Pelham Once Had its Own Toboggan Course

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The Olympic sport of luge is one of the most thrilling winter sports.  Racers rocket down icy chutes that twist and turn to the finish line at speeds of nearly ninety miles per hour.  They travel on the very precipice of death, always at risk of an icy wreck that makes all wince even to consider. 

Pelham, it turns out, once had its own such course, albeit a nineteenth centry version on which toboggans rocketed down icy chutes.  The story behind construction of the course is fascinating.

It truly is impossible to trace the origin and history of the "toboggan."  According to one book published on the subject:

"THE word 'Toboggan' is said to have originated among the North American Indians who applied it to the flat wooden sledges which they used for carrying provisions from camp to camp.  From them the use of the toboggan spread to the more civilised inhabitants of Canada, and for many years tobogganing has been looked upon as the great winter amusement of that country.  Of late years it has been taken up keenly in the United States, where 'coasting' and 'Bob-sleighing' have now become very popular. . . ."

Source:  Gibson, Harry, TOBOGGANING ON CROOKED RUNS, p. 18 (London and New York:  Longmans, Green, and Co., 1894).  

During the 1880s, toboggan fever swept the world.  The first International Race among toboggans was run on February 12, 1883.  id., p. 23.  For a brief summary of the many, many toboggan clubs and courses that popped up in the northeastern United States and in lower Canada during the early 1880s, see Outing, Vol. VII, No. 6, p. 712, col. 2 & p. 713, cols. 1-2 (Mar. 1886).  Though it took a little time, by late 1885 toboggan fever had reached the tiny little Town of Pelham on the outskirts of New York City.  

At the time Pelham was the site of one of the nation's earliest "Country Clubs."  Known simply as "The Country Club," "The Country Club at Pelham," and "The Country Club at Westchester," the organization was begun in the Autumn of 1883.  At that time a group of Pelham Manor residents led by James M. Waterbury joined with a group of New York City “club men” and organized a new “Country Club” dedicated to the enjoyment of all “legitimate sports.” 

By 1884, the Club commenced operations in the nearly-34-acre area encompassed by the Suydam / Morris Estate adjacent to the Bartow property (the site of today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and carriage house. The group converted a mansion on the property known as “Oakshade” (built by artist James Augustus Suydam between 1846 and 1848 and later owned by Richard Lewis Morris) into a clubhouse. The group was unable to buy the property, so it leased the property for five years. 

The property was adjacent to and just northeast of today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum property, but straddled today's Shore Road with most of the property on the Long Island Sound side and about one-third of the acreage on the opposite side of Shore Road now covered by a portion of the Pelham Bay Golf Course.

The Country Club was extraordinarily successful.  Yet, it faced issues.  One such issue was that revenues and member interest declined precipitously during the winter months despite the fact that the Club offered a host of winter sports.  That seemed to change in the winter of 1885-1886.  The President of the club, James M. Waterbury, paid for construction of, and donated to the club, a massive toboggan course that quickly became "the most popular attraction of anything ever started there."

Actually, the course was a marvel.  It was a pair of toboggan slides (known as "chutes") that ran parallel to each other permitting informal and formal races.  Built by James Henderson in about mid-December 1885, various reports described the course as between 750 feet and 800 feet long with a decline of about thirty degrees from its top to its base.  Thus, the two "slides" as they were called were at least as long as two and one-half modern football fields.  

The toboggan chutes began near the clubhouse formerly known as the Oakshade mansion originally built by famed Hudson River School artist James Augustus Suydam.  The clubhouse stood on the Long Island Sound side of today's Shore Road only dozens of yards away from the carriage house that stands on the grounds of today's Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum.  The toboggan chutes extended from near the clubhouse toward Long Island Sound and, shortly before reaching the water's edge, turned southward where, according to one account, the chute emptied onto the adjacent Bartow estate.  The image below shows a very rough approximation of the location of the toboggan chutes built in late 1885.

Google Maps Detail With Arrows Showing A Very Rough Approximation

of the Location and Direction of the Toboggan Chutes Built and Used by

Members of The Country Club in the Winter of 1885-1886.  NOTE:  Click

on Image to Enlarge.

The toboggan course was opened by at least January, 1886.  It became an immediate success.  Parties of happy tobagganers spent afternoons and evenings racing down the chutes, then ended each day with a fine dinner in The Country Club dining room followed by a relaxing evening in front of a roaring fire in the clubhouse fireplace.  According to one report published on February 5, 1886:

"Members and their friends come in large groups from the City to enjoy the sport, returning the same day.  The slide is patronized by all the elite of society.  Messrs. Delancy [sic] and Woodbury Kane, and Smith Haddon, of New York, also Messrs. Bull, F. A. Watson, Wm. Watson, Sands Waterbury and others, have given toboggan parties during the season.  The club grounds pay much better with the toboggan slide, than during the summer with polo and tennis."

Another account published at about the same time said:  "Small and gay parties . . . have gone out there almost every afternoon and, after enjoying the slide, have dined and spent the evening around a blazing wood fire in the clubhouse."  

