.

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, June 7, 1948.

Philadelphia Inquirer, April 26, 1930.

Ibid., June 13, 1945.

Philadelphia Bulletin, May 1 and 2, 1931.

Ibid.

Philadelphia Record, January 26, 1932.

Philadelphia Bulletin, August 27, 1936.

Ibid., September 5, 1936.

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 157-165.

Ibid., June 7, 1948.

Charles H. Woodward to Henry Kurtz, President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, February 20, 1956, Smith Collection.

Charles H. Woodward to Stanley Woodward, June 20, 1956, Smith Collection.

Charles H. Woodward, Philadelphia Cricket Club: Request for renewal of lease, Discussion of future ownership, May 20 1955, PCC Papers, Box 16, CHHS.

Meredith Smith to Charles H. Woodward, January 5, 1985, Smith Collection.

Frank C. Roberts, Jr. to Eleanor and Sam Smith, March 1, 1956, Smith Collection. According to this letter, Charles Woodward paid $360,000 for the old golf course land.

Charles Woodward to Henry Kurtz, President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, February 20, 1956, Smith Collection.

Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 132-33.

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, September 14, 1942.

Annual Report., 1957 and 1958; Minutes, Board of Governors, April 17, June 19, September 18, 1956.

Annual Report., 1958, 1959, 1960; Henry K. Kurtz, President of the Philadelphia Cricket Club to Frank C. Roberts, Jr., President, Liberty Real Estate Bank and Trust Company, June 19, 1956, PCC Papers, Box 16, CHHS.

16 55

Ibid.

Ibid., October 5, 1942.

Philadelphia Bulletin, October 9, 1942.

Ibid., March 6, 1943.

Philadelphia Cricket Club, Rules and Regulations, 1958-1959, PCC Papers, Box 3, CHHS.

Minutes, Board of Governors, October 15, 1957. On the larger impact of golf carts, see Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, p. 107.

18 59

Ibid.

Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 33, 103.

Chapter 4 1

Philadelphia Bulletin, July 3, 1946.

Ibid., July 2, 1946.

Ibid., July 7, 1946.

Woodward, Cricket Club.

For example, see Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, June 2, 1951.

One-hundredth anniversary dinner program and menu, PCC Papers, Box 1, CHHS.

Philadelphia Bulletin, February 14, 1954.

Ibid., February 11, 1954. On Ellen Gowen Hood, see PCC Bulletin, July 1967.

Ibid.

Chapter Notes

117

Chapter Notes For another account of the dinner see Lippincott, Cricket Club, pp. 109110. 24

PCC Bulletin, August 1955. Ibid., October 1955.

Ibid., p. 111.

Ibid.

PCC Bulletin, May, 1954.

Virtually every PCC Bulletin from the 1950s through the 1970s gives an account of the Tuesday afternoon bridge games.

Rules and Regulations, 1958-1959.

Ibid.

Ibid., May 1964.

Ibid., March 1957.

Minutes, Board of Governors, November 1, 1957; PCC Bulletin, October 1960; January 1962. 53

PCC Bulletin, September 1949.

Philadelphia Cricket Club, “Junior Bulletin,”1955, PCC Papers, CHHS.

Ibid.

PCC Bulletin, July 1957.

“Junior Bulletin,” 1955.

Ibid.; Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, June 6, 1949.

Germantown Courier, August 11, 1960; and undated clippings in PCC Papers, Box 1, CHHS.

PCC Bulletin, August 1963; June, August November, December 1965; October 1966; November 1969.

Ibid., October 1964.

Ibid., August 1957, May 1959.

Ibid., July 1963.

Ibid., May 1960; May 1967, September 1972.

Ibid., January 1955; November 1956.

PCC Bulletin, August 1946.

Ibid., May 1957.

Germantown Courier, August 28, 1958.

Ibid., July 1961.

Ibid., September 12, 1957.

Ibid., April 1958.

PCC Bulletin, August, 1956, November, 1956.

Ibid., January 1961.

From an unidentified newspaper clipping, PCC Papers, Box 1, CHHS.

Ibid., October 1958.

Ibid., April 1958.

Philadelphia Bulletin, May 28, 1951.

Ibid., May 18, 1948; PCC Bulletin, July 1946.

Philadelphia Bulletin, August 21, 1955, August 22, 1959.

Ibid., August 17, 1978.

Annual Report of the Entertainment Committee, 1957; PCC Bulletin, February 1958. 42

PCC Bulletin, January 1970.

Ibid., October 1955.

Ibid., December 1971, 1972, 1973.

Ibid., December 1957.

Pool Report, 1957; PCC Bulletin, August 1955.

118

Appendices

Chapter Notes Chapter 5 1

Finkel, Philadelphia Almanac, p. 182.

These figures were provided by Springfield and Whitemarsh Townships and were also based on the U. S. Census tracts for 2000. On the history of Springfield Township, see Velma Thorne Carter, Penn’s Manor of Springfield (Springfield Township, Pa., 1976) and Charles G. and Edward C. Zwicker, Images of America: Springfield Township, Montgomery County (Charleston, S.C., 2002). On Whitemarsh see David R. Contosta and Gail C. Momjian, Images of America: Plymouth and Whitemarsh Townships (Charleston, S.C., 2003).

A blueprint of the PCC Flourtown property, dated October 5, 1923, CHHS, shows that lots had already been laid out for development along Cricket Road. Also showing these lots, several of them now developed, is the Atlas of Montgomery County, published by Franklin Survey Company, Philadelphia, 1938, vol. D. plate 19. Evidence that a number of these lots were being sold in the 1950s comes from George V. Strong to Provident Mutual Life Insurance Company, August 18, 1953, CHHS. 3

These figures were provided to the author by Nick Smith, Club Manager. 4

Jane Jordan O’Neill, March 20, 1985; and E. Digby Baltzell, June 6, 1985, interviews by author.

