Founded in 1916, Meadowbrook Country Club is one of the oldest clubs in the Detroit area. Originally it consisted of just 6 greens and 125 acres. Now, with over 180 acres and remodels done by storied architects such as Donald Ross, MCC remains one of Detroit's elite clubs.
It's hosted a number of PGA Championships and other tournaments including the Motor City Open. Prominent names such as Byron Nelson, Bob Hamilton, Ben Hogan and Cary Middlecoff have tee'ed off here. Nelson and Hamilton hold the 18 hole record, posting scores of 63 in 1946 and 1949 respectively. More than a decade later, Mike Souchek shot a 63 during the second round of the Motor City Open in 1959.
Andrew Bertoni, superintendent at MCC from 1952-1968, recovered a scrapbrook pieced together from old newspaper articles and PGA literature that highlights the clubs rich history. The following is an article from that source. It was written by William H. Ashton, who served as the club historian and Green Chairman.
There's not much left of the brook from which Meadowbrook Country Club derived its name. The women complained about its being a hazard where it crossed in front of No.1 green and No.2 tee. The original primitive six-hole layout on worked-out farm land was to us a fine layout. It was laid out by Willie Park, two-time British Open champion.
My first introduction to Meadowbrook was in August, 1917, a month after the six holes opened. Sam Mumford, comptroller at Detroit Edison then, was a bridge partner of mine. He had a membership at Meadowbrook, never had been there. We made a date for the next Saturday to try it.
You could take the interurban railway which ran from Detroit to Northville by way of Farmington, down Farmington Road and along Base Line, now known as Eight Mile Road, passing right in front of the club. It was fast, too, took only 90 minutes from Detroit.
By auto was slower, more roundabout: Base Line had big wagon wheel ruts. In the spring you risked getting stuck, Those ruts baked like bricks in summer. Surest way by auto was Seven Mile Road into Northville, then double back on Base Line to the club.
The six holes now are approximately the same as our No. 10-11-7-2-3-18. The club didn't yet own where No.1 and No.9 are. On the basis this happened 38 years ago and I'm now 84, I believe I can excuse myself for not recalling my score that day.
A Mrs. Hemple fixed us a fine meal. Dessert was a form of caramel pie and I still remember it fondly as her own special creation. Maybe it was Mrs. Hemple's caramel pie. I fell in love with the club. Sam said the membership fee was $100 and annual dues $40.
Meadowbrook was founded Feb. 16, 1916 and incorporated by 23 original members, mostly Detroit and Northville business men. That was the year before I joined. None of the 23 are members now and I believe most are deceased.
The 23 were L. A. Babbitt, George B. Yerkes, Harry G. Bulkley, Fred C. Cochran, Fred Wardell, Mason L. Brown, Garvin Denby, Clement C. Yerkes, Ralph N. Dyar, Edmund S. Beard, James M. Teahan, Ralph F. Hotten, Robert C. Yerkes, F. S. Harmon, W. H. Yerkes, Nelson C. Schrader, H. R. Reid, S. P. Conklin, John D. Mackey, S. W. Curtis, H. M. Campbell,
They bought 125 acres of the Fred C. Cochran farm for $225 an acre. In 1920 they purchased 55 additional acres for $300 an acre. The 180 acres comprise the club property today. The old Cochran home was the first clubhouse.
Our constant search for a quicker route to the club led to the discovery of a grass grown trail, now Haggerty Road, running north and south just east of the club. It was called Four Towns Road because it intersected Base Line Road at the meeting of four townships, Farmington, Livonia, Novi and Northville.
Sometimes I feel I benefited most. A few years later I noticed a For Sale sign on a house on Haggerty. The price was right but I was a city man, used to a 50 foot lot. The idea of owning 15 acres scared me.
As the membership increased, almost every year or so, we would add another large porch to the clubhouse for dining and dancing facilities. Gradually it got beyond reasonable repair and the board gave it to someone who would wreck it without cost to us.
There were numerous other buildings on the property. A cottage southeast of the old clubhouse was used by the ladies as a locker room. This later was moved to our present work center west of the new clubhouse and is being used as the home of our golf course superintendent.
A small building located at the south side of the parking lot, just on the edge of the hollow, was used for the men's locker room. There was a coal-stoked hot water heater underneath it. You had to go outside, walk around in back to the hollow in order to light the heater. Sometimes you had hot water for showers, sometimes not.
All those facilities, in modern form, are part of the present club. There is one building which never was replaced. That was the long garage with its 10 doors and 10 "stalls" where those who had cars parked them. Some might remember the old stone barn, converted into a pro shop. It was torn down when the new pro shop was built.
