Westport in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Sunday, May 1, 2016
photos/EverythingWestport.com except as
noted
Illustrated lecture explores southcoast region’s first golf courses.
WLCT’s Brendan Buckless takes further steps to protect conserved
forestland.
Westport High School
Auditorium.
Letter:
Westport needs Article 38 to protect farm-related activities.
Letter: Support Westport agriculture by
voting 'yes' on Article 38.
EverythingWestport.com Monday,
April 25, 2016 Westport,
Massachusetts –
Last Thursday, April 14, Westport Land Conservation Trust outreach and
stewardship coordinator, Brendan Buckless, gave a
brief speech to the 4th Annual Massachusetts Service and Volunteer Day regarding
his 2014-2015 service term as an Environmental Educator for the Buzzards Bay
Coalition on behalf of the Massachusetts Service Alliance and Commonwealth
Corps to members of the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives. Excerpt from the speech: “During
my service I directly engaged over 2,000 unique youth in more than 100
outdoor exploration programs and over 50 families in more than 30 programs
that fostered connections to the local environment while supporting increased
school engagement. Additionally, I leveraged ten volunteers that educated the
general public about the Coalition and engaged people of all ages about their
awareness and connection to the Bay.” Above, from the left: Senator Michael J. Rodrigues of
Westport; Brendan P. Buckless of Westport, unnamed;
Representative Paul A. Schmid of Westport. About the Westport Land
Conservation Trust Since
its founding in 1972, the Westport Land Conservation Trust has assisted
landowners in protecting more than 4,000 acres in Westport, Massachusetts. WLCT is a private non-governmental organization dedicated
to local land conservation on behalf of the Westport community. The
organization accepts gifts of land and conservation restrictions on land, and
assists farm owners in preserving farmland with agricultural preservation
restrictions. Illustrated lecture
explores southcoast region’s first golf
courses. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
May 1, 2016 Photos
| EverythingWestport.com By Robert Barboza Special Correspondent to
EverythingWestport.com Dartmouth
Historical & Arts Society president Bob Harding presented an interesting
look at the history of the region’s first four golf courses at an April 24
lecture entitled “Telling the Old, Old Story… of Golf on the South Coast”
that was of particular interest to the older golfers in the audience at the Russells Mills Schoolhouse. Using
old photos and deeds, period newspaper accounts of course openings, and other
evidence, Harding painted a concise picture of the early days of the golfing industry
in the South Coast by examining the roots of the Reservation Golf Club
in Mattapoisett, founded in 1895; the Hawthorne Golf Course, circa
1897, in west New Bedford; the Fairhaven Golf Club, a course laid out
by the club’s golf professional, David Findlay a few years later in 1900 beside
the Acushnet River; and the Country Club of New Bedford which opened
in 1902 on 86 acres between State Road and Hathaway Road in North Dartmouth. Inset: original nine-hole layout of New Bedford Country Club in 1902. Harding
is a veteran golfer who grew up on Alden Avenue, off old Westport Road, a
neighborhood known as Cedar Dell, not far from where the future Paskamansett
Links was laid out long ago on some pastureland off State Road and Faunce Corner Road. He has also been around the links at
the Country Club of New Bedford a few times since his youth. Paskamansett
Links was plowed under to build the Dartmouth Mall; noted golf professional
and instructor Greg Denehy holds the course record
of 65. “I
played a lot of golf for many, many years,” Harding noted at the start of his
talk. “It’s been a lifelong love affair for me,” he said of the sport. Research
into the area’s first handful of golf courses has been like patiently finding
pieces of an old “history” puzzle, Harding said. “The search goes on… you’re
never finished finding pieces of the puzzle,” he explained. Early
course openings were big news in those days, so he has found plenty of
newspaper accounts of those first few country clubs to document his
reports. He encourages audience members at all historical and arts
society talks to share old photographs, family documents, and town records
with local history researchers, to add to the society’s research databases. In order of age, here are the
first four golf courses: The Reservation
Golf Club of Mattapoisett was the region’s first golf links, being opened
in 1895 by summer resident Charles A. King of Boston, a successful brewer and
inventor. The English immigrant’s house in Mattapoisett was a grand building
known as The Reservation, which later became the first clubhouse, and the
name of the golf course. In 1887
Charles King bought up property at the head of the harbor near the mouth of
the Mattapoisett River and built a large summer home, the Reservation, so
named as this area at the mouth of the river had been a favorite camping
ground for the Wampanoags in years past. Mr. King
was a golfer and laid out a course that continues to this day. Since then, it
has been known as the Reservation Golf Club. King owned lots of land in Mattapoisett, near the
ocean, and by 1900, was the town’s biggest payer of property taxes. The golf
course was carved out from a large parcel of land off the main road, bisected
by an active railroad line, Harding said, using slide show photos of maps and
newspaper clippings to help tell the story. Inset: Dartmouth Historical & Arts Society president Bob Harding, Robert
Harding Photo | Robert Barboza The
1895 membership dues for the country club, including privileges to play on
the nine hole golf course were $30 for a family, $10
for an individual, and 50 cents per day for visitors, he reported. Things
went smoothly for the first few years, with the sport becoming popular among
both sexes. The
only drawback was the rail line running through the course. In 1905, one King
worker was killed and another seriously injured when a passing train hit a
wagon; players abandoned their games to rush off and help the stricken
workmen, a period newspaper report indicated. The Reservation
Golf Club was a par 38, 2600 yard venue. Hawthorn Golf Course was the second set of links
around here, opening in 1897 on land off Rockdale, Hawthorn and Allens Streets, and operated by David Findlay, one of the
famous “golfing Findlays” from these parts. His
brother Alex (A.H.)
