NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 10024-0018 (Oct. 1990) National ... · campaigns in 1917 and 1927. The primary contributing architectural component is the 1923 Tudor Revival style clubhouse

NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 10024-0018 (Oct. 1990)

United States Department of the Interior National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A). Complete each item by marking “x” in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter “N/A” for “not applicable.” For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items.

1. Name of Property

historic name Quaker Ridge Golf Club

other names/site number

name of related multiple property listing N/A

2. Location

street & number 146 Griffen Avenue [ ] not for publication

city or town Scarsdale [ ] vicinity

state New York code NY county Westchester code 119 zip code 12449

3. State/Federal Agency Certification

As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this [ ] nomination [X] request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements as set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property [X] meets [ ] does not meet the National Register criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant [ ] nationally [ ] statewide [X] locally. ([ ] see continuation sheet for additional comments.)

Signature of certifying official/Title Date

New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation State or Federal agency and bureau

In my opinion, the property [ ] meets [ ] does not meet the National Register criteria. ([ ] see continuation sheet for additional comments.)

Signature of certifying official/Title Date

State or Federal agency and bureau

4. National Park Service CertificationI hereby certify that the property is: Signature of the Keeper date of action

[ ] entered in the National Register [ ]see continuation sheet [ ] determined eligible for the National Register [ ] see continuation sheet [ ] determined not eligible for the

National Register

[ ] removed from the National Register

[ ] other (explain)

DRAFT

Quaker Ridge Golf Course DRAFT Westchester, New York Name of Property County and State

5. Classification Ownership of Property Category of Property Number of Resources within Property (check as many boxes as apply) (Check only one box) (Do not include previously listed resources in the count) [X] private [ ] building(s) Contributing Noncontributing [ ] public-local [X] district 2 17 buildings [ ] public-State [ ] site 1 sites [ ] public-Federal [ ] structure 15 structures [ ] object objects 3 32 TOTAL Name of related multiple property listing Number of contributing resources previously (Enter “N/A” if property is not part of a multiple property listing) listed in the National Register N/A N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions Current Functions (enter categories from instructions) (Enter categories from instructions) RECREATION & CULTURE: golf course RECREATION & CULTURE: golf course SOCIAL: clubhouse SOCIAL: clubhouse 7. Description Architectural Classification Materials (Enter categories from instructions) (Enter categories from instructions) LATE 19th & 20th CENTURY REVIVALS: Foundation CONCRETE Jacobethan Revival Walls STUCCO Roof SLATE Other METAL, WOOD, GLASS Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current condition of the property on one or more continuation sheets)


8. Statement of Significance Applicable National Register Criteria Areas of Significance: (Mark “x” in one or more boxes for the criteria qualifying the property (Enter categories from instructions) for National Register listing.) ARCHITECTURE [X] A Property associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE of our history. ENTERTAINMENT / RECREATION [ ] B Property is associated with the lives of persons significant in our past. [X] C Property embodies the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction or that represents the work of a master, or possesses Period of Significance: high artistic values, or represents a significant and distinguishable entity whose components lack 1914 - 1952 individual distinction. [ ] D Property has yielded, or is likely to yield, information Significant Dates: important in prehistory or history. 1914, 1916, 1923; 1936 Criteria Considerations (Mark “x” in all boxes that apply.) [ ] A owned by a religious institution or used for religious purposes. Significant Person: [ ] B removed from its original location [ ] C a birthplace or grave [ ] D a cemetery Cultural Affiliation: [ ] E a reconstructed building, object, or structure [ ] F a commemorative property [ ] G less than 50 years of age or achieved significance Architect/Builder: within the past 50 years Narrative Statement of Significance (Explain the significance of the property on one or more continuation sheets.) 9. Major Bibliographical References Bibliography (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: [ ] preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) [ ] State Historic Preservation Office has been requested. [ ] previously listed in the National Register [ ] Other State agency [ ] previously determined eligible by the National Register [ ] Federal Agency [ ] designated a National Historic Landmark [ ] Local Government [ ] recorded by historic American Building Survey [ ] University # [ ] Other repository: [ ] recorded by Historic American Engineering Record #


10. Geographical Data Acreage of Property 139 acres UTM References (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet.) 1 18 604068 4536731 6 18 603733 4535775 Zone

Easting

Northing Zone

Easting

Northing

2 18 604370 4536431 7 18 603816 4536303 Zone

Easting

Northing

Zone

Easting

Northing

3 18 604553 4536120 8 18 603828 4536368 Zone

Easting

Northing Zone

Easting

Northing

4 18 603993 4535421 9 18 603894 4536522 Zone

Easting

Northing Zone

Easting

Northing

5 18 603883 4535384 10 18 603992 4536682 Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing 11. Form Prepared By name/title Penelope S. Watson; edited by Chelsea Towers, NYS Division for Historic Preservation organization Watson & Henry Associates date April 20, 2020 street & number PO Box 222 telephone 856-451-1779 city or town Greenwich state NJ zip code 08323 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets Maps A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property’s location A Sketch map for historic districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources. Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain a benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.) Estimated Burden Statement: public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, D.C. 20503

NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service DRAFT National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Quaker Ridge Golf Course Name of Property Section 7 Page 1 Westchester, New York County and State

Narrative Description of Property Summary Description The Quaker Ridge Golf Club occupies a 138.65-acre site in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York. The nominated resource consists of one eighteen-hole golf course designed by renowned golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast in two campaigns in 1917 and 1927. The primary contributing architectural component is the 1923 Tudor Revival style clubhouse designed by noted New York City architect, Ely Jacques Kahn of Buchman & Kahn, Architects. The 139-acre property is approximately triangular in shape, with uneven sides; its longest dimension runs north-south. The clubhouse is located in the southern quarter of the site and is accessible by an entrance drive that enters from Griffen Avenue, which runs north-south and defines the eastern boundary of the nominated property. The remainder of the course abuts private residences, with the exception of a segment of the Hutchinson River Parkway that borders the north-west section of the property and runs parallel to Griffen Avenue. The golf course, which underwent alterations in the second half of the twentieth century, was recently restored to Tillinghast’s design by golf course architect Gil Hanse. In 1914 an organization known as the Metropolitan Golf Links, Inc. purchased 112 acres in Scarsdale, which was in turn leased to the Quaker Ridge Country Club. Within the year, three holes were constructed, with six more being built in 1915. Both organizations soon had financial difficulties, and in December 1915, a group of wealthy German Jewish men met in New York City to discuss the acquisition of the property. The Quaker Ridge Golf Club was formally established the next month and purchased the leasehold on February 18, 1916. Albert Warren Tillinghast was in his sixth year as a golf course architect and was hitting his stride as one of the most promising young designers when he was contacted by the Quaker Ridge Golf Club Board of Directors for advice on improving the existing nine holes and purchasing land for construction of an additional nine holes. In 1917, Tillinghast was retained by the Board to reimagine and build an eighteen-hole course, which was completed the following year. By 1922 New York City architect Ely Jacques Kahn of Buchman & Kahn was hired to design a clubhouse, which was subsequently opened in August 1923. Tillinghast continued his association with the Club for several years, intermittently improving drainage and individual holes. The club purchased additional acreage in 1924 and called Tillinghast back in 1927 to redesign the first four holes using the expanded property. THE CLUBHOUSE (CONTRIBUTING) The clubhouse was designed by Ely Jacques Kahn in a simplified Tudor revival style1, which may have been a reference to the Scottish and English heritage of the game of golf. His directive from the Board of Directors was to design a

1 The clubhouse is English Tudor revival in style, rather than medieval German. It exhibits very limited half-timbering, restricted to a small area on the second story of the north elevation of the living room wing, and has no turrets; both extensive half-timbering and turrets are typical of German architecture contemporaneous with English Tudor. Kicked eaves, however, were popular on early German architecture in America and may have influenced those on the clubhouse.


clubhouse manifesting “simplicity and coziness and [a] quiet atmosphere.”2 This mandate was in accordance with the design philosophy of the 1920s characterized by the ideology that a clubhouse was a home away from home for a family of members. The original footprint of the clubhouse was comprised of six rectangles of varying sizes laid out in alternating directions, causing the organization of the spaces to be primarily linear. The main entrance, on the east elevation, opens onto a small lobby and office with a reception desk. The living room is just beyond the entrance lobby and features a rustic fireplace on the north wall. At the west end of the living room, three original arched entranceways provided access to the dining room, which projected toward the south, the stairs to the second floor through the center arch, and access to the former men’s lounge and grill, now all one room, which projects to the west. The locker room is accessible toward the north of the lounge and grill room. Each section is contained in a gable- or hip-roofed, two-story block, with intersecting roof ridges alternating in direction. All the main public spaces feature natural light from windows on two or three sides. The living room, dining room, and grill room opened onto covered porches. The relatively small clubhouse was built for an original membership of two hundred.3 As membership increased and social activities at the club expanded, the club added to the clubhouse to accommodate the growing need. The first expansion occurred in 1934 when the dining room was made larger and a terrazzo dance floor was added. It is apparently at this time that the original one-story entrance porch was replaced by a larger porch with its roof a continuation of the lobby-block roof. Currently, the footprint of the clubhouse is essentially a rectangle, with the living room/lobby block projecting toward the east. In later years, the dining room was expanded toward the south, the grill room toward the west, and spaces between the blocks were infilled. The additions are one story in height, allowing the original structure to remain fundamentally intact at the second story and roof levels on the south and west elevations, conveying the style and massing of the original structure. The east and north elevations have remained mostly unchanged since 1934. The visual mass of the building is reduced by its division into separate intersecting wings. This also gives it the appearance of an English Tudor manor, having been developed in different building campaigns over time. The primary exterior finish is a rough stucco. Stone accents include a base at the foundation level of the locker room wing and the base of the living room chimney. Window sills are accented with brick. The roof is slate and features kicked eaves. The following describes the original appearance of the building as well as major changes. EAST FACADE The formal entrance is on the east elevation of the lobby wing. The lobby is a three-bay, two-and-a-half-story block with the roof ridge parallel to the façade. A porch, supported on four posts, stretches across the whole façade. The façade’s most striking feature is the roof, which slopes up two-stories from the porch eave to merge with the second-story roof. Originally, a one-story flat-roofed wood porch, about two-thirds as wide as the façade, was centered on the two-story elevation; the porch was surmounted by a simple wood balustrade. At the second story, two small casement windows

