The Only Watering Hole in Marple

Last night I did something that I had never done before. I went to my local country club for drinks on the veranda at sunset. I don't actually belong to a country club, but by virtue of living in , I am one of the owners of the . The club is actually owned by the Marple Township Municipal Authority. And although Marple is a pretty dry township, with no bars, it does have one restaurant liquor license: at the country club. How the club came to be, and came to be owned by the township, makes for interesting history.

The country club had its antecedents in a golf course and club–the Brookline Square Club, that was opened in 1924 on the land that is now Haverford High School (the road alongside the Haverford Middle School is still called Golf Road).

Several years later, a developer came along and offered the owners $1 million for the property. The owners took the money and ran to Isaac Worrell's farm on Paxon Hollow Road in Marple, purchasing it and several area farms bisected by Trout Run. 

Francis Warner, secretary of the Golf Association of Philadelphia, helped design the course, and J. Franklin Meehan built it. Brothers John and Ted Beadle were the first club pros. A vote was taken on the name of the club, and the name Paxon Hollow Golf Club won out, by one vote, over Trout Run Golf Club. 

The front nine holes opened in 1927, the back nine in 1928. The club is shown on a 1929 map as the Paxon Hollow Golf club, consisting of 215 acres. The club apparently could not make the payments on its mortgage, and so the lender, Girard Trust Bank, took over the property, hiring the Beadle brothers to keep it operating while the bank attempted to sell it.

The war intervened. 

In the late 1940s, two young lawyers, Erwin L. Pincus and Sidney B. Klovsky, while studying for the bar exam, dreamed about having their own golf course so they would not have to wait for a tee off time. Hearing that Paxon Hollow was for sale, the two put together a group of investors, incorporated with the name White Manor Country Club, and initially leased the club, keeping John Beadle as the manager. 

The property was formally acquired by 1958, but by then certain members were looking for new challenges. One group split off to buy land across from Overbrook Golf Club and created Radnor Valley Country Club.  A second group found land on Providence Road near Malvern, and built a new White Manor Country Club.  The Marple property was then sold to a local developer, Ralph Bodek.

Bodek's plan in the early 1960s was to build approximately 2,000 apartment units on the site. He sweetened his proposal by offering the township 61.5 acres of the property for open space. At the public hearing on his proposal, 1,500 residents showed up to oppose the plan, and the apartment plan was turned down. 

However that left the land in Bodek's hands, and the suburbs were growing in the 1960s. It was only a matter of time before a new plan would be presented, and if it met all planning requirements, it would have to be approved.  hat prospect set people to thinking about some alternative that would preserve the golf course and country club. In the interim, the club facilities were operated under lease as the Tara Hills Swim and Social Club.

In 1966, residents were polled on whether the township should acquire the property and operate the golf course and country club. The idea was well received, and on May 9, 1967, the township bought the property from Bodek for $1,050,000. 

The township issued bonds to pay for the property and to raise additional funds to renovate the existing facilities, which had been neglected. They then began soliciting memberships for the country club: husband-wife memberships were offered at $100/year for the swim club, with $8 each for up to three children, and all children beyond that at no charge. The golf course was operated separately as a public facility. 

In the early 1970s, the company hired to manage the clubhouse sought a liquor license for the club. Marple had held a referendum in May of 1971 on whether to issue liquor license to restaurants in the township, and the majority were opposed.  The operator's application was therefore turned down. 

Upon appeal, the Commonwealth Court determined that liquor licenses were permitted for golf courses in the township, and so overruled the initial decision.  The club became the first, and only, restaurant to have a liquor license in Marple Township. 

The 1980s saw the decline of the club, a victim of local politics and public ownership. The pool closed in 1986 due to low membership. The original clubhouse, built in the 1920s, was condemned. The greens were destroyed by application of a mislabeled chemical. An employee admitted embezzling $100,000 from the club. The liquor license lapsed.

The club needed a cash infusion to upgrade its facilities, but it was not operated at a profit, and so the township would have to seek approval of residents to raise the necessary funds. In 1994, the township bit the bullet and voted to build a new banquet hall, snack bar, locker rooms, pro shop and golf cart barn at the property.

With the new facilities and new management, the club became what the supervisors had hoped it would be: a financial success that in 2003, it was reported to have netted $600,000 in revenues to the township.

When we went to the club last night, there was a large wedding reception being held in the banquet room. We ordered our drinks at a separate bar, snack bar and lounge area, and then took them out to a second floor deck outside the clubhouse overlooking the 18th hole. 

We watched golfers finish up their rounds below us, and enjoyed chicken wings and light snacks with our drinks. We had the country club experience, without paying country club prices for membership and monthly minimums. And now that we have visited, we will definitely go again. I am not a golfer, but my understanding is that the course itself, while not long by today's standards, is a decent challenge for the amateur golfer, set among the beautiful rolling hills of the old Worrell farm. 

As Marple residents, let's celebrate the wisdom of the town fathers, circa 1967 and 1994, to preserve this land as open space, and support OUR country club. Play golf there, help publicize the banquet facilities, or simply go over for drinks on the veranda some night and toast those people who have the foresight and courage to make this club a success. 

For more information, visit the club's website at http://www.paxonhollowcc.com/