Findlay was a pro who competed with the legendary Harry Vardon in the old days, Harding noted. You
played 18 holes by playing the Hawthorn Golf Course golf course three times
in a row. Alex
Findlay “is considered to be the Father of American golf by many people,”
Harding said. “He designed hundreds of golf courses all over America” in the
early days of the sport, he added. A June
1900 spread in the Boston Herald sports pages came with a half dozen drawings
of men and women golfers, giving a good visual of the fashions and equipment
sported in those days. Vardon, of course, is the legendary six-time British
Open winner who notably payed an exhibition match at Hawthorn in 1900, where
his brother
David Vardon was the club pro, Harding explained.
One newspaper review called the course “a charming bit of the landscape” to
be enjoyed by visiting golfers. Inset: Harry Vardon. A
slide of a period advertisement showed David’s patented design for a new
style steel golf club head; scorecards showed par was originally called “the
bogey figure” at the turn of the century, Harding pointed out. The
third golf course in this region was the six-hole Fairhaven Golf Club,
located near Riverside Cemetery, off Main Street beside the Acushnet River. The
Fairhaven Golf club was organized in May, 1900. In the Spring of 1901, the
club secured a lease of the Dexter and Taber estates on the west side of
North Main street, a little south of Riverside Cemetery, and extended to the
Acushnet River, comprising about 14 acres of rolling land adapted to a golf
course of six holes, which was laid out by David Findlay of Dartmouth, the
golf professional. These
links were considered “very sporty and a fair natural course.” During
the season of 1902, Mr. Dexter built for the Club a “delightfully located
Club House on the top of Dolly Hill,” where formerly stood the old grist
windmill, overlooking the entire course, and commanding a “fine view of the
Acushnet River.” Mrs.
Rhodes had also given to the Club an elegant silver cup, as a Club Trophy to
be annually competed for by the lady members of the club. This trophy was
first won and held by Mrs. Edgar R. Lewis, of New Bedford. During
the season of 1903, the Club added 3 tennis courts on the land on the east
side of North Main Street, opposite to the links. New
balls were $3.50 a dozen in those days, and you could get reconditioned balls
even cheaper. Fairhaven Golf Club’s longest hole was perhaps 300
yards, an uncommon length – remember, everybody was
walking the fairways at the turn of the century! Holes
were created “with interesting layouts” featuring dog legs, sand traps, and
the occasional apple orchard. Hawthorn Golf Club closed when New
Bedford Country Club opened. Eventually,
the New Bedford upper classes decided to move on from Hawthorn Golf Course,
and developed plans for a new course and country club in North Dartmouth,
just over the city line, in a triangle of land bounded by State Road,
Hathaway Road, and Slocum Road. It would be called the Country Club of New
Bedford, organizers decided. Hawthorn
Golf Course closed when New Bedford Country Club opened in 1902. The
Club had a modest beginning that took place before the turn of the century. Read
more of the CCNB history. The
original course was nine holes until the club purchased land on the east side
of Slocum Road and added an additional six holes. These outer six holes were
designed by O'Grady, Mitchell, and Gilholm. Willie
Park, probably the most famous golf architect at the turn of the century and
recent Golf Hall of Fame Inductee, had planned, designed, and supervised the
building of their original nine holes. In 1924, the renowned golf architect,
Donald Ross, redesigned the course changing the original nine holes on the
club side of Slocum Road into 12 holes and eventually making CCNB into an 18-hole golf course. The
original club was located in the West End of New Bedford bordering on
Hawthorne, Brigham, and Allen streets and continuing out to Rockdale Avenue.