2 “As to Proposed New Combination-Club-and-Locker House,” letter to members, 04 May 1922. 3 In comparison, the larger clubhouse being built at the same time for Winged Foot Golf Club on the opposite side of Griffen Avenue was meant to accommodate a membership of 600.


were flanked on either side by two larger paired casements. The reconfiguration of the roof and porch was most likely made ca. 1951-52 when individual bedrooms on the second floor were reconfigured as suites. Set back the length of the living room wing is a two-bay, two-and-a-half-story elevation that is caused by the projection of the end of the grill room block. This east facing elevation has one long window on the first story and a small, gabled dormer with kicked eaves high on the roof slope. Toward the north, the one-and-a-half-story golf entrance and small locker-room block also has a roof parallel to the façade. The five-bay elevation has three centered windows flanked by two doors. The roof is a semi-mansard, with the lower slope terminating in a flat roof, and features three inset dormers. A patio in front of the block is accessible by seven steps from grade and features a metal railing; the patio rests on a rubble stone foundation. The main locker-room wing is the final block of the east elevation and runs perpendicular lengthwise to the locker-room. The one-and-a-half-story three-bay hipped-roofed block has a roof ridge perpendicular to the façade with an inset gable-roofed dormer with kicked eaves. The entirety of the east elevation has a stucco finish that is inset with sandstone in a rubble stone pattern at the basement levels. NORTH ELEVATION The north elevation is dominated by the locker-room wing, which is two-and-a-half stories where the grade slopes away toward the west. The eleven-bay elevation has a stucco finish and a rubble-stone foundation. The hipped-roof features five inset dormers of various sizes. From the north elevation, a portion of the two-and-a-half-story living room wing is visible and set back on the east side. This elevation of the living room wing is two bays and has a semi-mansard roof parallel with the elevation. Two triple casement windows flank the exterior chimney that features a decorative rubble-stone base and scattered stones affixed to the stucco above. WEST ELEVATION From north to south, the elements of the west elevation include: two-and-a-half-story, three-bay, hip-roofed locker-room wing; one-story two-bay semi-mansard-roofed locker-room/kitchen addition; one-and-a-half-story four-bay gable-roofed card room wing; and a one-story hip-roofed open pavilion. The locker room wing is the only section that was part of the original construction. The card room and extension of the grill room are the next oldest. The locker-room wing has a gable-roofed dormer with kicked eaves, and the card room addition has four gable-roofed dormers with kicked eaves. SOUTH ELEVATION The one-story, hip-roofed, open pavilion at the west end of the south elevation partially obscures the gable end of the two-and-a-half-story card room addition beyond. The pavilion joins the hip-roofed, one-story, six-bay dining room expansion, which dominates the first story of this elevation. Each bay of the dining room features double glass doors with side/lights and transoms. Projecting into the dining room expansion is the three-bay, gable end of the original two-and-a-half-story dining room wing. Further east, the porch off the living room wing is surmounted by five gabled dormers inset into the


slightly sloped roof. The last element at the east end of the south elevation is the two-bay, gable end of the entrance lobby block. This wing is characterized by the sweep of the second story roof down to the eaves of the one-story porch, a ca. 1951-52 alteration. INTERIOR The interior reflects the original request for simplicity. Natural-finish woodwork is set off by cream-colored plaster walls. In the living room, decorative details include exposed beams with decorative plaster detailing. The shelf mantle over the fireplace is supported on consoles. Banks of four casement windows flank the fireplace on either side. On the opposite wall, French doors provide access to the south elevation porch. The living room retains a high degree of integrity. The original dining room was completely subsumed in the construction of the current expanded configuration. The current dining room is one large area featuring banks of four glazed glass panels surmounted by small-paned transoms on three of the four walls; some of the panels are doors leading to a patio, and some are casement windows. The ceiling is coffered, with the unornamented coffers concealing HVAC ducts. The grill room originally was partitioned into two rooms, the grill and a lounge. The fireplace retains the stone brackets and entablature, but the original stepped-back brick chimney breast has been encased in plaster. The exposed beams throughout the space are highly finished and replace the rustic beams in the original configuration. The room retains integrity of scale and proportion. The stair to the second floor begins with a landing above two risers; at the landing, the stair turns ninety degrees to the right. A second landing near the top reverses the direction of the stair with a dogleg. The railing and balusters are original. The second floor originally contained numerous small bedrooms with communal bathroom as evident by original floor plans. A small women’s locker room was located over the east end of the living room and entrance lobby. The second floor has been reconfigured to accommodate a board room and offices. THE SCHOOLHOUSE (CONTRIBUTING) The Schoolhouse is a one-story, gable-roofed, rubble-stone and wood structure with a floor plan in the approximate form of an H. Built over two building campaigns starting in 1901 predating the golf club, the building currently has two end sections with gables facing Griffen Avenue that are connected by a center section with a roof ridge perpendicular to the gable ridges. The roof is clad in textured fiberglass shingles and A stone chimney exterior to the wall pierces the roof eave on the south elevation. A central, hexagonal ventilator features round-headed louvered openings and a roof with bell-cast eaves terminated in a copper pinnacle. The south elevation of the original 1901 section is built of stone with brick detailing to the eaves and stucco and faux half-timbering in the gable. A double-glazed door surmounted by a transom is centered on the original block and is flanked by


continuous banks of casement windows, two pair on each side. A pent roof protects the original entrance; a terrace spans the full width of this section and is accessible by three steps, which also span the full width. The 1932-34 addition, consisting of the center and north sections of the building, has another entrance centered on the elevation, featuring a double door with decorative panels under a lunette transom. The line of the roof eave curves up over the transom, forming an “eyebrow.” The doorway is flanked on either side by two sixteen-pane sash windows above stucco panels; each bay is outlined in wood trim. Four brick and slate steps provide access to the door; the foundation is rubble-stone. Two small gable-roofed dormer-shaped vents are set in the lower third of the roof slope. The gable end of the northern section is clad with rubble stone to the eave line. The gable features a pent roof, and above the pent roof the gable is filled with stucco and faux half-timbering. The west elevation is clad with rubble stone and features double-hung windows. The north elevation has a completely stuccoed finish and a roll-up metal door in the north section accessible by a concrete ramp. The center section has a small window to the north, paired double-hung windows in the center, and a pedestrian door with a small-paned transom. The 1901 section of the north elevation has had two of five twelve-over-twelve, banked, double-hung windows removed and a roll-up metal door inserted. The door is accessible by means of a small wooden deck reached by six steps. A round window with nine panes is set in each of the two gables. The east elevation is clad in stucco and features two banks of five twelve-over-twelve-double-hung windows. A metal vent is set in the wall beneath each bank of windows. MEMORIAL FLAGPOLE (CONTRIBUTING) The Memorial Flagpole, erected in 1937, has an uncoursed sandstone and concrete base. The structure consists of a round concrete seat on a stone foundation from which rises a stone, truncated cone with a concrete base and cap. A metal sphere is set in the center of the cap, from which rises the pole itself. A plaque on the structure reads “Dedicated by the Members of Quaker Ridge Golf Club to the memory of William Rice Hochster, David Metsger, Mark M. Schlesinger, Otto Elsass in Appreciation of Their Service and Devotion 1937.” THE GOLF COURSE (CONTRIBUTING) For readers not familiar with golf courses and golf terminology, the following definitions are offered to make the descriptions more meaningful. In general terms, a hole is the assemblage of a tee, a fairway, and a green, with the option of hazards to make play more challenging. A tee or tee box is the flat, mown area where players tee off to start a hole. The fairway is the part of the course covered with short grass that extends from the tee to the putting green. The rough is the part of the course, usually bordering the fairway, which is left unmown. A hazard is an obstacle between the tee and the green that increases the difficulty of the game. Hazards come in three types: a bunker is a hollow, usually comprised of sand; a water hazard can be a lake, pond, or stream; a natural hazard is an obstacle such as dense vegetation. The green is the closely-mown area where the flag and cup—the actual hole— are located. The flag and cup are moved from place to place on the green, generally on a daily basis.


The golf course at Quaker Ridge was the sixteenth course designed by A. W. Tillinghast, who, as an amateur golfer, had designed his first course just six years before he was approached by the Quaker Ridge Board in 1917 to substantially revise an existing nine-hole course and add another nine holes. Tillinghast’s philosophy of design centered on what he referred to as “the course beautiful,” which preserved natural features such as streams, trees, and contours wherever possible and incorporated them as natural hazards, greens, and bunkers. This resulted in a landscape compatible with nature, as opposed to the strict geometric properties of earlier courses, which Tillinghast considered unattractive. When first approached by the Board to design an eighteen-hole course, he responded “Although the 9 holes as they exist are not impressive, and the course as it stands lacks distinction; however, modern methods and an intelligent placement and building of hazards will add greatly to the layout. However, I am tremendously pleased with the possibility of the new land you propose developing. It is thoroughly good, and when drained in the low marshy spots, will serve admirably every demand of the modern game.”4 Tillinghast continued to offer advice on improvements to the Quaker Ridge course into the late 1920s, and rearranged, redesigned, and expanded the first, second, and third holes in 1927 after additional land was purchased in 1924. At Quaker Ridge, Robert Trent Jones was retained in 1963 for a “Course Modernization Program,” with the primary goal being the construction of the first underground irrigation system. Regarding the holes, the goals were to enlarge and reconstruct many of the tees, eliminate certain bunkers considered no longer in play, add new bunkers further out in the drive areas, and enlarge the first and 17th greens. He eliminated, or grassed-in, about twenty of the original lateral bunkers, most significantly on the par-5 14th hole, which Tillinghast referred to as “Sahara” because of the copious number of bunkers. Jones also had a strong proclivity in his design philosophy for symmetry. At Quaker Ridge he added bunkers to several greens to counterbalance those already existing on the opposite side, while shortening the existing ones to match the added bunkers. Between 1991 and 1993, Rees Jones, the golf architect son of Robert Trent Jones, was hired to help make the course ready for the Walker Cup scheduled for 1997. In doing so, he also made several adjustments to the course that were not in keeping with the Tillinghast original design. Then, beginning in 2008, golf-course architect Gil Hanse was retained to restore the course in a three-year phased project, with six holes being restored each year. The undertaking had three primary goals. First was to restore all the greens as closely as possible to the shape and configuration they had in 1927 when Tillinghast completed the course. The second was to restore most of the bunkers. Thirdly, the course was to be lengthened in accordance with the modern evolution of the game, emphasizing the twelve par-four holes. When working on existing courses, Hanse is known for using a “restorative approach” as it “yields the best results…because of the terrific talents of original designers like Tillinghast and their respect for the land upon which the courses were built.” 5 At Quaker Ridge, Hanse worked from historic aerial photographs taken in 1916 and 1924; Tillinghast’s original drawings have been lost. Once the original layout was determined through careful observation of the

