Golf in the Gilded Age:
Robber Barons, Railroads, and Resort Hotels / 15

1. Birth of Golf in America	2. Gilded Age	3. Robber Barons	4. Tycoons and Patronage
5. Railroads & Resorts	6. Early Grand Hotels	7. Carolinas	8. Georgia
9. Jacksonville	10. St Augustine	11. St Aug. (pt 2)	12. Ormond Beach
13. Palm Beach	14. Boca Raton	15. Miami	16. Miami Beach
17. Coral Gables	18. Tampa / St Pete	19. Later Resort Golf	20. Gilded Age Legacy

American golf had its birth in the Gilded Age (1870s-1890s), and by the close of the 19th century the United States had more golf courses than Britain. This start is inextricably intertwined with the dominant Tycoons of the day, and this in turn entangles the foundation of golf in America with the expansion of their railroads and their associated Grand Hotels in exclusive resort locations.

From 1900 to the advent of WWII, golf in America added sinew and muscle on this underlying frame to make the Resort golf experience truly spectacular and widely accessible outside the echelons of elite society. The enduring legacy has been that the popularization of golf in America is indelibly stamped with the watermark of excellence set by these fabulous early Resorts.

Hotels and Resort Golf

Miami

Hotel Royal Palms 1900

Hotel Royal Palms Tee Box 1899

1901

Hotel Royal Palms

Hotel Royal Palms Sand Putting "Clock" 1905

Hotel Royal Palms Sand Putting "Clock" 1910

Vizcaya - Winter residence of James Deering, 1913-1916 Key Biscayne ("Vizcaya" is Spanish for Biscay, a Basque province in Spain)

Witold Rybczynski and Laurie Olin, Vizcaya: An American Villa and its Makers (U. Penn. Press).

Vizcaya Museum

Vizcaya Villa

James Deering (1859-1925), portrait by John S. Sargent - International Harvester (NJ) fortune

James attended Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the Deering Harvester Company in 1880. By the turn of the century, James Deering owned homes on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago and in nearby Evanston, as well as in New York City and at Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris. His name appeared in social columns as an active partygoer, traveler and cultural ambassador, hosting visiting French dignitaries at his homes in New York and Chicago.

In 1902, in a deal brokered by banker J.P. Morgan, the Deering Harvester Company merged with the McCormick Reaper Company and others to form International Harvester, the largest producer of agricultural machinery in the nation. James Deering became vice-president of the firm, charged with oversight of the Illinois manufacturing plants. As William Deering's health weakened, the family began spending winters in St. Augustine, Florida. By 1910, however, William Deering purchased land and built a home in Coconut Grove, just south of Miami. In 1913, James Deering began to plan his own home in Miami. Deering's greatest legacy is perhaps this winter home, which he called ÒVizcaya.Ó

James Deering built Vizcaya between 1914 and 1922. The architect of record was F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr. and the formal gardens were designed by Diego Suarez but, in fact, the mastermind of the project was its designer Paul Chalfin. Chalfin, a Harvard grad trained as a painter at The Ecole des Beaux-Arts, was working for decorator Elsie de Wolfe in 1911 when Deering approached de Wolfe for advice on the interiors of his Chicago home. De Wolfe (who later passed on the commission for Vizcaya as she considered Miami too far and too provincial to be worthwhile) sent Chalfin to Chicago in her stead, and Chalfin insinuated himself with Deering as a sort of cultural majordomo. By 1913, Chalfin and Deering traveled in Europe to gather design inspiration and to purchase art and antiques. The culmination of their efforts, and the most lasting memorial to each man, is Vizcaya, the Miami estate they created between 1914 and 1922.

Deering's motivations for building such a lavish estate are somewhat mysterious. By the time the Main House was completed, Deering's health had begun to fail, although he did manage to entertain notable guests, including silent film stars Lillian Gish and Marion Davies. Deering was generally described in his later years as a reticent man with impeccably proper manners leavened by a sense of humor. It would be tempting to characterize him on the basis of Vizcaya as a Gatsby-esque figure, if not for the fact that the estate did not become a locus of large wild parties. By 1923, the gardens were opened to the public on Sundays and Deering reportedly watched the crowds from the shadows of his private balcony, anxious to know the numbers who had attended but unwilling to make contact or to take credit for his hospitality in person. In some personal letters, he expressed the hope that his nieces and nephews would enjoy the estate, and built tennis courts, a bowling alley, a billiard room and a swimming pool to encourage them to visit. In September 1925, James Deering (who had long suffered from pernicious anemia) died onboard the steamship Paris en route to the United States.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Deering

1915