Club members and their guests found that roaring down the toboggan chutes was thrilling and exhilarating.  One account describing the toboggan chutes at Pelham said:  "Who that has ever ridden can forget the swift mad rush through the air, with the sensation of flying that it brings, the streaming eyes and tingling cheeks, and then the gradual and delicious slowing down, and then the toiling up the hill to return, a task made light by pleasant companionship and cheery laughter."

The sport of tobogganing, of course, was new to Pelhamites at the time.  It seems they could not agree on what should be the proper attire for the sport -- something that seems to have been particularly important to members of The Country Club at Pelham.  One publication noted Pelhamites' faux pas in this respect:

"There is a wide divergence of opinion among society men and women as to what is the proper and respective tobogganing costume, and all resident Canadians or persons who have visited Canada during the winter are eagerly consulted as authorities upon the subject.  Some of the hurriedly made costumes are gorgeous in the extreme, but hardly suited to the rough sport.  The general idea of the proper attire is that it shall surround the body with layers of wool, impervious to cold and invaluable as padding in case of a tumble, for a Canadian tobogganer, when pitched from his conveyance, simply rolls and bounds down the slide after it, like a foot-ball, until he either brings up against some obstacle or reaches the level.  Mr. and Mrs. Teall have set the fashion in tobogganing costumes at Orange, but there is somewhat of a chaos of ideas regarding them at the Country Club."

It appears that the toboggan chutes operated each winter until The Country Club moved its facility across Pelham Bridge to the opposite side of Eastchester Bay at the end of the 1880s.  For a time, however, it was an amazingly successful winter sport embraced by Pelhamites and members of The Country Club at Pelham.

"WINTER SPORTS IN ALBANY.  THE RIDGEFIELD TOBOGGAN CHUTE"

in 1886.  Lithograph.  This Shows a Pair of Side-by-Side Toboggan Chutes

Similar to the One that Once Stood in the Town of Pelham.  NOTE:  Click

on Image to Enlarge.

German Toboggan Course Shown in 1886 Lithograph From

Illustrated Journal of The Times, Published in Germany.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

"TOBOGGANING 1886," a Lithograph Published in 1886 by L. Prang

& Co.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

*          *          *          *          *

"LOCAL INTELLIGENCE. . . .

-- The members of the Country Club intend to enjoy themselves this winter in Canadian style.  They are building a 'toboggan' slide, between 700 and 800 feet long, from the house toward the Sound, and then turn off on to the Bartow estate.  Mr. Jas. Henderson is doing the work. . . ."

Source:  LOCAL INTELLIGENCE, New Rochelle Pioneer, Dec. 19, 1885, p. 3, col. 1.  

"PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND. . . .

The toboggan slide at the Country Club grounds, has become the most popular attraction of anything ever started there.  It is 750 feet long and was built and donated to the Club by Mr. J. M. Waterbury, the president of the Club.  Members and their friends come in large groups from the City to enjoy the sport, returning the same day.  The slide is patronized by all the elite of society.  Messrs. Delancy [sic] and Woodbury Kane, and Smith Haddon, of New York, also Messrs. Bull, F. A. Watson, Wm. Watson, Sands Waterbury and others, have given toboggan parties during the season.  The club grounds pay much better with the toboggan slide, than during the summer with polo and tennis. . . ."

Source:  PELHAM AND CITY ISLAND, The Chronicle [Mount Vernon, NY], Feb. 5, 1886, Vol. XVII, No. 855, p. 1, col. 6.  

"A SLIDE has been built on the grounds of the Country Club, at Pelham, Westchester county.  The slides are two in number, facing each other, after the fashion of the Russian ice-mountains.  Their length is 800 feet.  Steps lead from the sharp ascent up which the toboggan shoots to the starting platform of the other track.  The angle of descent is about 30 [degrees].  It was through the exertions chiefly of Mr. James M. Waterbury, the president of the club, that the slide was built.  The secretary is William Kent."

Source:  Outing, Vol. VII, No. 6, p. 713, cols. 1-2 (Mar. 1886).

"THE WORLD OF SOCIETY.
-----
WINTER SPORTS AFTER LONG WAITING NOW THOROUGHLY ENJOYED.
-----
Sleighing and Tobogganing Monopolize the Attention of the Members of the Gay World -- The Opera and Three Private Dances the Leading Society Events of the Week in the City -- Numerous Teas and Receptions -- The Season Continues Dull -- Weekly Budget of Notes from Connecticut Towns -- Notes from Philadelphia and Albany.