4 Letter from A. W. Tillinghast to Herbert Hipwell, 12 April 1916. 5 https://www.quakerridgegc.org/History.aspx Retrieved 06 January 2020.

https://www.quakerridgegc.org/History.aspx


aerials, course “archaeology” was performed: “When we dug down, we found a lot of old drainage tiles, which helped us establish the base of the bunkers. It was the same on the green expansion. We found the old drainage and soil and pushed the boundaries back out to where they had been originally."6 Interestingly, several of the greens expanded by as much as thirty percent once the original greens’ shapes and sizes were found. In Gil Hanse’s words, “Restoration is when the principles, style and objectives of the original architect are the overriding factors for decision-making on the project. There’s also sympathetic restoration, when those same elements are put into place as the overriding factors, but then you’re accommodating the modern game and technology in placing and designing the features.”7 Hanse’s work at Quaker Ridge was a sympathetic restoration. As a result of Hanse’s restoration, the changes to the course undertaken by Robert Trent Jones and later, his son Rees, were eliminated. The resulting course is thought to be virtually identical to the course that Tillinghast completed in 1927. Given the additional yardage added to several holes and the placement of fairway bunkers in the same precise configuration as the originals (but further down the fairway in the drive area to accommodate the modern game), from the tee, the course plays once again as Tillinghast intended. As a result, Quaker Ridge retains a high degree of integrity amongst Tillinghast’s surviving courses. Hole 1 (Par 5/527 yards8 ) This long hole has a plateau in the fairway at 250 yards, and a large cross bunker 50 yards short of the green; additional deep bunkers frame the lower portion of the green, left and right. The bunker is an example of one of Tillinghast’s deception bunkers. From the left of the fairway, it appears to abut the green, but in reality, it is about 50 yards in front of the green. The green itself is challenging, sloping somewhat severely from back to front, and slightly less from side to side. The green was extended 100 yards by Tillinghast in 1927 changing the hole from a par 4 to a par 5. At the same time, the bunker, like all the other bunkers on Tillinghast’s course, was rebuilt to his specifications to contain a tile drain. Robert Trent Jones enlarged the green on its right side and removed the right-hand fairway bunker in the driving area; these changes were reversed by Gil Hanse. Hole 2 (Par 4/425 yards) This hole has a dogleg-right fairway and uniquely shares some bunkers with the 14th hole. This was a deliberate design scheme by Tillinghast when he updated the hole in 1926; through the shared bunkers, he created a challenge to players

6 Roger Schiffman, Martin Davis, editor Quaker Ridge Golf Club: The First 100 Years, Greenwich, CT: The American Golfer, 2016, p. 122, quoting Head Superintendent Tom Ashfield. 7 https://www.golf.com/courses-and-travel/2018/08/30/gil-hanse-golf-course-design-restoration-renovation Retrieved 06 January 2020. 8 Yardage is given for championship play

https://www.golf.com/courses-and-travel/2018/08/30/gil-hanse-golf-course-design-restoration-renovation


both coming and going on holes 2 and 14. The green has bunkers to right and left, and slopes gently from back to front, with a subtle ridge dividing the front and back portions. The original fairway was enlarged and reworked by Tillinghast in 1927 after the club purchased additional land in 1924. The original hole was abandoned and a new design by Tillinghast was built in its entirety when construction of the Hutchinson River Parkway encroached on the club’s land. Hole 3 (Par 4/451 yards) The hole features a long, straight fairway, with trees along the left side and two bunkers on the right. The large trees behind and slightly to the right of the center point of the green are examples of Tillinghast’s “aiming trees.” The green slopes from back-right to front-left, which, combined with a bunker on the right of the green, makes the hole challenging. This fairway was also enlarged and reworked in 1927 by Tillinghast, and the tee and green were reconstructed due to land lost to the Hutchinson River Parkway. Robert Trent Jones added a fairway bunker on the right in the driving area that was removed by Gil Hanse. Hole 4 East (Par 4/454 yards) Hole 4 is one of the most scenic at Quaker Ridge, with a giant oak on the left. This design by Tillinghast has an unusual feature – an island of rough in the middle of the fairway. The fairway, which narrows at 275 yards, also has a hidden rough on the left and a course boundary on the right. The deepest bunker on the course guards the left side of the green and fronts the green on the left, and another bunker wraps around the green on the right. The hole achieved its current configuration in 1927, after it was reworked by Tillinghast following the club’s acquisition of additional land. In 1963, teeing areas were eliminated because of the expansion of the Hutchinson River Parkway. Robert Trent Jones removed the left-hand, wrap-around bunker at the green; it has since been restored by Gil Hanse. Hole 5 (Par 3/185 yards) Hole 5 plays over the only pond on the course, which adds to its aesthetics. The green has a lateral ridge and is surrounded by bunkers to the left, right, and rear. The pond does double duty as a water storage facility for irrigation. Robert Trent Jones removed the pot bunker behind and to the right of the green; it was restored by Gil Hanse. Hole 6 (Par 4/478 yards)


Hole 6 may be the most difficult of the course; the fairway slopes from right to left, while the hole doglegs from left to right. Sheldrake Creek on the far left can enter play. Two bunkers are located strategically in the fairway 100 yards out. The small green is guarded by a long bunker along the left side, which runs into the fairway. Robert Trent Jones added a bunker on the right-hand side of the green to achieve symmetry. The bunker was removed by Gil Hanse. Jones also removed the right-hand bunker about 80 yards from the green and truncated the left-hand greenside bunker so it ended at the front of the green; these changes were also reversed by Gil Hanse. Hole 7 (Par 4/437 yards) The fairway is bisected by a stream and is framed by two cross bunkers 85 yards out. The green is elevated and deeply bunkered to the left and right. A shallow bunker guards the rear. The green, with a back-to-front orientation, also features a false front, sloping back toward the fairway. Hole 8 (Par 4/359 yards) Tillinghast’s strategic design philosophy is evident on Hole 8, where on the left side of the bifurcated fairway there is a large, deep bunker. The right side is more difficult to hit, as out-of-bounds is only 10 yards away, but it provides a more direct route to the green. The green is fairly flat. Hole 9 (Par 3/164 yards) Hole 9 is distinguished by a dramatic view of the clubhouse. The green is slightly elevated and kidney-shaped (a 1919 redesign by Tillinghast) and is surrounded by bunkers. The large elm to the back right is one of Tillinghast’s surviving “aiming trees.” Hole 10 (Par 3/201 yards) Hole 10 has the largest green on the course. It is canted from back-left to front-right and is flanked on three sides by six bunkers. Robert Trent Jones removed the bunker behind the green, which Gil Hanse restored. Hole 11 (Par 4/406 yards) Hole 11 is one of the shortest par 4s, with one of the widest fairways. However, Tillinghast made it challenging by locating three fairway bunkers on the right, a large tulip poplar tree on the left, and a meandering stream that crosses in front and to the right of the green. The green slopes back-left to front-right. Robert Trent Jones removed one of three right-hand fairway bunkers in the driving area, which was restored by Gil Hanse.


Hole 12 (Par 4/446 yards) The fairway is sloping right-to-left and lies between a bunker on the right and trees on the left. Its aesthetics combined with its challenge make it a quintessential Tillinghast parkland hole. The first bunker, one of Tillinghast’s deception bunkers, was removed in the mid-1960s by Robert Trent Jones, but was restored by Gil Hanse. The green is very difficult, sloping from back to front with deep bunkers left and front-right, and an original grass bunker on the right. The original hole 12 was rebuilt because of changes required by construction of the Hutchinson River Parkway. Hole 13 (Par 3/234 yards) This longest of the par 3s has a large deception bunker 25 yards short of the green and running diagonally from left to right. The bunker is deceiving because, from the tee, the near side of the right bunker appears to be directly fronting the green, but in reality, is about 60 yards from the putting surface. This bunker exemplifies Tillinghast’s favorable design tactic of toying with a player’s depth perception. The green is traversed diagonally by a trough running from front-left to back-right, which makes it challenging to read. This hole was built at the time of land acquisition by the Hutchison River Parkway. Hole 14 (Par 5/576 yards) - “The Sahara” Tillinghast is widely acknowledged as the master of the par 5 hole, and the restored 14th may be his best. Some even consider this to be the best hole that Tillinghast designed, at any course – including his well-known par 5 holes: the 12th at Winged Foot West, the 17th and 18th at Baltusrol Lower, and the 4th at Bethpage Black. The view from the tee of twenty bunkers gives it the apt name of “Sahara.” The first two shots must cover 480 yards to clear the cross bunkers and reach the uphill green; the uphill second shot is one of only two blind plays on the course. The two-sided green is divided into right and left halves with a large serpent seemingly buried in the middle of the green. The original hole was reworked by Tillinghast in 1927. Robert Trent Jones removed fourteen fairway bunkers on the left side; removed and designed five cross-bunkers, removed one bunker up to the right just past the cross-bunker complex, and; removed two bunkers behind the green. All of these bunkers were restored by Gil Hanse as well as the original green size. Hole 15 (Par 4/408 yards) Tillinghast made the landing on this downhill hole deceptively wide, with ten yards of fairway hidden behind tall trees that guard the left side. At 280 yards, a creek crosses the fairway. Beyond are two of Tillinghast’s deception bunkers; one bunker to the left and a sister bunker to the right that were removed in the mid-1960s by Robert Trent Jones, but restored


