Did You Know Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Golf Clubhouses?
It’s Masters Week at Augusta National Golf Club, and the world is once again turning its attention to golf. For one glorious week, it’s azaleas, $1.50 pimento cheese sandwiches, and announcer Jim Nantz breathing, “a tradition unlike any other” into his microphone. To get you back into the golfing swing of things, here are our picks for the nine most beautifully designed clubhouses in America. Results are listed in no particular order (except for the first one, of course).
Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
Originally constructed as a plantation house in 1854 by owner Dennis Redmond, the iconic Augusta National Clubhouse is perched at the end of stunning Magnolia Lane and contains the tradition-rich "Crow’s Nest," a five-bedroom attic residence in which amateur competitors in the Masters are invited to stay. The clubhouse library still houses the desk and chair that member President Dwight D. Eisenhower kept in his office at Augusta National.
Nakoma Resort, Clio, California
A Frank Lloyd Wright design, Nakoma’s unique 23,000-square-foot clubhouse was originally intended for Madison, Wisconsin, but ended up in the Mohawk Valley of Plumas County, California. Known for its teepee-like towers of wood and copper, as well as the Wigwam Room, the club’s dining room has 60-foot high ceilings and a four-sided central fireplace.
Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland
Designed by Phillip M. Julien in 1924, Congressional’s 140,000-square-foot clubhouse is the largest in America. The Spanish Colonial Revival contains 1,100 men’s lockers, a 10,000-square-foot fitness center with indoor pool, 20 rooms for guests staying overnight, a massive penthouse suite, and yes, a bowling alley. Little known fact: The clubhouse was occupied by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WW2.
Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southampton, New York
Designed by Stanford White in 1892, Shinnecock’s simple and stylish wooden-frame clubhouse is the oldest purpose-built clubhouse in America. Featuring a long veranda as well as four beautiful gables each containing a palladium window, the roughly 24,000-square-foot clubhouse had extensions in 1896 and in the 1930s and is currently finishing up an ambitious four-year renovation that sees the return of historically accurate hardware, window sash pulleys and glass, and the installment of geothermal heating.
The Bridge, Bridgehampton, New York
On the site of the former Bridgehampton Motor Racing Circuit, this 40,000-square-foot modernist Roger Ferris design is 80-percent glass and features six triangular roof panels (known as "blades"), which capture prevailing wind to naturally cool the building’s interior. The clubhouse—inspired by the turbine wheels inside turbo-charged racing engines—contains a pilates studio, dining room, and numerous works from owner Robert Rubin’s personal art collection.
Newport Country Club, Newport, Rhode Island
This classic Beaux-Arts design, the first commission of architect Whitney Warren, who studied in France at l’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, dates from 1894 and has shades of the architecture of Louis XIII. The stately building was designed in the shape of a propeller, with two main wings (plus a third wing in piazza-style extending to the east that was destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954). Located on the southern tip of Aquidneck Island, the clubhouse overlooks Brenton Point and underwent a significant restoration in 2004 that was supervised by Jeffrey Baker of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects.
The King Kamehameha Golf Club, Wailuku, Hawaii
Originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright to be the Roxbury, Connecticut, home of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe, this classic Wright design instead ended up in Wailuku, Hawaii. A rose-colored, spaceship-esque 74,000-plus-square-foot clubhouse, its famed porthole windows offer sweeping views of the Central Maui Valley. Inside are numerous stained glass windows and a Herb Kane painting of King Kamehameha and his chiefs; in the women’s locker room, a rare photograph of Marilyn Monroe. Although a private club (Clint Eastwood is a member), King Kamehameha’s clubhouse is open to the public for dining.
The Quechee Club, Quechee, Vermont
Nestled in the hills of Vermont’s Upper Valley and our dark-horse candidate, Queechee’s clubhouse was designed in 1973 by Environmental Systems, Inc., to evoke the iconic red barns of Vermont. The 50,000-square-foot clubhouse is set on 5,200 acres and boasts an indoor pool, gym, and squash court.
National Golf Links of America, Southampton, New York
Jarvis Hunt, a founding member at National Golf Links of America, designed its 25,000-square-foot stone clubhouse overlooking the Peconic Bay, which was completed in September 1912. Highlights include the main dining room with views of the 18th green and "The Birdcage," a screened-in porch area where members can enjoy sandwiches and cocktails.