Controversy in 1887 When The Country Club Tries to Dedicate a Large Area of Pelham as a Game Preserve

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Controversy erupted in the Pelham area in 1887 when The Country Club announced that it planned to create a game preserve in an area around its grounds that included portions of the newly-created Pelham Bay Park.  An editorial appeared in The Chronicle published in Mount Vernon.  That editorial is transcribed below, followed by a citation to its source.

"WHAT RIGHT HAVE THEY?

The Country Club, of Westchester County, are giving notice by publication in a contemporary, discribing [sic] certain lands in Pelham and adjoining, which it is proposed to use as a private park, for the purpose of propagating and protecting fish, birds and gains.  The boundaries are given as follows:

'Beginning at the junction of Pelhamdale avenue and Pelham avenue, running thence southerly to Long Island Sound and City Island Narrows, including Hunter's Island, to the southwest point of Pelham Neck; thence northerly and northwesterly along the east shore of Pelham Bay and the easterly bank of Eastchester Creek and Hutchinson River to its junction with the boundry [sic] line between the lands of John Lord and lands now or late of Lewis Hargous; thence along said boundary line, if continued, would intersect the northwesterly boundary line of the lands of the Pelham Manor Protective Association; thence along said boundary of said Association as the same winds and turns along the northerly and easterly side thereof, including the whole of Pelham Manor, until the said boundary intersects Pelhamdale avenue, and thence along said avenue to the point or place of beginning.  And also the following lands in the town of Eastchester, viz:  the two hamocks or hummocks of land now or late belonging to the estage of E. S. Shieffelin and Mrs. Kidd, lying west of Eastchester Creek and near to and north of the pelham and Westchester Road.' 

It seems to us that this is a subject which needs looking into.  What right has the Country Club to assume that it can dedicate a part of the great Pelham Park to private use?  And yet that is just what they propose to do."

Source:  What Right Have They?, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Vol. XVIII, No. 1010, Aug. 12, 1887, p. 1, col. 5.

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