by Gil Hanse. Another previous bunker was discovered and reinstalled in 2019. The green has a small but steep mound on the right-front and a steep slope at the back. Hole 16 (Par 4/430 yards) A wall of trees on the left hides a parallel water hazard in the form of a stream. Two winged-bunkers flank the right side. The approach to the green is guarded by a gentle incline, with deep bunkers left and right. Tillinghast’s scalloped-bunker at the rear seldom comes into play, but it does provide a perception of where the green is, both from the tee and from the second shot. The green is characterized by an arcing ridge that separates the steeply sloped front from the flatter rear plateau. Robert Trent Jones removed a right-hand fairway bunker in the driving area; the bunker was restored by Gil Hanse. Another original bunker was recently discovered in a historic photograph and will be restored in 2021. Hole 17 (Par 4/371 yards) The right of the fairway is flanked by two bunkers. The green was recently reduced back to its original size and is protected by four bunkers. The steep-faced bunker at front left is the most notable. The large oak behind the green is another one of Tillinghast’s “aiming trees.” Robert Trent Jones doubled the size of the green to the left in the 1960s, but it was restored to its original size by Gil Hanse in 2009. Jones also moved two right-hand fairway bunkers toward the green and removed one. Hole 18 (Par 4/415 yards) On this last hole, the drive can be aimed straight at the flagpole next to the clubhouse. Tillinghast designed another deception bunker 85 yards short of the green that appears to be right beside it from a drive place on the right-hand side of the fairway. The large green itself is uphill. A right-hand bunker at the green was added by Robert Trent Jones in 1963 to balance one on the left side, but was removed by Gil Hanse to restore the original design. Jones also removed the right-hand fairway deception bunker that was also restored by Hanse. ASSOCIATED NON-CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES There is a total of 32 non-contributing resources (17 buildings and 15 structures) located within the NRHP boundary of the Quaker Ridge Golf Club. The non-contributing resources are considered as such because they fall outside the period of significance. The buildings and/or structures are generally small in relation to the clubhouse and were erected to support the operation of the club. These include buildings dedicated to employee housing, utilities, maintenance operations, and additional member amenities.


ENTRANCE ON GRIFFEN AVE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) Paired, rubble-stone pillars with slate caps are flanked by curved wall segments. The pillars support metal entrance gates featuring the Quaker Ridge Golf Club logo. The entrance was constructed in 2018. GOLF SHOP (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The “L”-configured, gable-roofed main block has been enlarged with two gable-roofed additions projecting from one end of the “L.” The short arm of the “L” features a dormer on each slope. The structure is clad in stucco, and the roof is slate. The Golf Shop was constructed before 1978. HALF-WAY HOUSE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The stuccoed Half-Way House, constructed ca. 2006, is cruciform in plan, with a slate hipped roof that features a kick at the eaves. The longitudinal block has a small gable-roofed dormer on each slope. French doors open onto the pool area. POOL AND POOL HOUSE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The hipped-roofed Pool House is rectangular in plan. The slate roof features three dormers on both long sides and a kick at the eaves. The pool is rectangular and was constructed in 1935. The complex was constructed at a later date and has been altered, therefore is not contributing. TENNIS HOUSE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The hipped roof of the Tennis House covers an open porch on one long side in addition to the enclosed portion of the rectangular building. The building is clad with stucco, and the slate roof features three gable-roofed dormers on each long side and a kick at the eaves. The Tennis House was built ca. 2010. GOLF TEACHING STUDIO (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The gable roof has been extended toward the façade to form a reverse saltbox configuration; a three-bay projection is centered on the façade and features an intersecting gable roof. A vehicular ramp down to the basement level abuts the projection on the south side. The building was constructed ca. 2000.


SHELTER (NON-CONTRIBUTING) Four wood posts support a fiberglass-shingle clad, shallow, pyramidal roof. Interior vertical board partitions are aligned below the ridges of the roof, dividing the shelter into four triangular spaces, open on the third side. Continuous wood benches are attached to the interior partitions. SHELTER (2 NON-CONTRIBUTING) The simple shed structure has the short slope of the asymmetrical gable roof toward the façade. The façade features a wide arched opening. The roof is clad with fiberglass shingles, the walls with vertical boards and batten siding, and the floor is gravel. SHELTER W/ RESTROOMS (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The rectangular, gable-roofed structure is open on the left half of the long side forming the façade. On the right side are men’s and women’s restrooms. The roof is clad with fiberglass shingles and the walls with vertical board and batten siding. The shelter and restrooms were constructed ca. 2015. RESTROOMS (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The small structure has the gable end of the roof forming part of the façade. The gable is supported on two posts, and the front section of the structure is open on three sides. The rear section contains men’s and women’s restrooms. The roof is clad with fiberglass shingles, and the walls with clapboards. The restrooms were constructed ca. 2000. EMPLOYEE HOUSING (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The employee housing building is a one-and-a-half-story hip-roofed structure, rectangular in plan, built into a slope; the side opposite the slope is a grade, forming a lower story. A hip-roofed porch projects toward the parking lot at the north end, providing access to the main story. A long dormer is featured on each side of the roof ridge; each dormer has five bays, with the end and center bays exhibiting gable roofs, with shed roofs in between. The building is clad with stucco, and the roof is clad with fiberglass shingles. The building was constructed ca. 2010 PUMP HOUSE (NON-CONTRIBUTING)


The two-bay by two-bay pump house has a gable end facing the road. The floor level is at grade, and a stone base rises to the height of the windowsills. The cladding above the stone is stucco, and the roof is clad with fiberglass shingles. The pump house was constructed ca. 2010. MAINTENANCE BUILDING (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The maintenance building is comprised of a gable-roofed, one-story rectangular building with two wings projecting from the side-wall façade. The projection toward the south end is offset from the gable end and has a second projecting section toward the road with a slightly lower ridge line; these two sections feature casement windows and a pedestrian door set in a recessed corner porch. The projection toward the north end features an overhead door and a pedestrian door, and has a roof that continues beyond the wall of the gable end to form an open porch. Two large overhead doors are situated on the side wall between the two projections. A louvered cupola is set on the main roof at each end, aligned with the ridge of the projection. The building is at grade, and a stone base runs around the perimeter rising to the level of the windowsills. The building is clad in a stucco system, and the roof is clad with fiberglass shingles. The building was constructed ca. 2010. MAINTENANCE STRUCTURE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) This maintenance structure has the appearance of a metal shipping container, with double metal doors on the long side and a flat metal roof. It is set on a steel frame that rests on a concrete slab on grade. The building was constructed ca. 2010. MAINTENANCE STRUCTURE (NON-CONTRIBUTING) The storage shelter for bulk landscaping materials has a shed roof, with the peak of the slope at the façade. The façade is open, with a center supporting post. The wall material from grade to the lower edge of the roof slope is cast concrete, with horizontal wood siding in the half-gables. The roof is clad with fiberglass shingles. The building was constructed ca. 2010. BRIDGES (14 NON-CONTRIBUTING) A total of fourteen bridges with flat substructures cross various waterways and water hazards; some are vehicular and some are pedestrian. The parapets are dressed rubble stone. The bridges are all of similar design and were reconstructed in the twenty-first century.

NPS Form 10-900a OMB No. 1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Quaker Ridge Golf Club Name of Property Section 8 Page 1 Westchester, New York County and State

Summary Statement of Significance Quaker Ridge Golf Club, located in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York, is significant under Criterion C for design in the area of Landscape Architecture for its golf course by Albert Warren Tillinghast (1876-1942), and in the area of architecture for its clubhouse design by Ely Jacques Kahn (1884-1972). A. W. Tillinghast, one of the country’s premier golf course architects during the 1920s so-called “Golden Age” of American golf course design, was a proponent of “The Course Beautiful,” a philosophy that emphasized integration of the course into the landscape, and of the strategic course as opposed to the previously-dominant penal course. Beginning in 1917, Tillinghast was contracted by the Club to improve the existing nine-hole course, as well as the addition of nine more holes. In 1924, the Club acquired an additional 28 acres to be used for the expansion and redesign of four holes, for which Tillinghast’s services were once again retained in 1927. The Quaker Ridge Golf Course, in its current form, is substantially Tillinghast’s 1927 rendition of the landscape architecture, and although alterations were made post-1927, the course was restored by Gil Hanse using historic aerials and course archeology in the 21st century. The Clubhouse was the work of Ely Jacques Kahn, a leading New York City architect in the early twentieth century who was directed by the membership to design a cozy, homelike clubhouse to meet the growing needs of their membership. He has been called “one of the foremost architects practicing during New York’s highly productive building years of the 1920s and early 1930s.”9 Quaker Ridge Golf Club clubhouse was one of only two clubhouses he designed, for which he reverted to historically derived themes rather than the Art Deco style he was known for. The Tudor-revival style clubhouse was completed in 1923 and was altered in 1934 with the expansion of the dining room, and again in 1951-52 with the redesign of the entrance porch.10 The Quaker Ridge Golf Club has further significance under Criterion A in the area of recreation and social history for its part in the broad patterns of anti-Semitism among elite Gentiles because of which Jews were prohibited from membership in golf and country clubs, and because of which the Jewish responded by building their own clubs of equal excellence in design, resources, and status. Quaker Ridge Golf Club was formed by a group of wealthy German Jews from New York City who were denied membership in other prestigious golf clubs in the area due to discriminatory practices. The group retained the first order of architects for both the course and the clubhouse with a resulting facility of high architectural design. The Period of Significance begins in 1901 with the construction of the school, and terminates in 1952, with the alteration of the clubhouse’s entrance façade. Four of Tillinghast’s courses have previously been nominated to the National Register: Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ; Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, NJ; Johnson City Country Club in Johnson City, TN; and Winged Foot Golf Club, across Griffen Avenue from Quaker Ridge, in Mamaroneck, NY. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: OVERVIEW & EARLY DEVELOPMENT Quaker Ridge Golf Club was founded on January 5, 1916 by a group of members of the Harmonie Club of Manhattan; a club which formed in 1852, making it the second oldest social club in New York City, and which limited membership to those of German-Jewish descent. The stated objective of the Quaker Ridge Golf Club was “to promote the game of golf, and other sports, and also social intercourse, among its members, and to furnish suitable facilities therefore.”11 The men had first met the previous December to discuss the possibility of buying the assets of the Quaker Ridge Country Club which was facing financial difficulties. In early 1914, the Metropolitan Golf Links, Inc., had purchased 112 acres in

9 New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, “2 Park Avenue Building designation,” 18 April 2006, p. 10. 10 Richard M. Livingston, “History of Quaker Ridge Golf Club,” unpublished ms., 1991, p. 19. 11 Richard M. Livingston, “History of Quaker Ridge Golf Club,” unpublished ms., 1991, pp. 4-5