Several local enthusiasts of golf formed the Club. It was called the
Hawthorne Club. The six-hole layout became so popular that the club founders
decided the course was too short and crowded. They closed the original course
and moved to its present site. Although
some were pessimistic about this move, within 16 months after its 1902
incorporation, the Club had 350 members and a waiting list. The original
Board of Governors, all prominent people in the New Bedford area, and key
financial contributors to the club in its early years, consisted of Club
President John Bullard, William E. Hatch, Edward S. Brown, Edward T. Pierce,
Oliver Prescott, William West, Clarence A. Cook, Frederick D. Stetson, John
Duff and George Cherry. “All of the elite of New Bedford were members
there… the women were associate members,” Harding said. A group of old
photographs taken at the course showed well-to-do white men smartly dressed
in white shirts and ties driving “gutta percha” golf balls (pictured
right) playing the scenic links alongside tall Victorian women in long
skirts and smart little hats. Most
of the land was owned by Abraham Perry, and the course was laid out “on 86 acres
of rolling land, with hills and valleys, and ledges here and there,” Harding
read from a newspaper report on the 1902 grand opening. Laid out by David
Findlay, “Frederick Law Olmstead was the landscape engineer” for the
nine-hole par 40 course, he noted. Olmstead
is a nationally known landscape designer who created New York City’s famed
Central Park; closer to home, he was also the designer of Buttonwood Park in
New Bedford. Original
plans for the Country Club included tennis courts, a croquet lawn, and some
accounts suggest a stable and trails for horseback riding; a leased nearby
parcel would be the trap course for members to enjoy shooting clay pigeons.
Flocks of sheep were used to keep the fairway grass at optimum length. Among
the highlights of the early days of the country club was the 1907 exhibition
match played there by golf greats Alec Ross, Jerome Travers, Gilbert Nichols
and Richard Kimball, Harding reported. Alec’s brother, legendary course designer
Donald Ross, was reportedly “interested” in designing the course’s second
nine holes, and he eventually got the job, the historian said. Harding’s
talk concluded with concrete evidence of his familiarity with the Country
Club of New Bedford, being a 50-plus year-old photograph of him in golf togs,
with a beaming smile, that year’s Junior Amateur Tourney champ at the club. Above: aerial of Paskamansett Links, Dartmouth; now the Dartmouth Mall. WLCT employee takes further steps to protect
conserved forestland. Brendan Buckless
successfully completed the 3-day Training Workshop for the Keystone Project. The Keystone Project is
designed to stimulate forest landowners and community opinion leaders to be
advocates of sound forest conservation. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
May 1, 2016 Outreach
and Stewardship Coordinator, Brendan Buckless, of
Westport Land Conservation Trust successfully completed the 3-day Training
Workshop for the Keystone Project, held at the Harvard Forest in Petersham, April 14 -17. In
ecology, a keystone species is one whose impacts on its environment are
larger and greater than would be expected from one species. The Keystone
Project invests education and reference materials in important, keystone
people making a large impact at their local level. The training covers
subjects such as forest ecology and management, wildlife management, land
protection, and community outreach. In exchange for the training and take-home
resources, graduates of the program, called Cooperators, agree to return to
their communities and volunteer at least 30-hours of their time towards
projects that promote forest and wildlife conservation. For more information
about the Keystone Project, visit: http://masskeystone.net/. The
Keystone Project is designed to stimulate forest landowners and community
opinion leaders to be advocates of sound forest conservation, and to help
inform the land management and conservation decisions of their friends,
neighbors, organizations, and communities. Keystone Cooperators can be
very effective in doing this, since they are well-connected community
leaders. Other past Cooperator projects have included permanently conserving
their own land, initiating a forest landowner cooperative, promoting
management on municipal and conservation lands, writing newspaper articles,
hosting educational events, and improving their own properties for wildlife,
recreation, and timber. More
than three-fourths of all woodland in Massachusetts is owned by thousands of
private families and individuals. Much of this land is at risk of conversion
to developed uses. It is important to reach woodland owners as well as
communities and land trusts with information on the care of their land.
Keystone training is designed to provide Cooperators with skills and
information to better engage in this important activity at the local
level. The
Keystone Project is organized by the University of Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Conservation and UMass Extension, with support from the
Harvard Forest, MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the MA DCR Service Forestry Program, and the Leo S. Walsh
Foundation. For more information on forest
conservation or Keystone, contact: Brendan
Buckless, Outreach and Stewardship Coordinator;
Westport Land Conservation Trust at 508.636.9228 or email: Brendan@WestportLandTrust.org.
