More on the Prospect Hill Golf Course of the Pelham Manor Golf Club

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Many in Pelham know that there once was a golf course in the area of today's Fowler Avenue opened in 1898 by the first Pelham Country Club, a predecessor to today's Wykagyl Country Club in the City of New Rochelle.  See Tue., Nov. 29, 2016:  1902 Report on Activities of The First Pelham Country Club on Fowler Avenue.  Fewer, however, know that several years earlier a golf course opened on Prospect Hill in Pelham Manor.  Pelham, it seems, was in the midst of the golf craze that swept over the New York Region in the mid-1890s.  

On Wednesday, November 6, 1895, Mrs. John Cunningham Hazen (of Pelham Hall, also known as Mrs. Hazen's School for Girls) and her daughter, Miss Edith Cunningham Hazen, opened a tiny golf course on Prospect Hill in Pelham Manor.  The Hazen women, working with others, decided to market the new golf club as an incredibly exclusive club limited to only one hundred upper crust members from Pelham Manor and New Rochelle.  I have written about the Pelham Manor Golf Club before.  See, e.g.:

Tue., Apr. 29, 2014:  More on Golf in Pelham During the 19th Century.  

Tue., Oct. 20, 2009:  Manager of Pelham Manor Golf Links Committed Suicide in 1899. 

Mon., Mar. 09, 2009:  Another Brief Account of Golf at Pelham Manor in 1895. 

Mon., Jan. 14, 2008:  Golf at Pelham Manor in 1895. 

Bell, Blake, The Early Days of Golf in Pelham, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIII, No. 36, Sep. 10, 2004, p. 12, col. 2.

The opening of the new course was held in a tent near the first tee.  The course seems to have been located in an area between today's Washington Avenue and the New York City boundary adjacent to an area denoted in some newspaper articles as "Prospect Hill Park."  The principal organizers of the new club, all women, received guests in the tent.  They included "Mrs. John C. Hazen, Mrs. Robert C. Black, Mrs. Jabish Holmes, and Mrs. Frank Hunter of Pelham Manor, and Mrs. Robert Lathers, Jr., Mrs. Henry Loomis Nelson, and Mrs. Henry D. Noyes of New Rochelle."

Among the notable members of the club who once hacked around the rolling countryside of Prospect Hill were famed western artist Frederic Remington (who lived and painted in New Rochelle) and publishing magnate Howard Scribner, a Pelham resident.

The records of the Pelham Manor Golf Club no longer exist.  Because little was written about the club, it has been exceedingly difficult to piece together its history.  The club seems to have operated until about 1899 when the manager of the club committed suicide after the close of the club's summer season.  At about the same time, of course, the first Pelham Country Club founded in 1898 was offering its members a lovely new nine hole golf course in the area of today's Fowler Avenue.  These two developments seem to have spelled the end of the Pelham Manor Golf Club.

Below is a very brief news item published on November 11, 1895 noting the opening of the new course.  

Hand Colored Half Tone Depicting a Golf Match in 1895.

"A LONG PUTT TO HALVE THE HOLE. -- DRAWN BY A. B. FROST."

1895 Hand Colored Half-Tone.  15 1/2 x 11 Inches.

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.  

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"THE PROGRESS OF GOLF.
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NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM THE CLUBS IN NEW YORK DISTRICT. . . .

The links of the Pelham Manor Golf Club on Prospect Hill adjoining Pelhamville [sic] Park, were formally opened on Wednesday and a reception was held in a tent near the first tee.  The guests were received by Mrs. John C. Hazen, Mrs. Robert C. Black, Mrs. Jabish Holmes, and Mrs. Frank Hunter of Pelham Manor, and Mrs. Robert Lathers, Jr., Mrs. Henry Loomis Nelson, and Mrs. Henry D. Noyes of New Rochelle. . . ."

Source:  THE PROGRESS OF GOLF -- NEWS AND GOSSIP FROM THE CLUBS IN NEW YORK DISTRICT, The Sun [NY, NY], Nov. 11, 1895, p. 8, col. 4.  

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