Myopia Club

The Myopia Club, regarded by some historians^[1] as being the oldest country club, was founded in the 1870s by four brothers with poor vision: Gordon, Charles, Morton, and Frederick Prince.^[2] At first it was a neighborhood boys club devoted to boating and tennis, based on the shores of Wedge Pond in Winchester, Massachusetts.^[1] Later the members' interests turned to riding and foxhunting, and the club moved to another site in Winchester, on Mystic Lake, where it became formally incorporated in 1879.^[2]

Several Myopia Club members were interested in moving the club closer to Boston, and this led to the founding of The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1882.^[3] But fox hunting proved impossible in Brookline, so those most interested in this activity founded the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, Massachusetts.^[3]

The Mystic Lake site became known as "Myopia Hill". The Winchester Country Club was founded there in 1902, and it still occupies the site.[1]

See also

• Myopia Hunt Club
• The Country Club

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Mayo, p. 63. Others regard The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts as being the oldest, even though it was incorporated three years later. (It depends on one's definition of "country club".)
2. ^ ^{a b} Moss, p. 15.
3. ^ ^{a b} Moss, p. 16.

References

• James M. Mayo, The American country club: its origins and development, Rutgers University Press, 1998.
• Richard J. Moss, Golf and the American country club, University of Illinois Press, 2001.