Once a member, I grew interested in the problems of building up the course. We had a lot more hazards than we bargained for or designed in those days. The course had been built on worked out farm land with the result it was difficult to get a good stand of grass in many places..
When the original six holes were laid out, plans to complete the nine also were made. The other three holes were ready about 1919. Harry Collis, a turf expert from Chicago, was brought over to direct completion of the 18 hole course. About 1933, Donald Ross, famed architect, remodeled the lengthy 12th hole and also rebuilt the 12th and 18th greens.
One day someone asked me to become greens chairman. It entailed supervision of the course, hiring the pro. I was a printer and knew absolutely nothing about such things. It was the same then as now, you were appointed chair-man, had to do the job.
One of the first big projects was to fertilize the entire course in 1922. A member made a deal to buy 250 tons of manure in Buffalo. It was loaded on special interurban equipment for its final ride to the club. Several interesting weeks later, after the course was closed in the fall, the manure was spread over the entire course. Our grass growing troubles have diminished since that day.
First of our new buildings was the spacious men's locker room, completed in 1926 for $40,000. The stone and brick clubhouse, with its broad veranda, was constructed in 1928-29 for $130,000.
In 1925 an extensive long-range program of course improvement was started. One was rebuilding all our greens, switching from native blue grass and fescue, used in our fairways. On the advice of the USGA, a Metropolitan strain of creeping bent was tried as an experiment. It was the answer. It could be mowed to a quarter inch without injury and was sturdy.
Nature and man removed some of our finest hazards. There once was a sage hedge of trees about 18 or 20 feet high running down through the middle of the entire club property. It would be one of the finest points of our course now. Someone, for some reason or other, insisted it be taken out.
Once we had many scenic trees like those on the 9th, 15th and 17th fairways. A severe ice storm some 30 years ago ruined most of them. We bought six-inch pine seedlings for $7.50 to $10 a thousand, placed them in a nursery, set them out when they were about three feet high. At least 400 to 500 of them still are standing.
We also rebuilt our "postage stamp" tees, greatly enlarging them. Watering also was an early problem. The brook-fed pond near the first green was adequate when the course had only nine holes. It quickly proved inadequate for watering 18 greens. The dry marsh bed at the left of No. 4 green was dredged out to hold about 2,000,000 gallons of water. Several wells were put down to secure the water and a pumping station built.
Sinking wells was guesswork. Our well digger didn't want the responsibility of choosing the location. After a landscape architect and an engineer selected duds, Divie Duffield, a lawyer and myself took a try since the well digger was being paid by the hour. We picked a place near the fourth green and hit water at 65 feet, later got down three more. The fountain alongside the 13th green is not spring-fed from the hill, as many assume, but an overflow pipe from one of our wells.
Dave Kay, Meadowbrook's first pro, served only a few months in 1916. His successor Don Sutherland, also came to the club before I did. But I was on hand to welcome the others, Jock Arundel, Al Watrous, Stan Hancock, Frank Sprogell, Ernie Shave and Chick Harbert.
We list Watrous among our pros although he never actually served us. Then a pro at Grand Rapids, Al won the Michigan Open at Meadowbrook in 1926 and 1927. He finally agreed to our terms and signed a contract Sept. 22, 1928, shortly before he went abroad with the U. S. Ryder Cup team. Before the following season started, he had an offer to go to Oakland Hills. Naturally we gave him the green light.
As a historian I realize I haven't brought the entire story up to date. There are many others much better qualified to relate the happenings of the last 20 years. Meadowbrook has grown into a great and prominent club since 1916 and hundreds, even thousands, can share the credit. I am proud of my part as president for two years and greens chairman for 16 years. I am pleased to have had this opportunity to make some of the facts and memories of those early years part of our official record.
-William H. Ashton, Club Historian
The following is another treasure from Meadowbrooks history; an aerial photograph taken approximately in the late 1940's.
The scrapbrook holds a multitude of other articles pertaining to the PGA Championships and Motor City Opens that were held at Meadowbrook. Articles of interest are:
- Letters from President Eisenhower and Governor Williams
- "How Meadowbrook will Play" at the Motor City Open
- "Grass" by Superintendent Andrew Bertoni
- PGA Driving Championship
- "Harbert Laughs at Jinxes"
- Various newspaper articles pertaining to Meadowbrook
Thanks are due to Jim Bertoni, Andrew Bertonis son, for providing this glimpse into history. The scrapbook, in its entirety, is open to members and the public at the Northville Historical Society, located at:
215 Griswold Ave.
Northville, Mi 48167
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