The Ardsley Country Club or Ardsley Club is a country club in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was founded in August 1895 to "cater to industrialists" such as Amzi Barber,

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

, the Rockefeller brothers, and

Cornelius Vanderbilt II Cornelius "Corneil" Vanderbilt II (November 27, 1843 – September 12, 1899) was an American socialite and a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. Noted forebears He was the favorite grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbil ...

History

Original development

In 1892,

Amzi L. Barber Amzi Lorenzo Barber (June 22, 1843 – April 17, 1909) was a pioneer of the asphalt industry in the United States, and an early participant in the automobile industry as well. He laid many of the roads in Westchester County, New York and was ...

bought the property known as "Ardsley Towers" in

Irvington, New York Irvington, sometimes known as Irvington-on-Hudson,Staff (ndg"The Irvington Gazette (Irvington-On-Hudson, N.Y.) 1907-1969"Library of Congress is a suburban village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is loca ...

. The property was built by Cyrus W. Field for his son, whose financial difficulties made a sale of the property necessary. Barber developed the property into Ardsley Park and Ardsley Country Club.Oberlin College Archives
Barber, a real-estate developer, had the idea that the homes he developed in Ardsley Park would be purchased by members of a neighboring country club. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

,'' "this sense of symbiotic interchange between the residents of the surrounding community and the club helped create a cozy, if undeniably exclusionary, enclave." The Ardsley Country Club was founded in August 1895 to cater to industrialists. Original members included Amzi Barber,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

and

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...

and

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

II. Ashbel P. Fitch was a member of the Ardsley Club upon his death in 1904. Founding members also included members of the Gould and Whitney families. According to author and club member Kate Buford, the club was "proof that two groups of society - the robber barons and old New York - would blend." As of March 1896, the club's board of governors had 21 members, including

John D. Archbold John Dustin Archbold (July 26, 1848 – December 6, 1916) was an American businessman and one of the United States' earliest oil refiners. His small oil company was bought out by John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company. Archbold rose rapidl ...

, Amzi Barber, Walston H. Brwn, William L. Bull, Frederick L. Eldridge, Samuel Goodman,

Edwin Gould Edwin Gould Sr. (February 26, 1866 – July 12, 1933) was an American investor and railway official. Biography Gould was born in Manhattan, New York City, to railroad financier Jay Gould on February 26, 1866. He studied at Columbia University ...

, E. G. Janeway, Cyrus Field Judson, William F. Judson, George H. Mairs, Major O. J. Smith,

Philip Schuyler Philip John Schuyler (; November 18, 1804) was an American general in the Revolutionary War and a United States Senator from New York. He is usually known as Philip Schuyler, while his son is usually known as Philip J. Schuyler. Born in Alba ...

, General Samuel Thomas, John T. Terry, John T. Terry, Jr., Roderick Terry,

Henry Villard Henry Villard (April 10, 1835 – November 12, 1900) was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Born and raised by Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in the Rhenish Palatinate of the Kin ...

, Charles C. Worthington, John Brisbain Walker, and Lucien Warner. Among other prominent members at the time were H. Walter Webb and

Walter W. Law Walter William Law (November 13, 1837 – January 17, 1924) was a businessman and the founder of the 8,000-person village of Briarcliff Manor, New York. He was a vice president of furniture and carpet retailer W. & J. Sloane, and later founded t ...

Founding features

After the club was incorporated in 1895, the Ardsley Casino Clubhouse was finished in the spring of 1896 under the design of Goodhue Livingston of Trowbridge, Livingston & Colt, on a plot of 500 acres overlooking the Hudson River. ''"G. Livingston Dies; Long an Architect; Practitioner Here for 50 Years Included Hayden Planetarium, Oregon Capitol in His Work" (PDF).

. 4 June 1951. p. 26. Retrieved 6 June 2017.'' The clubhouse had sleeping rooms on the upper floors to accommodate forty or fifty members, with several baths and a large swimming tank at 25 feet by 15 feet. The main floor had a large clubroom, card and billiard rooms, and a large dining room. A private railroad station was built below the clubhouse with express trains available. Around 200 trees were felled to allow a clear drive to the property, with many of the logs used to bank up the sides of a golf course. Architect

Willie Dunn Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...

oversaw all aspects of the golf course's development. Founding attractions included golf, polo, tennis, and space for the anchoring of yachts. It had a pool for swimming. Members would play the new sports of tennis and golf from the beginning, of both genders. According to Buford, the club was set apart from other smaller clubs by "a massive, hotel-like clubhouse and spectacular golf course. It was a symbol of the gilded age." Contemporaries included Knollwood in Elmsford, founded a year before Ardsley, and Bonnie Briar in Larchmont. Early on, some members would sail from Manhattan up the Hudson river to dock their yachts in boat slips at the club. The club also arranged it so that the private train at Ardsley-on-Hudson, now Metro-North property, would match the style of the clubhouse. The clubhouse, now a cooperative known as Hudson House, was of a neo-Elizabethan style. In 1898, the club held the opening of the Women's National Golf Championship Tournament. By noon on October 11, around 1,000 persons were present at the match.

Modern years

It became an increasingly family club in the 1930s. Between 1935 and 1965, many of the club's members and their families lived in the nearby Ardsley Park area. In 1935, many of the old furnishings were sold for low prices at auction. The original Ardsley clubhouse and grounds, once assessed at $850,000, was at the time being foreclosed on for a mortgage of $350,000, with the expectation that the clubhouse would be razed and the property used for country homes. By June 1966, it had 60 members under president Edwin L. Sibert Jr. In 1966, three new curling rinks were planned at the Ardsley Country Club. As of 1995, membership of the club played tennis and golf, swam, and attended social events on the same site. It had 450 member families, with president Harvey Appelle.

Buildings and their design

According to author Frank E. Sanchis, Ardsley Country Club was "one of the grandest country clubs ever built."

References