The Meadowbrook Polo Club (originally styled as the "Meadow Brook Club"), located in

Old Westbury, New York Old Westbury is a village (New York), village in the Towns of North Hempstead, New York, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay (town), New York, Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long ...

, is the oldest continuously operating

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

club in the United States, first established in 1881.Marie, Kim (August 27, 201
The Power of The Polo Club
''Long Island Pulse''. Retrieved September 26, 2015.

Early days

The Meadow Brook Club was established in 1881, and for the first several years matches were played on the racetrack at the Mineola Fairgrounds, before opening its own facility, including a field and clubhouse, in 1884. Originally located in the town of

Westbury, New York The Incorporated Village of Westbury is a Village (New York), village in the North Hempstead, New York, Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. It is located a ...

, the new venue was home to the United States National Open from 1923 to 1953. In 1928 the fields hosted the Cup of the Americas match between 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 ...

and

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, which attracted more than 100,000 spectators over three days.Marks, Peter (April 27, 1993
Polo Returns to the Lawns of Long Island; After Decades of Decline, the Sport Is Regaining Prominence
''New York Times''. Retrieved September 26, 2015. In 1932, the club became the only non-Argentine club to win the Argentine Open Polo Championship."U.S. POLOISTS WIN IN ARGENTINE OPEN"
''

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 d ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

caused a major reduction in activity, and in 1954 the club was razed for the construction of the

Meadowbrook Parkway The Meadowbrook State Parkway (also known as the Meadowbrook, the Meadowbrook Parkway or the MSP) is a parkway in Nassau County, New York, in the United States. Its southern terminus is at a full cloverleaf interchange with the Bay and Ocean par ...

.Our History
website of The Meadowbrook Club.

New locations

The club was located for a brief time in

Jericho, New York Jericho is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore of Long Island, approximately 29 miles (47 km) east of Midtown Manhattan. Its population was 13,567 as of the U.S. 2010 Cen ...

, before again being sold for development in 1968. In 1961 the name was contracted from "Meadow Brook" to "Meadowbrook". The club moved to a new location in

Old Westbury Old Westbury is a village in the Towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 4,671 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of Old Westbury i ...

and again hosted the United States Open in 1994 and 1995. Club pro and Manager is Juan Redlich.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Sports in Long Island Polo clubs in the United States 1881 establishments in New York (state)