From 1890 to 1917, summertime at the Nyack Country Club meant easy living and high society. The club, stretching from North Broadway to North Midland Avenue, stood where the Upper Nyack Elementary School now stands. It offered numerous Gilded Age entertainments: tennis on four grass courts, archery, a 9-hole golf course, a large baseball diamond, horse shows, billiards tournaments, Saturday afternoon tea on the lawn, card games, outdoor Shakespeare performances, and evening dances illuminated by fairy lamps and Japanese lanterns. The club’s restaurant, at one time, even had a French chef. No wonder it was the center of social life in Nyack for both summer and wealthier full-year residents.
The club frequently appeared in New York newspapers for its tennis tournaments and social events, with attendees’ names reading like a social register of the “well-known.” Open from May 1 to November 1, visitors arrived by horse and carriage on a circular drive amid broad lawns beneath beautiful shade trees. However, the club’s moment in the sun was brief. The advent of automobiles and World War I changed American culture forever.
Maxwell’s Upper Nyack Summer Estate Becomes a New Clubhouse
The three-story brick clubhouse with porches and verandas was built around 1838 by Hugh Maxwell, a famous New York City District Attorney and Collector of the Port of New York. Maxwell’s 100-acre estate was the first of many purchased by wealthy New Yorkers who bought old Nyack farms for summer homes. Maxwell enjoyed his summer home during his retirement, setting the tone for its later form as a place of leisure.
Maxwell died in 1873, but his will was so complex that it took over 25 years to resolve. Around 1890, the newly formed Nyack Country Club leased the house and property from the estate referees. In 1902, Van Wyck Rossiter, President of the Rockland County Trust Company, bought the entire former Maxwell property except for the riverside portion east of Broadway. Rossiter, a part-time resident and club member, built a Tudor estate on the Midland Avenue side of the property. Today, the Rossiter home is the Nyack Field Club. When Rossiter died in 1919, the property went up for sale.
Club’s Grand Opening
The club held a grand opening in its renovated clubhouse in June 1891. The Victorian interior featured wood floors, antique oak furniture, and palm trees. The color scheme was based on the club colors of gold and white. The first-floor reception walls displayed over 30 engravings by Charles Frederick William Mielatz, a renowned New York artist. The club added a 35 x 50-foot casino to the north end for dancing, theatrical performances, and other entertainment.
The house was magnificent. The music room, painted robin’s egg blue, contained an antique oak piano. A kitchen and terra cotta-decorated dining room completed the first floor. The second-floor housed pool and billiard rooms, four card rooms, and a women’s dressing room. The third floor had four dressing rooms for men. Electricity a new phenomenon in Upper Nyack, lit the house.
The opening lasted all day with a party at night. Gentlemen wore full evening garb and women wore elegant dresses. Women members of the club served dinner. Music was provided by Prof. Rosenkranz of New York City.
Club Membership
Women could be members, but according to the bylaws, they could only serve on the entertainment committee. Life members paid an initiation fee of $240 in 1915 (about $6.5K today). Women paid $80. Active yearly dues were $30 for men and for women who had the right to vote (zero until 1919). The club had a no tipping policy.
Members had first rights to the bedrooms before visitors. Junior members couldn’t use the courts on Sunday and had to give way to regular members at other times.
Black membership was unmentioned and unthinkable at the time, though the wait staff might have been Black.
Tennis Anyone?
Tennis was a trendy Gilded Age sport. The club’s four clay courts along Broadway were above average, with windbreaks and sanctioning by the United States National Lawn Tennis Association. Audiences packed the stands for regularly scheduled tournaments. Augusta Bradley Chapman, listed among the top ten ranking tennis players in America, was the driving force behind club tennis. Women tennis stars often played at the club’s tournaments, more so than men. Norwegian Molla Bjursted Mallory, a six-time U.S. champion, played at the club. She was a women’s rights supporter who frequented the club, drinking and smoking cigarettes. An exhibition match between Chapman and Mallory drew a huge crowd.
