As the date for our ANNUAL GFCC Golf Classic approaches (this Friday August 25th), please immediately ensure that you have registered to play, sponsored a hole, purchased a program ad, made a donation, or simply registered to attend the Bar-B-Que and Awards Ceremony.
Click here to view the 2006 GFCC Golf Classic Homepage where you can download additional information.
You may not know the the bit of local Black History associated with this year's Golf Classic. <FONT color=#ff4500>We are also celebrating the 80th anniversary of the "Negro National Open", which was held over the Labor Day weekend in 1926 at Mapledale Country Club in Stow, MA. This year's GFCC Golf Classic is being held at the Stow Acres Country Club, the same site where "The National" was held back in 1926.
The following research paper on this subject, was written by Mr. Robert C. McDonald and resides in the files of the Stow Historical Society.
Permission to display this paper was granted orally by Barbara Sipler of the Stow Historical Society.
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Mapledale Country Club: The First Recorded American Negro Golf Course
Robert C. McDonald
Organization for the Assabet River
Stow, Mass.
(1997 Revision)
According to local lore in the town of Stow , America's first full 9 hole golf course open to Black Americans was established in this town on the site of the present Stow Acres Country Club Golf Course . People recalled seeing caravans of automobiles with Negro golfers traveling down Great Road and Gleasondale road to the course in the 1920's (1). Mrs. Carrie Jones, of Maynard, Massachusetts, related much of this information to the author in 1988. Her first husband, John Russel, was treasurer for this course under the original name of Mapledale Golf Course (2).
Other black American officers of the Mapledale Golf Course included Franank Booker and Clarence Rhone. The address of the course in those early days was on Riley Street in Stow, since changed to Randall Road. In addition to Golf, a toboggan run, swimming pool, restaurant and banquet hall were provided (3,4).
Individuals around the country have been contacted in an effort to fill in some of the historical gaps in this important period of black history. A period when recreation for American Blacks was developed in facilities separate from those of White Americans. The following narrative is a summary of this search.
The land was originally owned by Steven Randall, one of the original Stow settlers, in the 17th Century. His descendants, including Silas Randall, Dr. John Randall and Dr. John Witt Randall, continued to occupy the homestead and farm until the late 19th century. For the most part the Stow residence was a summer home for the Randalls of Boston. Dr. John Randall was married to Elizabeth Wells, granddaughter of Samuel Adams (1).
In the early 1900's, the land was purchased from the Randall estate by Charles M. Cox, a wealthy grain merchant and philanthropist from Boston. He owned the Wirthmore Grain Company in Boston and also used the Randall homestead as a summer retreat (1).
In the 1920's, he created a full 9 hole golf course for Blacks from Boston to use, because of the segregation then existing at all American golf courses. He hired Robert Hawkins, a Black man whom he met working as a steward at the Sandy Burr Course in Wayland, Mass., to manage the course. The first Negro American men's golf tournament was played at Mapledale in 1926 (5). Members of the United Golfer's Association have given their recollections of this early event (10,11,12).
By 1930-31, Hawkins was still manager and perhaps part owner of the business on Riley Street (6). His name appears in the 1930 Stow Directory as living at the Mapledale Course (7) and there are recollections that he lived there with his wife, a waitress, and son, Russel Thomas (3,6), who attended Gleasondale School in Stow.
Robert Hawkins was involved in an earlier but failed attempt at establishing a golf course open to Blacks. Several Negro businessmen, railroad workers, doctors and others from North Cambridge, West Medford and Winchester purchased land from a farmer in Billerica around 1920. They were able to create a 3 hole (executive) course but this operation went bankrupt and was sold to another farmer, Mr. Joe Kapitsky. The farmland eventually returned to use as a golf course under the ownership of Mr. Stan Toloutis who created the Webb Brook Country Club and Tavern. Among the original Black businessman, were Messrs. Miller, Jackson, Smith and Robert Hawkins. The businessmen then moved their interests to Stow where they became involved with the golf course created on the land of Charles M. Cox (8).
By 1930-31, regular playership had become mostly White, although Robert Hawkins and his wife continued to manage the business (6) for some time. A contemporary town directory lists Benjamin G. Cox as manager of the course (listed as Stow Golf Course) in 1931. In about 1935, one resident remembered meeting Hawkins while the two occupied themselves cutting ice at Boone's Pond (also known as Lake Boone) nearby (1). There are also remembrances of occasional convoys of automobiles driven by Black golfers on there way to the course from Boston in the 1930's (9).
Marshall Cox, a nephew of Charles M. Cox took over the operation of the business from the original Negro management (1,3). Subsequent owners and operators included Mr. Honeywell, Major Collins (9) and in 1954, the Page brothers: Fred, Bob and Tom bought the land. Adding many adjoining acres, the Page Brothers expanded the course to 36 holes, creating one of the most successful public golf courses in the nation.
References
1. Mr. Francis Warren, Stow, Ma.
2. Mrs. Carrie Jones and her daughter, Marsha, Maynard, Ma.
3. Mr. Alan Ferguson, Stow, Ma.
4. Mr. Frederick page, Weston, Ma.
5. Pamphlet: "Invitation to Membership...United Golfer's Association (U.G.A.), Inc.", obtained from Mrs. Louise Simpson, Secretary of the U.G.A.
6. Mr. Walter Wanhatolo, Former Greens Keeper Assistant at Mapledale, Stow, Ma.
7. "Manning's Marlboro, Hudson, Westboro, Northboro, Southboro and Stowe (sic), Directory for the Year Beginning May 1930". Volume XV.
8. Mr. Stanley Toloutis, Billerica, Ma.
9. Mr. Dorsey (Don) Learey, California, formerly of Stow, Ma.
10. Mrs. Paris Brown, Associated with U.G.A., Maryland.
11. Mrs. May Campell, Associated with U.G.A., Chicago, Il.
12. Mr. Robert Crawford, Associated with U.G.A., Washington, D.C.
Greater Framingham Community ChurchRev. Dr. J. Anthony Lloyd,
Pastor