Scarsdale and had leased the land for ten years to the Quaker Ridge Country Club. The Country Cub had nine golf holes designed and built by John Duncan Dunn, a respected early golf architect, and used a large frame farmhouse existing on the site as their clubhouse. The country club soon failed financially and was forced to sell its leasehold to the new organization on February 18, 1916. The Quaker Ridge Golf Club was officially incorporated on February 26, 1916 with a recorded ninety-two members.12 The club immediately began negotiating to buy more land and contacted George Low, the golf pro at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey, and golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast to obtain their opinions on the suitability of the property for an eighteen-hole course. Both men submitted positive replies, leading to the purchase of the additional acreage, and in 1917 Tillinghast was hired to revise the original nine holes and design nine additional ones.13 In 1916, Scarsdale was just beginning its transition from rural area to residential suburb. In 1900, the village had 885 residents, which increased to 1,300 by 1910. The Bronx River Parkway was begun in 1907 and opened in Westchester County in 1922. Train service into New York City, which had originated in the mid-nineteenth century, was electrified by New York Central in 1910, providing cleaner, faster service. The improved transportation links with New York City initiated an exponential growth in population, and development of numerous golf clubs on the former farm fields. Between 1910 and 1920, the population increased by 170% to 3,506, then again by 176% to 9,690 by 1930. During that period, golf clubs founded in and around Scarsdale included: Wykagyl Country Club, 1904; Westchester Hills Golf Club, 1913; Metropolitan Golf Links (now Quaker Ridge Golf Club), 1914; Leewood Golf Club 1922; Winged Foot Golf Club and Scarsdale Country Club, both 1923; Fenway Golf Club, 1929; and Saxon Woods Golf Course, 1930. Population growth slowed in the 1940s, then surged again in the 1950s to almost 18,000, a number that has remained fairly constant ever since. ALBERT WARREN TILLINGHAST Tillinghast (1874 – 1942) was the scion and only child of a wealthy Philadelphia family. His father established a prosperous rubber goods business and had the means to provide his son with everything he wanted. Tillinghast was not able to focus on his studies and never completed school. He excelled at sports, winning medals in track, but accomplished little else. He flunked out of several colleges and was living a life of idleness when he discovered the game of golf, probably at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. Golf soon became his purpose in life. Tillinghast concentrated all his natural abilities on the game, becoming a skillful photographer, a talented writer of humorous fiction about golf, and an entrepreneur of miniature golf courses and driving ranges. He also developed into an expert golfer. In 1911, an affluent friend of his father’s heard of his passion and invited him to lay out a course for Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, located in Pennsylvania on the Delaware River just north of the Delaware Water Gap.14 Tillinghast was thirty-five at the time, and he had finally found his true calling. After that his career developed rapidly year by year. In 1913, he designed a course at Abington Hills, and the following year at Belfield Country Club and Wanago Country Club. Nineteen-fifteen saw him designing four courses, including the celebrated San Francisco Golf Club. By the time he was first contacted by Quaker Ridge the following year, he had produced a small but respected body of work.

12 Ibid., p. 5. 13 Ibid., p. 7. 14 C.C. Worthington, of the Worthington Pump Company and original developer of Shawnee, was a friend of Tillinghast’s father. Reportedly the elder Tillinghast suggested to Worthington that his son would like to try his hand at designing the new course to be added to the original nine holes and thus secured him the commission.


During his more-than-decade-long association with Quaker Ridge, he became nationally known as one of the leading golf course architects, primarily through his work at the Upper and Lower Courses at Baltusrol and the East and West Courses at Winged Foot. He averaged about seven course designs a year throughout this period. The onset of the Depression put an abrupt end to the construction of new golf courses and the Golden Age of golf-course design. Along with most other architects of courses and buildings, Tillinghast saw his career disintegrate and had to look elsewhere for the means to make a living. He turned to selling his own furniture, in the guise of an antique store, Wister Antiques Tillinghast Inc., operated out of his home in Harrington Park. He also began to concentrate more on his writing career. He received one more important commission in 1933 when Robert Moses, president of the Long Island State Park Commission, asked him to design Bethpage Black; this course became his final masterpiece.15 Tillinghast became a consultant for the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) in 1935. The PGA was looking for an attraction to retain members during the Depression and hired Tillinghast to act as a course consultant to member clubs. As Tillinghast described the mission “the P.G.A. is retaining the undivided services of a golf course architect of international repute and day after day, week after week, month after month he will reach to the far corners and visit even the little, out- of-the-way courses, to help them with their problems.”16 The undertaking was a success both for Tillinghast, who acquired a source of income, and the PGA, which was able to retain members and survive the Depression. Tillinghast visited hundreds of clubs throughout the country over two years, offering advice and leaving his mark on an innumerable number of courses. Despite the contract with the PGA, the Harrington Park home was lost to foreclosure in 1936, and the Tillinghast’s moved to California. There they open another antiques shop in 1939, Tillinghast Authentic Antiques, again selling some of their own furniture. Tillinghast’s final golf course design attempt was in association with William P. “Billy” Bell and was met with only limited success. He suffered a serious heart attack in 1940, after which he and his wife moved to Toledo, Ohio to live with his daughter. He died at the age of 68 from a second heart attack in 1942.17 Tillinghast is known as an iconoclastic designer for his part, along with his contemporaries Donald Ross, Alistair MacKenzie, and Charles Blair McDonald (who became collectively known as the four pillars of the classical school of golf course architecture) in developing the concept of the strategic course. Previously, golf course design had been dominated by the penal concept, which allows only one ideal path from tee to green, and punishes the player for diverging from that route. Quaker Ridge is a significant example of Tillinghast’s developing design approach, begun early in his career, and tweaked and improved upon in the 1920s when he was at the peak of his career, following his designs for Baltusrol and Winged Foot Golf Clubs. Perhaps Tillinghast’s most significant contribution to golf course design was the philosophy of “The Course Beautiful.” In his words, “he, who plans any hole for golf, should have two aims: first, to produce something which will provide a true test of the game, and then consider every conceivable way to make it as beautiful as possible.”18 His other major influence on golf course design was his development of the “strategic course,” as opposed to traditional “penal” courses.19 The tee,

15 Philip Young, A. W. Tillinghast: Creator of Golf Courses, Pearl River, NY: Classics of Golf, 2005, pp. 116-130. 16 A. W. Tillinghast, writing in Golf Illustrated, July and August 1935, quoted in Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 139. 17 Philip Young, A. W. Tillinghast: Creator of Golf Courses, Pearl River, NY: Classics of Golf, 2005, pp. 142-180. 18 Ibid., p. 233. 19 There is only one path from the tee to the hole in a penal course design; any deviation from this course is “penalized” by confrontation with a hazard such a bunker or pond. There is more than one path in the strategic course, each having advantages and


the fairway, the bunkers, and the green were all design elements for which he had strong opinions; his philosophy of design was stated in his extensive writings and manifested in his designed courses. Quaker Ridge features examples of his precepts for all components. Typically, the strategic design philosophy forces the player to conceptualize playing each hole starting with the pin position on the green and working the placement of each shot from green back to the tee. In other words, the player starts thinking about attacking each hole essentially backwards starting with the green. One excellent example of this is the eighth hole where the fairway in the drive area is bifurcated with two large mounds surrounded by approximately 50 yards of rough running down the middle of the fairway. If the pin is on the right-hand side of the green, the accomplished player will play his tee shot to the left side of the fairway so there is plenty of green to play into. If the pin is on the left-hand side of the green, the player will conversely attempt to play down the right-hand side of the split fairway. Tillinghast’s strategic layout promoted the design philosophy where each hole has two or more potential paths to the green, each with its own risks and rewards. For example, a shorter route may encounter a hazard that can be avoided by choosing a longer path. The player must choose the best route for his or her own skill set, adding a level of mental engagement to the physical exercise. Remarkably, the approach shots to each hole at Quaker Ridge, with two exceptions, can be played with either a ground-hugging, run-up shot or a lofted shot. Tillinghast used all the means at his disposal - the placement and form of tees, the placement of bunkers, the shape of fairways, and the configuration of greens – to achieve his strategic designs. Before Tillinghast, most tees were small, raised, mathematically precise structures with no room for optional placement. The greens tended to be flat and depressed and were not visible from a distance. Tillinghast’s tees encompassed a large area, allowing for a choice of tee-marker placement. They also sloped naturally into the landscape in line with his “course beautiful” philosophy. He used natural contours wherever possible when designing greens. In his own words “the character of the putting greens and their approaches mark the quality of a course to a far greater extent than anything else.”20 In Tillinghast’s design philosophy, “a teeing area should allow a hole to be played from varying angles on different days and conditions.”21 A good example of a Tillinghast tee at Quaker Ridge is Hole 16. Tillinghast’s tees are larger and more varied than previous mathematically designed tees and accommodate different strategic approaches as well as allowing for changing wind and weather conditions. Another Tillinghast observation revolved around tee alignment. In Tillinghast’s words, “Often when there are two or three teeing grounds provided for one hole, they are laid out in a straight line. This not only looks artificial, but the arrangement robs the hole of variety.”22 A Quaker Ridge example of non-aligned tees can be seen on Hole 14. Another unique device that Tillinghast used was the placement or retention of large trees behind the green on many holes. He would remove other trees in the vicinity to encourage the growth of what he called, “aiming trees.” Although the ravages of time have eliminated many of these trees at Quaker Ridge, significant examples can still be seen behind the 3rd, 9th, and 17th holes.

disadvantages. For example, the most direct route might play over a bunker, while the safer route around the bunker would be longer. On strategic courses, often the most direct line is rewarded with an easier approach to the green. The player must strategize which route best suits his abilities. 20 A. W. Tillinghast, quoted in Paul Daley, ed., Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective, vol. 5 (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2009), 21 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 196. 22 A. W. Tillinghast, writing in The American Golfer, May 1932, quoted in Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 196