Or Paul Catanzaro, Extension Assistant Professor; University of Massachusetts
at 413.545.4839 or email: cat@umext.umass.edu. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
May 1, 2016 Letter
to the Editor: To all Westport residents (and those who enjoy reading this
stuff), Thank
you to everyone who participated in Thursday night’s Community Information
Session regarding Article 38 on the Westport Town Warrant. Over 60 people
assembled at the Westport Grange representing a broad spectrum of neighbors,
members of town and state government, farmers and other professionals in the
agricultural community. The
evening included open discussion and information from experts including Doug
Gillespie, former Commissioner of Agriculture for the Massachusetts
Department of Agricultural Resources and current President of the
Massachusetts Farm Bureau. Questions regarding the origin of the language and
definitions used in Article 38 and how thoroughly both had been researched
were addressed. The definitions for Agriculture and subordinate/incidental
agricultural activities such as Agri-tourism and Agr-entertainment were derived from the MA General Laws
(Chapter 61A sections 1 & 2 and Chapter 40a Section 3 and the Code of Mass. Regulations [CMR] 330.22.02) which have been established and
thoroughly vetted at the state level. Concern
was raised that Agri-Tourism, while a valuable and
necessary tool for farmers to expand their consumer base and ensure economic
viability of their farm, should not become equivalent to the principle act of
farming. Article 38 addresses that concern by following the language of CMR 330.22.02 which defines Agri-tourism
and Agri-entertainment as subordinate activities
“designed to enhance the agricultural viability of the farm operations.” Perhaps
the most prominent theme of the evening was the need to provide our Farms and
Town Government with relevant, contemporary framework to address the
realities of agriculture and its subordinate activities in today’s social and
business climate. As a
Select Board Member stated, Westport urgently needs to ‘pick up where we left
off’ with our initial ‘Right To Farm By-Law’ which was enacted in 2005 and
has not been updated in more than a decade. Article 38 would bring the
definition of Agriculture into the 21st century and move the existing Right
to Farm By-Law into the Zoning By-Laws where it offers town boards more
traction, oversight and a clearer process for addressing the issues facing
todays farms while preserving the checks and balances needed to ensure that
first, the community has a voice in
determining the appropriateness of subordinate farm activities and second,
farmers face a lower risk of facing litigation when there are disputes. At the
end of two hours attendees left the meeting with a clearer understanding of
the issues that Article 38 addresses, the origins of the language there in
and particularly the need to modernize how we as a community can best support
and facilitate the tradition and future of Agriculture and our citizens’
Right To Farm along with the peaceful character of our beautiful town. Please
show your support by voting YES to Article 38 at Westport Town Meeting,
Tuesday May 3rd at 7pm Westport High School
Auditorium, 19 Main Road, Westport Video
of the meeting can be viewed on Westport Cable Access channel 192 at the
following days/times: Friday
4/29 at 8:00 PM; Saturday 4/30 at
1:30 PM; Sunday 5/1 at 5:30 PM; Monday 5/2 at 2:30 PM ; and Tuesday 5/3 at 8:30 AM Sincerely,
The
Russell Family Letter: Westport needs
Article 38 to protect farm-related activities. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
May 1, 2016 Westport
has supported “right to farm” in its bylaws since 2005 as many feel farm
activities are part of what makes the town unique. But the current law only
speaks to growing crops and animals. Article 38 sensibly expands that
definition to allow farm markets, fairs and festivals, education and farm
tourism. That
includes activities we take for granted, but are now under legal assault in
ways that will inevitably limit adults’ and children’s ability to get close
to farms and nature. Article
38 grandfathers Westport’s traditional farm-related activities. It should
pass with overwhelming support. Peter Kastner Westport Letter: Support Westport
agriculture by voting 'yes' on Article 38. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
May 1, 2016 Over
the years, we have enjoyed many “farm based” activities that aren’t strictly
farming, whether it be the Harvest Festival,
concerts at the Town Farm, hayrides at the vineyard, or farm to table
dinners. These
activities entertain our neighbors and draw tourist dollars into town,
providing revenue for restaurants, ice cream stands, and our caterers, among
others. This is a great benefit given the economy . There
are a variety of initiatives underway to support agriculture in Westport.
Warrant Article 38, which better defines and clearly legitimizes these
traditional activities is one of them and is very important. Please join us
in voting yes on Article 38. Russ
and Suze Craig Westport © 2016 Community Events of
Westport. All rights reserved. EverythingWestport.com |