After long delay, the desired advent of the snow king has brought to society its long-desired opportunity for the indulging in winter sports, and almost everything else has been forgotten in preparations for and enjoyment of sleighing, skating, and the new and imported pastime of tobogganing.  The toboggan slides erected by the Essex County Club at Orange, and by Mr. James M. Waterbury in the grounds of the Country Club at Bartow, have been resorted to every afternoon and evening of the week by merry parties of New Yorkers, many of whom have experienced for the first time the delights of the sport, and who, overcoming their first feeling of timidity, are now its devoted enthusiasts.  Would that all imported pastimes and customs were as healthful and beneficial as tobogganing.  Who that has ever ridden can forget the swift mad rush through the air, with the sensation of flying that it brings, the streaming eyes and tingling cheeks, and then the gradual and delicious slowing down, and then the toiling up the hill to return, a task made light by pleasant companionship and cheery laughter.

While the Orange slide has been widely described and heralded, that of the Country Club has crept into notice very unpretentiously.  Small and gay parties, however, have gone out there almost every afternoon and, after enjoying the slide, have dined and spent the evening around a blazing wood fire in the clubhouse.  There is a wide divergence of opinion among society men and women as to what is the proper and respective tobogganing costume, and all resident Canadians or persons who have visited Canada during the winter are eagerly consulted as authorities upon the subject.  Some of the hurriedly made costumes are gorgeous in the extreme, but hardly suited to the rough sport.  The general idea of the proper attire is that it shall surround the body with layers of wool, impervious to cold and invaluable as padding in case of a tumble, for a Canadian tobogganer, when pitched from his conveyance, simply rolls and bounds down the slide after it, like a foot-ball, until he either brings up against some obstacle or reaches the level.  Mr. and Mrs. Teall have set the fashion in tobogganing costumes at Orange, but there is somewhat of a chaos of ideas regarding them at the Country Club. . . ."

Source:  THE WORLD OF SOCIETY -- WINTER SPORTS AFTER LONG WAITING NOW THOROUGHLY ENJOYED, The World [NY, NY], Jan. 17, 1886, p. 16, col. 1.  

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I have written extensively about The Country Club at Pelham and its famous steeplechase races, rides with the hounds, baseball games, polo matches, and other such events of the 1880's.  For a few of many more examples, see:  

Bell, Blake A., The Pelham Steeplechase Races of the 1880s, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIV, Issue 12, March 25, 2005, p. 10, col. 2.

Thu., Mar. 23, 2006:  Baseball Fields Opened on the Grounds of the Westchester Country Club in Pelham on April 4, 1884.

Tue., Apr. 14, 2009:  1889 Account of the Sport of Riding to Hounds by Members of the Country Club Located in Pelham.

Wed., Apr. 15, 2009:  More About the Country Club Sport of "Riding to Hounds" During the 1880s in Pelham.

Thu., Apr. 16, 2009:  A Serious Carriage Accident and Many Tumbles During the Country Club of Pelham's Riding to Hounds Event in November 1889.

Fri., Apr. 17, 2009:  A Brief History of the Early Years of "Riding to Hounds" by Members of the Country Club at Pelham.

Wed., Sep. 09, 2009:  1884 Engraving of Winner of the Great Pelham Steeplechase, Barometer, and His Owner and Rider, J. D. Cheever. 

Wed., Sep. 16, 2009:  September 1884 Advertisement for The Country Club Steeplechase.

Thu., Sep. 17, 2009:  Controversy in 1887 When The Country Club Tries to Dedicate a Large Area of Pelham as a Game Preserve.

Wed., Sep. 30, 2009:  Score of June 1, 1887 Baseball Game Between The Country Club and The Knickerbocker Club.

Mon., Oct. 19, 2009:  Polo at the Country Club in Pelham in 1887.

Fri., Oct. 30, 2009:  Preparations for Annual Country Club Race Ball Held in Pelham in 1887.

Thu., Apr. 15, 2010:  Account of Baseball Game Played in Pelham on June 9, 1884: The Country Club Beat the Knickerbockers, 42 to 22.  

Tue., Feb. 25, 2014:  An Interesting Description of the Country Club at Pelham Published in 1884.

Mon., Mar. 03, 2014:  The Suydam Estate known as “Oakshade” on Shore Road in the Town of Pelham, built by James Augustus Suydam.  

Fri., Sep. 12, 2014:  Reference to an 1884 Baseball Game Between the Country Club of Pelham and Calumet.

Fri., Feb. 27, 2015:  Brief History of the 19th Century "Country Club at Pelham" Published in 1889.

Thu., Jul. 16, 2015:  More on the History of the Country Club at Pelham in the 19th Century.

Tue., Nov. 03, 2015:  A Major Tennis Tournament was Played in Pelham in 1885.

Tue., Feb. 09, 2016:  Polo Played in Pelham in 1887.

Wed., Sep. 07, 2016:  Origins of the Country Club at Pelham and the Move to its New Clubhouse in 1890.

Thu., Jan. 26, 2017:  The First Formal Country Club Hunt in Pelham Began on October 2, 1886 at 2:30 P.M.

Archive of the Historic Pelham Web Site.
Home Page of the Historic Pelham Blog.
Order a Copy of "The Haunted History of Pelham, New York"
Order a Copy of "Thomas Pell and the Legend of the Pell Treaty Oak."