Tillinghast thought fairways “should be rather irregular in shape and not like bowling alleys through the woods.”23 He wrote of “Dog-legs, Elbows and Capes, and even Double Dog-Legs.”24 He found angled fairways more attractive and thought they better highlighted the terrain.25 At Quaker Ridge, dogleg fairways include Holes 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 14, and 16. Greens were Tillinghast’s forte: “He was gifted at the designs of greens with contours and bunkering that made them works of art.”26 Tillinghast’s legendary greens can be “bold and imaginative, subtle and cunning, huge and sweeping, small and flat.”27 Each green at Quaker Ridge is of a unique Tillinghast design, but particularly interesting examples include the dramatic green on Hole 1, as well as those on Holes 6 and 10. He made the green on Hole 12 extremely difficult, sloping from back to front, and the green on Hole 14 has been described as featuring “a hog-back that appears to have a serpent buried in the middle.”28 It can be argued that the bunkers are as characteristic of Tillinghast’s course designs as are the greens. Earlier designed courses often featured large numbers of identical bunkers placed indiscriminately. Tillinghast used fewer bunkers, placed strategically, and designed each one individually. He believed that bunkers should be “artistically dynamic in design and often accomplished this through the use of ‘finger-like’ protrusions into the bunker itself.”29 At Quaker Ridge, his bunkering tour de force is Hole 14, called “Sahara,” with no fewer than twenty bunkers. In this example, bunkers line the fairway, cross the fairway, and surround the green, and every one is of an individual design, yet they work as a coherent whole to frame the hole. One of the visual devices that Tillinghast used to great effect at Quaker Ridge was the strategic placement of what he referred to as deception bunkers. Borrowing from camouflage experts in the Second Boer War at the turn of the twentieth century, Tillinghast placed bunkers in front of several greens in a manner that appears from the fairway to be on the edge of the green, but in fact are many yards back, in one case at least forty yards removed from the green. These can be found on the 1st, 12th, 13th (most notably) and 18th holes. With limited acreage, Quaker Ridge has never had the latitude to host a major tournament, such as one of the two most prestigious annual men’s tournaments, the US Open Championship and the PGA Championship. However, it has hosted many regional tournaments, starting in 1935 when sectional rounds for the US Open were played there. The next year, the Metropolitan Open, one of the country’s most prestigious events, was played at Quaker Ridge and won by legendary player Byron Nelson (1912-2006), his first significant victory. In 1997 Quaker Ridge hosted the Walker Cup (biennial contest between US and UK teams), and in 2018, the Curtis Cup (for women amateur golfers). Golfers and golf course critics alike have had universally high praise for Quaker Ridge over the years, and it has regularly appeared on lists of one-hundred best golf courses in the world. After playing in the Metropolitan Open in 1936, professional golfer Paul Runyan called it “the greatest golf course in the world.”30 In 2017, Golf Magazine placed it as

23 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 201. 24 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 201. 25 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 200. 26 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 216. 27 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 215. 28 Roger Schiffman, ed. Martin Davis, Quaker Ridge Golf Club: The First 100 Years, Greenwich, CT: The American Golfer, Inc., 2016, n.p. 29 Young, A. W. Tillinghast, p. 226. 30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_Ridge_Golf_Club. Retrieved 31 October 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_Ridge_Golf_Club


#78 in the world and #40 in the country; in 2019 Golf Digest ranked it #71 overall in the country and #31 in a list of best classic courses.31 Over the years, the course has foundly been referred to as “Tillie’s Treasure.” A designed golf course is not static, but constantly grows and evolves. Changes over a period of years can be extensive, even without an intent to redesign elements. Turf slowly encroaches on the edges of bunkers; trees grow taller and become hazards or die and disappear; natural erosion and settlement change the critical topography of greens. In addition to these forces of nature, at Quaker Ridge the lack of manpower and gasoline during World War II resulted in less-complicated mowing patterns, and Tillinghast’s contoured greens and bunkers lost some nuances of his design. In addition to natural changes in the landscape, the game of golf itself has evolved over time. Tillinghast had already witnessed changes to balls and clubs in his lifetime. Gutta Percha balls, which had replaced original cowhide and boiled goose-feather balls from 1848, had themselves been replaced by rubber-core balls by 1899. Wooden clubs had acquired iron heads by the late nineteenth century. Steel shafts replaced wooden-shafted clubs in the early 1930s. Cast irons were introduced in the 1970s, metal headed clubs were widely accepted in the early 2000s and “rescue” hybrids were introduced a bit later. Though Tillinghast could not specifically anticipate the innovation of graphite shaft clubs and balls made of solid polymer, he realized that evolution would continue, and a successful golf course must be capable of adapting. He laid out his courses so there would be adequate room for tees to be lengthened as the need for longer yardage developed. This was a change from earlier designed courses that frequently placed the tee for one hole hard against the green for the previous. All golf courses evolve due to changes in the game and equipment, changes in maintenance procedures, and changes in construction standards for systems such as drainage. As developments in clubs and balls make distances easier to achieve, it is necessary for tees to be moved back to lengthen holes and keep the game competitive. This has happened at Quaker Ridge only twice over the years, less than at other significant courses. All the golf architects known to have worked on the Quaker Ridge course have been at the top of their profession, with national reputations. Tillinghast’s course remained unaltered until 1965 when Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his assistant Frank Duane were hired to design the first underground irrigation system. They also slightly lengthened the course, redesigned bunkers, and expanded greens. R. T. Jones’s son Rees Jones further lengthened the course and renovated more bunkers between 1991 and 1993 in preparation for the 1997 Walker Cup. Most recently, between 2008 and 2010, Gil Hanse, founder and president of Hanse Golf Course Design, Inc., (Malvern PA) restored every hole, working on six each year. As much as was feasible, he returned the course to Tillinghast’s original design intent. Hanse has a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University; while at Cornell, he received the William Frederick Dreer Award, enabling him to spend a year in the United Kingdom studying historic golf course architecture, and interning with the firm of Hawtree and Son, which was founded in 1912 and is possibly the oldest continuously practicing golf-course architectural firm in the world. Hanse was also the architect for the golf course commissioned for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Hanse’s three-part goal at Quaker Ridge was to restore all greens as closely as possible to the configuration they had in 1927 when Tillinghast completed the second phase of his work on the course; to restore to their original configuration almost all the bunkers that had survived, and; to lengthen the course where possible and appropriate, so that the course would play as Tillinghast intended. Some bunkers were recreated closer to greens to bring them back into play. At Quaker Ridge, Hanse worked from period aerial photographs, since the original Tillinghast drawings have been lost.32 He also

31 Worldgolfer.blog2018/07/30review-quaker-ridge-golf-club/. Retrieved on 31 October 2019. 32 Roger Schiffman, ed. Martin Davis, Quaker Ridge Golf Club: The First 100 Years, Greenwich, CT: The American Golfer, Inc., 2016, 121-122.


used laser scanning methodology to ensure that the original Tillinghast greens were reconstructed as accurately as possible to the original shape and size.33 34 Tillinghast worked on hundreds of courses through his work for the PGA in the 1930s. He is credited for the entire design for eighty-six. Thirty-five of these were nine-hole courses, never built, actually designed by others, or no longer exist. Eighteen of the remaining fifty-one have lost integrity through redesign or loss of individual holes. Tillinghast’s primary design contribution is generally considered to be made up of ten of the thirty-five extant courses that retain a reasonable degree of integrity. Some of these courses have appeared repeatedly on Golf Digest’s biennial list of the 100 best courses in the United States since it was instituted in 1966; Quaker Ridge first appeared on the list in 1968. In alphabetical order, with their Golf Digest 2019-2020 ranking, they are:

• Baltimore Country Club Five Farms East, Baltimore, MD – not ranked in 2019-2020; • Baltusrol Golf Club Upper and Lower Courses (36 holes) – Lower: #41, ranked for all 54 years; Upper: #61,

ranked for the last 8 years; • Bethpage State Park Black Course, Farmingdale, NY – #37, ranked for 30 years; • Quaker Ridge Golf Club, Scarsdale, NY – #71, ranked for 50 years; • San Francisco Golf Club, San Francisco, CA – #35, ranked for 50 years; • Somerset Hills, (18 holes) Bernardsville, NJ – #63, ranked for 36 years; • Winged Foot Golf Club, West and East Courses (36 holes), Mamaroneck, NY – West, #11, ranked for all 54

years; East, #52, ranked for 35 years. Almost a century since he was at the height of his career, Tillinghast’s legacy is remarkable. Significantly, more national championships have been played on Tillinghast courses than on courses designed by any other architect. Despite the work of many talented designers throughout that century, ten percent of the best one-hundred golf courses in the country today are the work of Tillinghast, making him one of a handful of the most significant American golf course architects. Because it is too constrained to host major tournaments, Quaker Ridge Golf Club has not had the national celebrity of Winged Foot or Baltusol, yet it is generally considered to be in their league by the golf world design authorities. ELY JACQUES KAHN Ely Jacques Kahn (1884-1972), architect of the clubhouse, was the only son of an educated, middle-class New York City family. His early ambition was to become a painter, but he pursued architecture as a more practical career. He received a BA from Columbia College in 1903 and a BArch from the Columbia School of Architecture in 1907.35 Following graduation from Columbia, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and received an Architecte Diplomé par le Gouvernement Francais in 1911. While in Paris one of his paintings won an award at the 1910 Salon des Artistes Francais, and in 1911 he was awarded the Prix Labarre against 1,500 competitors, the first non-Frenchman to be so honored.36 He became a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1921, and was made a Fellow in 1934. He was a Professor of Design at Cornell University in 1914-15, and later taught classes at New York University. He was described as “an extensive reader of English, French and German literature…interested in all phases of architecture and the allied arts and the craftsmanship of metals, textiles, glass and other related materials. To all of these

33 Email from Ben Hillard at Hanse Golf Course Design, Inc. to Penelope Watson, 26 February 2020. 34 The greenscan also provides the club with the ability to maintain the footprint of the greens in the future. 35 http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_3460624/ Retrieved 26 February 2020. 36 “Baldwin Memorial Archive of American Architects,” American Institute of Architects archives, Ely Jacques Kahn file.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_3460624/


he gives studious consideration whether it be the designing of a cosmetic compact or an important structure.”37 Of his personality it was said “His democratic manner, interested consideration of matters bought to his attention, tolerance for the views and opinions of others, and amiable disposition, cause him to be held in friendly regard and respect.”38 In his obituary, the New York Times noted “Architectural critics considered him an exceptionally prolific representative of a period, although not an innovative figure.”39 Kahn spent his long and prolific career in New York City, designing few buildings outside the area. In 1917 he joined Buchman & Fox; after two years Mortimer Fox retired and the firm became Buchman & Kahn. His first designs were residential scale and historically derived. Beginning in 1919, he primarily designed urban commercial buildings with Beaux-Arts elements. On the first day of January 1930, Buchman & Kahn was dissolved, after which he practiced under the name of The Firm of Ely Jacques Kahn.40 In 1940 he went into partnership with Robert Jacobs, in a firm first known as Ely Jacques Kahn and Robert Allan Jacobs, and later as Kahn & Jacobs. In his early career he designed residential buildings based on European vernacular precedents, using half-timbering and wood-shingled hipped roofs, such as his own house in Elmsford, NY. At the same time, his urban buildings began to become more streamlined, with minimal applied decoration. Despite his use of the Colonial-revival style in his early schematic for Quaker Ridge clubhouse and his 1929 constructed design for the Glen Oaks Golf and Country Club clubhouse, he wrote that year a rejection of classicism:

American design in architecture maintains the last bulwark of classicism, if by that term one can refer to veneration of historic form rather than to profound knowledge of classic reasoning. What the clear mind of a Greek of the Periclean period might do, were it possible to present the modern problem to his attention, is interesting to consider. It is reasonable to assume that he would not exert himself to adapt the architecture of Rameses or the faded glories of Babylon. Much American energy is directed toward reproducing anything architectural that possesses an ancestor, whether it be Colonial, Romanesque, Greek, or what one will.41

Kahn also eschewed ornamentation for its own sake stating, “Decoration is a more precious thing than a mere assemblage of dead leaves, swags, bulls’ heads and cartouches. It is primarily a desire to enrich a surface with a play of light and shade which should be accomplished by as careful modelling as would be required to complete a string of acanthus leaves.”42 Quaker Ridge clubhouse is almost totally devoid of superficial ornamentation. The only example is the embossing on the sides of the exposed joists in the living room, a detail that provides “a play of light and shade” at the ceiling. In 1925 he visited the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. The new design approach, which came to be called Art Deco after the Exposition, inspired his work from that time on. He designed office blocs, department stores, hospitals, factories, houses, and restaurants. New York Times called him a “leading architect,” and specifically mentioned the Bergdorf Goodman building at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, the Jay-Thorpe building on West 57th Street, the Squibb

37 Contemporary American Architects: Ely Jacques Kahn,” New York: Whittlesey House of McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1931, n.p. 38 Ibid, n.p. 39 “Ely Jacques Kahn, Leading Architect, Dies at 88,” New York Times, 06 September 1972. 40 Letter from Ely Jacques Kahn to The American Institute of Architects, 08 September 1931, AIA Archives, Ely Jacques Kahn file. 41 Contemporary American Architects,” McGraw-Hill, p. 9. 42 Ibid, p. 20.


building at 745 Fifth Avenue, 100 Park Avenue, 120 Wall Street, 2 Park Avenue, and the buildings at 1400, 1410 and 1450 Broadway.43 In the biographical sketch that was part of his Form of Proposal for Fellowship in the AIA, he stated he entered general practice in 1915, and designed “a number of large building in New York – Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark, Brooklyn. Decorative work in Chicago, Pittsburgh.”44 In the “Achievement in Design” section of the form he listed under Commercial the Borden Building, the Squibb Building, the International Telephone and Telegraph Building, and 2 Park Avenue, all in New York City. Under Domestic, he listed “Quaker Ridge Country [sic] Club” and Glen Oaks Golf Club, as well as two private residences in Elmsford, NY.45 Under “Special Work” he put United States Appraisers’ Stores, Hospital for Joint Disease, and the Hudnut Building. Kahn wrote many articles for architectural journals. During the 1930s when there was little work, he traveled around the United States and East Asia, and wrote Design in Art and Industry in 1935 based on his impressions. His philosophy of design called for a fresh solution for each new architectural problem. During that period, he designed exhibits for the Metropolitan Museum’s Contemporary Art Show in 1929, and their Industrial Arts Exhibitions in 1934 and 1940; He was chief of the Industrial Arts section of the Chicago Fair in 1932-33, and designed the Maritime Transportation Building, the General Cigar Building, and the Ballantine Inn at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. Kahn was a member of Quaker Ridge Golf Club as early as 1919 and was an obvious choice to be the architect when the decision was made in 1922 to construct a new clubhouse. He generally eschewed using historical revival styles, though his early residential projects are an exception. He appears to have designed just one other clubhouse in addition to Quaker Ridge: the 1928 Glen Oaks Golf and Country Club in Queens County,46 a sprawling Colonial-revival structure that was demolished in 1969. At Quaker Ridge, he first experimented with a Colonial-revival style, before settling on Tudor revival. His other commission which most closely resembles the style of the Quaker Ridge clubhouse is the 1922 Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity House at Cornell. Kahn remained an active artist throughout his life, painting primarily in watercolors. His “Tangiers Marketplace,” 1911, is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art owns “New York,” 1958. His file at the American Institute of Architects states that he was a friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Hood, and Ralph Walker, all leading architects of his generation. It also notes that in 1938 he won a Gold Medal Award for the package design for Endocreme; the Gold Medal Award of the Fifth Avenue Association for the Jay-Thorpe Building in 1920; First Prize Award of the Fifth Avenue Association for 100 Park Avenue in 1952;47 and the Mayor’s Award, White Plains, NY for the B. Altman & Co. store in 1952. Ely Jacques Kahn died September 5, 1972. Among the children and stepchildren who survived him were E. J. Kahn, Jr., writer with The New Yorker for five decades, and Cyrus L. Sulzberger, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times. GERMAN-JEWISH ROOTS

43 “Ely Jacques Kahn, Leading Architect, Dies at 88,” New York Times, 06 September 1972. 44 “The American Institute of Architects Form of Proposal for Fellowship” for Ely Jacques Kahn, 13 January 1933. AIA Archives, Ely Jacques Kahn file. 45 Ibid. 46 The club later moved to Old Westbury, NY. 47 “Baldwin Memorial Archive of American Architects,” American Institute of Architects archive, Ely Jacques Kahn file.


Though anti-Semitism has been present in the United States from the beginning, it was of limited import through the mid- nineteenth century, partly because of the relatively small Jewish population. 48,49 Most Jews immigrating before 1880 came from Germany, and soon became prosperous and established citizens who were integrated into the larger society. Starting in 1881 until 1920, about three million Ashkenazi Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, many fleeing pogroms. The sudden influx of large numbers of Jews, most of whom were poor, awakened the xenophobia that emerges periodically in America. Nativists blamed Jews for adverse economic issues. Discrimination grew and affected all aspects of Jewish life, from employment, housing, and membership in clubs and organizations to entry to restaurants and hotels. The development of the country club after the Civil War was the culmination of a complex set of issues. In the 1850s, wealthy Anglo Americans mimicked the British aristocracy by founding cricket clubs in a handful of American cities. About the same time, urban clubs, modeled on London’s men’s clubs were being founded. Following the Civil War, the search was on for a substitute for the British institution, the country house, at the same time outdoor sports such as croquet, lawn tennis, fox hunting, and polo were becoming more popular. The development of such clubs became a national phenomenon in the 1890s and years following when it coincided with the exploding popularity of golf. The middle class soon adopted the country club as a means to improve their own lives, and clubs quickly became the focus of social life for many families at varying levels of social strata.50 Initially, urban and country clubs did not discriminate against Jews of wealth and educational status comparable with that of other members. As women and children became involved socially with country clubs, concern grew that members should only be able to associate with others from their own social circle, particularly since many marriages grew out of relationships initiated at clubs. 51 This coincided with the growing wave of anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth century resulting from increased immigration. The tide appears to have shifted over the course of a single generation. The most publicized incident occurred in 1893 when a frontpage article above the fold in the New York Times was headlined “Mr. Seligman Blackballed.” Theodore Seligman (1855-1907), a Harvard- and Columbia-educated lawyer, was denied membership in New York’s Union League though father, Jesse Seligman (1827-1894), a highly respected banker, had been a long-time member and officer. Members were bitterly divided on the issue, with older members, including future Secretary of State Elihu Root (1845-1937) supporting Theodore’s membership, but being outvoted by a coterie of younger members in opposition.52,53 In reaction to the growth of explicit anti-Semitism, the German Jewish population formed their own country clubs starting as early as 1898 and continuing through the 1920s. Reportedly, by 1926, there were fifty-eight such clubs in the country, with seventeen of them in the New York City area, including the Century Country Club (1898), Sunningdale (1913), Fenway (1924) and Old Oaks (1925).54 The Depression put a halt to the formation of new clubs by anyone, but the status quo regarding membership survived in clubs throughout the twentieth century. Quaker Ridge’s neighbor club, Winged Foot Golf Club, a club of predominantly Irish-Catholic members, had no Jewish members as late as 1959 when it hosted the US Open Championship.55 A late-twentieth-century cause célèbre arose in 1990 when US Open Champion Tom

48 James M. Mayo, The American Country Club: Its Origins and Development, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1998, pp. 29-30. 49 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism_in_the_United_States. Retrieved 20 January 2020. 50 John Steele Gordon, “The Country Club,” American Heritage, Vol. 41, Issue 6, September/October 1990 51 John Steele Gordon, “The Country Club,” American Heritage, Vol. 41, Issue 6, September/October 1990. 52 Mr. Seligman Blackballed,” New York Times, 15 April 1893, p. 1. 53 Jesse Seligman resigned in protest, but the Union League refused to accept his resignation. 54 Richard J. Moss, Golf and the American Country Club, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001, p. 120. 55 Moss, American Country Club, p. 158.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_antisemitism_in_the_United_States


Watson (1949-) resigned from his home club in Kansas City when it rejected magnate Henry Bloch (1922-2019) for membership because he was Jewish; Watson’s then wife was Jewish, and he felt he could not make the Kansas City Country Club his family’s club given its demonstration of discrimination.56 In Golf and the American Country Club, Richard J. Moss writes:

Early in the 1960s Jewish groups began to admit openly what many had assumed was the situation at the country clubs: Jews and Gentiles had their own clubs, and integration did not much interest either group. In 1962 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted a study of over 800 country clubs. The survey discovered that 72 percent practiced rigid religious discrimination or admitted few members of other religious groups. The ADL concluded that Jews practiced discrimination just as vigorously as Gentiles. Although Jews may have organized their clubs in response to their exclusion from existing clubs, the ADL suggested that Jews themselves had become a central factor in “the institutionalization of prejudice.”57