Ibid., October 1993.

Ibid., December 1991 and December 1992.

Ibid., July 1962, July 1965, December 1972, July 1990.

Ibid., March 1990.

Ibid., September 1988.

Ibid., January 1995.

Ibid., February 2001. See also Ibid., March 1991. Lyn Montgomery also supplied information about the Canine Classic.

John E. “Jack” Jennings to author, November 14, 2003.

PCC Bulletin., April 1980.

Ibid., July and November 1977, November 1988.

Ibid., December 1989, November 1992.

Ibid., April, June, August, November 1976.

6 For an overview of the counterculture see Landon Y. Jones, Great Expectations: America and the Baby-Boom Generation (New York, 1980); Edward P. Morgan, The 60s Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America (Philadelphia, 1991); Edward Quinn and Paul J. Dolan, eds., The Sense of the 60s (New York, 1986).

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 193-194. PCC Bulletin, December 1968.

Board Minutes, July 27, 1971. See also Ibid., February 23, 1971 and August 23, 1972.

The Board Minutes of the Women’s Associate Branch for September 13, 1973 refer to “the final Junior Week meet.”

PCC Bulletin, June 1982.

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, October 13, 1977.

Ibid., April 11, 1985.

PCC Bulletin, May 1999.

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, January 13, 1978.

Stephanie Martin to Liz Jarvis, October 22, 2003.

PCC Bulletin, August 15, 1974.

Ibid.

Ibid., May 1984 and August 1985.

Ibid., March 1981.

Ibid., May 1990. See also ibid., July 1990.

Ibid., August 1995.

Ibid., October 27, 1970, April 25, 1972.

PCC Bulletin, June 1975, October 1974.

Ibid., July 1980.

Ibid., April and August 1981, August 1991, February 1993.

Ibid., October 1983, October 1988.

Ibid., January 1987, January 1989.

Chapter Notes

119

Chapter Notes 41

Ibid., August 1997.

1 64

Ibid., March 2000.

Ibid., January 1994, August 2000.

Mayo, American Country Club, pp. 194-195.

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, January 13, 1978.

Ibid., September and October 1994.

Charles H. Woodward to the President of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, May 19, 1971, found with Board Minutes for August 25, 1971.

Joseph Stulb V, President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, to Mrs. Lawrence M. C. (Eleanor Houston) Smith, January 31, 1985, Smith Collection.

E.M. Swift, “Boom Sport USA, “ Sports Illustrated, July 2, 1990, pp. 4652.

67 46

Ibid., December 9, 1982, June 23, 1983, and January 10, 1985.

Barbara Sheble, President, Women’s Associate Branch, to Robert Glendinning, President, Philadelphia Cricket Club, April 27, 1979. A copy of his letter is attached to the Associate Branch Board Minutes for April 12, 1979. 47

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, September 13, 1979.

Ibid., October 11, 1979.

Membership Comparison, Philadelphia Cricket Club, (1983-1998), graph generated by Board of Governors.

Board Minutes, May, August, and October 1998, June and July 1999. See also Board Minutes, December 17, 1986 and Analysis of Membership by Age, Philadelphia Cricket Club, chart presented at the 1999 Annual Meeting by Jack Jennings, President of the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

There was a subcommittee of the Land Use Committee consisting of Jack Jennings, Bill Surgner, Wally Evans, Bill Roberts, and Bill Johnson, who met or consulted with each other almost on a daily basis once the project was approved. Other members of the Land Use Committee, which was chaired by Bill Surgner, and who met less frequently, were Jim Walker, Tom Haight, John White, Gib Carpenter, Rick Shepherd, Cliff Swain, Paul Rubincam, Mort Fetterolf, III, Mary Schwartz, John Jenchura, John Westrum, Fran Garvey, Norm Wilde, and Frank McNamee. Also of great help were Club officials Jack Molinaro, Nick Smith, Terry McDowell, and Bill Johnson.

Betty McGinnis, interview by author, January 6, 2004; Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, September 10 and November 12, 1987, January 14, April 14, and June 9, 1988, February 9 and May 11, 1989. 50

Board Minutes, Women’s Associate Branch, December 20, 1990.

PCC Bulletin, December 1974.

The old pool, built in 1930, had been in constant disrepair according to the Board Minutes of the Women’s Associate Branch for January 13, 1977. 53

Michael Hurdzan, Selected Golf Courses by Hurdzan-Fry (Columbus, Oh., 2003), pp. 6-7.

Ibid., May and July, 1981.

Ibid., July 1998.

Ibid., September 1998.

PCC Bulletin, March 2003.

Ibid., September 1973.

Jones, “Militia Hill, p. 8.

Ibid., June 1998, June 2000.

PCC Bulletin, March 2002.

Ibid., June 1986, June 1995, and April 1999.

Hurdzan, Selected Golf Courses, p. 375.

Ibid., October 2000.

PCC Bulletin, March 2002.

Hurdzan, Selected Golf Courses, p. 377.

John E. “Jack” Jennings to author, December 15, 2003.

PCC Bulletin, June 2002.

Jeremy Jones, “Cricket Club Opens Militia Hill,” Philadelphia Golf Magazine, June 2002, p. 8.

Ibid., October 1981, May 1986, August 1998, August 1999, August 2001. 61

Ibid., August 2001.

Ibid., January 1989, October 1995.

120

Appendices

02702 BOOKbackup.qxp_02702 BOOKbackup 2/9/21 4:57 PM Page 122