Members of the King’s County Tennis Club in Brooklyn and the predecessor to the Forest Hill, Long Island Club, then at Columbia University, took part in the tournaments, which were open to all players. The New York Times reported tournament results. On September 7, 1894, the Times reported that Jack Talmedge of Yale, a former champion, didn’t play at his normal level because he had just returned from Europe. J. P. Paret played a “cool, skillful game” and beat the champ. Chapman lost the finals in four sets (women needed three sets to win then) and went on to lose in mixed doubles.
Outside of tournaments, the courts were in constant use, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Tennis on Sunday became a club controversy, with tennis devotees eventually winning out over churchgoers. On Fridays, commuters would race home, arriving on the 5:45 pm train, change clothes, and bike to the club to play tennis until dusk.
Golf, Billiards, & Horses
The nine-hole golf course attracted golfers until the opening of the much larger Rockland Country Club in Sparkill. Men played billiards in the clubhouse on regular weekday nights. Wilson Foss, an Upper Nyack quarry owner and a national amateur billiards champion, played at the club. DuPratt White, who built a new home across the street (now the Summit School), was a regular billiards player. According to local reporter and historian Virginia Parkhurst, the club held “a successful horse show” on the open fields along Midland Ave., likely inspired by horse aficionado Van Wyck Rossiter. An annual show continued for several years. Women club members practiced archery, one of the first Olympic sports for women.
Cotillions & Plays
Saturday night and special occasion dances were popular events. One notable evening in August 1892 saw carriage after carriage arriving between 9 pm and 10 pm. Fairy lamps and Japanese lanterns adorned the lawns and veranda. Inside, potted ferns filled fireplaces, and the ceiling was trimmed with goldenrod. Dancing began at 10 pm, and music floated outside to the welcoming verandas and lawn.
At midnight, the club chef, Favier, served dinner. Delightful promenades followed supper, and dancing continued until 2:30 am. Guests left with party favors: silver coffee spoons for the women engraved with N.C.C. and hatbands for the men with their individual names.
Early in the summer, the Coburn Shakespeare Players staged Shakespeare comedies on the lawn along with the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. Plays were often held for charity. A regular event was the outdoor staging of The Rivals by George Ober and company, with benefits going to the Nyack Hospital. Local actors performed in numerous plays, including The Bachelor’s Reverie, performed by twenty local women.
Card Parties, Teas, & Drag Tennis
Card parties were also regular events, often reported in the local newspaper. In June 1903, Mrs. Carscallen, who lived in the nearby estate Birchwood, hosted a ten-table game of whist and bridge. Prizes were awarded, dinner was served at 11 pm, and a short dance followed.
Women-only events were common. About 50 women attended the first of the “Musical Mornings” series held on Wednesday mornings in 1895 in the casino. Music was played by local women, and a dance followed. On Saturdays, afternoon tea was served on the lawns.
Among the odder charity events was a tennis tournament held before an evening dance by six men dressed as women with young female referees. One of the most sober legal minds in New York State, DuPratt White, played while dressed as a Grecian girl.
End of an Era
The Gilded Age glory of the Nyack Country Club changed in a single decade. Nyack’s first locally owned automobile appeared in 1908, soon allowing people to travel further for a night out. The 1907 opening of the Rockland Country Club drew away the golfers. World War I meant there were fewer young men. The Board of Directors voted to close the club at its current location in 1917, join with the Nyack Art Club to form the Nyack Club, and relocate to the aging Tappan Zee House in South Nyack.
With Rossiter’s death in 1919, the property was sold to Pierre Bernard, the Great OOM, making his first purchase in the Nyacks. That is an interesting story for another time.
The gracious era of the Nyack Country Club––the horse and carriage days, tea on the lawn, tennis tournaments, and the gatherings of the elite to dance and play cards in the evening––was lost forever.
Note: An earlier version of this article appeared on August 5, 2021.
Mike Hays is a 38-year resident of the Nyacks. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.
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