When Quaker Ridge Golf Club was founded in 1916, many of the members belonged to the Harmonie Club, a German-Jewish social club on the upper east side of Manhattan. Quaker Ridge attracted many of the most elite New York citizens, particularly among leading merchants. Members then and in following years included merchants Nathan Straus (1848-1931) (R. C. Macy & Company, Abraham & Straus), Franklin Simon (1865-1934) (Franklin Simson & Co.) Bernard Gimbel (1885-1966) (Gimbel Brothers, Saks Fifth Avenue) and Samuel Bloomingdale (1873-1968) (Bloomingdale’s)58, publisher Alfred Knopf, and composer George Gershwin. Quaker Ridge Golf Club’s national and international membership remains predominantly Jewish. Quaker Ridge Golf Club was one of the seventeen German-Jewish golf clubs enumerated in 1926 in the New York City area. It exemplifies the clubs built by elite German Jews to the highest standards to provide themselves with the first-class golf and social facilities that were denied them by Gentile clubs because of anti-Semitism. SCARSDALE FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT #2 The Scarsdale schoolhouse, now the caddie house, has historic significance that predates and is separate from that of the golf club. The original section was built in 1901 and was officially known as the Scarsdale Free School District #2. The two-section addition was constructed in 1932-34. At that time, the school housed four classrooms and a library. It served as an integrated school in the Scarsdale District through World War II, but was no longer needed after the war when the current Quaker Ridge School was built. It became the property of the club in 1947. The population of Scarsdale grew rapidly after the war, however, and by the early 1950s the school district again needed the building to house an increasing school population. In 1952, Quaker Ridge Golf Club sold the school back to the “Local School District” for $25,000, with the provision that if the use of the building as a school ceased, its ownership would revert to the club.59 In 1957, Scarsdale announced plans for an $800,000 fourteen-room annex for Quaker Ridge School.60 When the annex opened in ca. 1959, School #2 once again became the property of the club. The Schoolhouse retains a high degree of physical integrity on the exterior. The façade, facing Griffen Avenue, is essentially unchanged, as are the north and south elevations. The west (rear) elevation, facing the parking lot, has had

56 Moss, American Country Club, p. 164. 57 Moss, American Country Club, pp. 158-159. 58 Samuel Bloomingdale was an 1895 graduate of the Columbia School of Architecture, but did not pursue a career in architecture. 59 Minutes of the Meeting of the Quaker Ridge Golf Club Board of Directors, 25 May 1952. 60 Edgar Browne “Thousands of Pupils Face Jam Sessions in County,” Daily News (NY, NY), 01 September 1957.


utilitarian openings and doors inserted. On the interior of the1901 section, the framed opening that held the sliding or folding doors that divided the large space into two classrooms is intact. CONCLUSION The Quaker Ridge Golf Club has significance in the history of golf course design in America for its A. W. Tillinghast-designed course. The resource has further design significance as one of only two examples of clubhouse design by prominent New York City architect Ely Jacques Kahn. The course, sometimes known as Tillie’s Treasure, is an excellent example of Tillinghast’s masterful exploitation of the rolling terrain that lends itself to an ideal golf course and is often considered one of Tillinghast’s best designs. It is further significant as an example of a superb golf club built by a group of wealthy New York German Jews when they were barred from becoming members of Gentile clubs in the area.


Bibliography: “2 Park Avenue Building designation.” New York Landmarks Preservation Commission. 2006.

“Baldwin Memorial Archive of American Architects.” American Institute of Architects archives. Ely Jacques Kahn

file.

Bollack, Françoise and Tom Killian. Ely Jacques Kahn: New York Architect. New York: Acanthus Press, 1995.

Contemporary American Architects: Ely Jacques Kahn. Arthur Tappan North, introduction. New York: Whittlesey

House, McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc. 1931.

Diedrich, Richard. The 19th Hole: Architecture of the Golf Clubhouse. Victoria, Australia: The Images Publishing

Group, 2008.

Gordon, John Steele. “The Country Club.” American Heritage, Vol. 41, Issue 6, September/October 1990.

Livingston, Richard M. “History of Quaker Ridge Golf Club.” Unpublished ms., 1991.

Mayo, James M. The American Country Club: Its Origins and Development. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University

Press, 1998.

Moss, Richard J. Golf and the American Country Club. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Quaker Ridge Golf Club archives.

Schiffman, Roger; Martin Davis, ed. Quaker Ridge Golf Club: The First 100 Years. Greenwich, CT: Quaker Ridge Golf Club and the American Golfer, Inc., 2016.

Young, Philip. Tillinghast: Creator of Golf Courses. Pearl River, NY: Future Classics of Golf,

2005.

Wolffe, Richard C., Jr., “The Life and Times of A. W. Tillinghast,” The Tillinghast Association website: www.tillinghast.net.

http://www.tillinghast.net/


Verbal Boundary Description The boundary for the Quaker Ridge Golf Club NRHP nomination is depicted on the enclosed mapping, which was drawn at a scale of 1:12,000. The boundary is delineated by a solid black outline with cross-hatching. All maps are entitled “Quaker Ridge Golf Club, Village of Scarsdale, Westchester, N.Y.” The boundary generally follows a rough triangular shape, bordered by Griffen Ave which runs northeast-southwest, residential development to the west, and the Hutchinson Parkway to the north. Boundary Justification The NRHP nomination boundary reflects historic conditions and represents acreage acquired by the club following the land accusation in 1924 designated for the club expansion. No additional or “buffer” land is included within the boundary. All the associated acreage dates to the cited period of significance.





Photo List Name of Property: Quaker Ridge Golf Club City or Vicinity: Village of Scarsdale County & State: Westchester County, NY Name of Photographer: Penelope Watson/Quaker Ridge Golf Club (course aerials) Photo1_Exterior_Entrance_East : Quaker Ridge Golf Clubhouse, east entrance, 2020

Photo2_Exterior_EastElevation_NorthEnd : Clubhouse, East Elevation, locker room wing, 2020

Photo3_Exterior_NorthElevation : Clubhouse, North Elevation, 2020

Photo4_ Exterior_WestElevation : Clubhouse, West Elevation, looking north, 2020

Photo5 _Exterior_SouthElevation : Clubhouse, South Elevation with dining room addition, looking northwest, 2020

Photo6 _Interior_livingRoom : Clubhouse, Living Room, looking east, 2020

Photo7 _Interior_GrillRoom : Clubhouse, Grill Room original fireplace, 2020

Photo8 _Interior_GrillRoom : Clubhouse, Grill Room, looking west, 2020

Photo9 _Exterior_Schoolhouse_south : Schoolhouse, Facade (South Elevation) facing Griffin Avenue, looking northwest, 2020

Photo10_Interior_Schoolhouse : Schoolhouse, west section showing original classroom divider, 2020

Photo11_Course_Hole2 : Quaker Ridge Golf Club course, Hole 2 looking northwest

Photo12_Course_Hole9 : Quaker Ridge Golf Club course, Hole 9 looking southwest towards the green and memorial flagpole

Photo13_Course_Hole14 : Quaker Ridge Golf Club course, Hole 14 also known as “the Sahara,” looking southeast

Photo14_Course_Hole18 : Quaker Ridge Golf Club course, Hole 18 looking southwest towards the clubhouse


Figure 1

ELY JACQUES KAHN (1884-1972) QUAKER RIDGE GOLF CLUB CLUBHOUSE ARCHITECT

Courtesy of Columbia University Libraries

Figure 2

ELY JACQUES KAHN (LEFT) DRESSED AS THE SQUIBB BUILDING 1931 BEAUX-ARTS BALL

Courtesy of National Geographic

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjYw8GAy7XlAhWFY98KHRSXAKwQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Flibrary.columbia.edu%2Flibraries%2Favery%2Fda%2Fcollections%2Fkahn.html&psig=AOvVaw3emcD5nmJq9iD341sciagD&ust=1572030189798911


Figure 3

RENDERING OF FIRST DESIGN FOR QUAKER RIDGE GOLF CLUB CLUBHOUSE SOUTH ELEVATION SHOWING, FROM RIGHT, LOBBY WING, LIVING ROOM WING, DINING ROOM WING

Courtesy of Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Robert A. Jacobs Photographs


Figure 4

TWO VIEWS OF ARCHITECTURAL MODEL FOR QUAKER RIDGE GOLF CLUB CLUBHOUSE UPPER: WEST ELEVATION LOWER: SOUTH ELEVATION


Figure 5

CLUBHOUSE LOOKING NORTHEAST 1926

Courtesy of Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Research Center,

Robert A. Jacobs Photographs Photographer: Sigurd Fischer


Figure 6

CLUBHOUSE LOOKING SOUTHWEST 1926




Figure 7

CLUBHOUSE LOOKING NORTHWEST 1926




Figure 8

CLUBHOUSE LOOKING SOUTHWEST ENTRANCE LOBBY WING AND LIVING ROOM WING BEYOND

1926

Courtesy of Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Research Center, Robert A. Jacobs Photographs Photographer: Sigurd Fischer


Figure 9

LIVING ROOM LOOKING EAST FROM DINING ROOM 1926




Figure 10

LIVING ROOM AND DINING ROOM BEYOND LOOKING NORTH 1926


Robert A. Jacobs Photographs Photographer: J. W. Giles


Figure 11

MEN’S LOUNGE LOOKING SOUTHWEST (NOW PART OF GRILL ROOM) 1926




Figure 12

GRILL ROOM LOOKING WEST 1926




Figure 13

CLUBHOUSE NOTE EXPANDED DINING ROOM AND RECONFIGURED ENTRANCE

CA. 1952


Figure 14

CONCEPTUAL FIRST FLOOR PLAN CA. 1922


Figure 15

CONCEPTUAL SECOND FLOOR PLAN NOTE: OPEN SLEEPING PORCH WAS NOT BUILT

CA. 1922


Figure 16

ALBERT WARREN TILLINGHAST CA. 1920s


Figure 17

SCARSDALE SCHOOL NO. 2 BEFORE 1947


Green Fairway Bunker Water hazard

Rough Natural hazard

Tee box

Figure 18

GOLF COURSE TERMINOLOGY

Watson & Henry Associates

Documents

NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 10024-0018 (Oct. 1990) National ... · campaigns in 1917 and 1927. The primary contributing architectural component is the 1923 Tudor Revival style clubhouse