The History of Galveston Country Club
“The Galveston Country Club celebrated one hundred years of continuous operation in March of 1998. That Galveston would be the home of the first charted country club in Texas is not surprising, since the city was at the peak of its golden age.”
While Galveston was no longer Texas’s largest city, it was one of its most important financially, and the sophistication of life on the island was conducive to importing the “gentleman’s game” of golf then popular in the cosmopolitan and urban areas of the east coast. The city’s port flourished, with cargo and passenger ships calling from countries far and near. The business district bustled and thrived, and the city’s beaches swarmed with visitors from all over the country. Excursion trains ran regularly between Galveston and Houston, and other trains transported people and cargo between the island and places further inland. Galveston was an exciting place to live, work and visit, and led Texas in many areas; the first national bank in Texas (First National Bank of Galveston, 1866); the first real estate agency (Truehart and Adriance, 1880); the first electric lights in Texas (1884); the first nursing school in the South (John Sealy Hospital Training School of Nurses, 1890) and the first medical school west of the Mississippi (The University of Texas Medical Branch, 1891) to name only a few of Galveston’s many credits. Throughout the club’s first century, it would face destruction by numerous storms, fires and financial crises, paralleling the tumultuous history of the island itself. And, like the island, it would face every disaster and continue to survive. The members’ love of the game of golf and their strong bonds of friendship gave them the desire and tenacity of rebuilding and regrouping.
The organization, then known as the Galveston Country Club, formed in the spring of 1898 with a membership of 30. The country club’s first home sat on the beach west of the United States coastal fortification, Fort Crockett, in an area called the Denver Resurvey, just west of the San Luis Hotel and Condominiums. Galveston saw the worst natural disaster in U.S. history – the 1900 storm. The clubhouse and golf course suffered major damage.
The clubhouse moved from 53rd and S in 1910 to Dickinson. It was here, on 100 acres at the Dickinson Bayou, that the club was re-named the Oleander Country Club. Construction began on a clubhouse and golf course. In October 1918, a fire destroyed the structure.
In 1919, members decided to return the club to Galveston. They chose a location west of 61st Street and south of Avenue S. The club was renamed The Galveston Country Club. In addition to golf, the club also served as a hub of social activities for its members.
More than two decades later, in 1943, a hurricane hit the island and damaged the country club. Soon after (the exact date is unknown) the fire once again damaged the clubhouse structure.
Club members sold the property at 61st Street to the city in 1946. They purchased two pieces of land at 12 Mile and Stewart Road, the club’s present location. The beauty of Lake Como was one of the attractions of the spot. By the fall of 1947, the 18-hole golf course was ready to play. A new clubhouse opened there in 1949. It contained a dining room, a ballroom and lounge. A swimming pool (then the only freshwater pool on the island) was on the property as were two tennis courts.
Today, there are approximately 1,400 members of the Galveston Country Club.
There are different membership options, including stockholders, social memberships and corporate memberships. Property rental companies and island hotels are among the entities that hold corporate memberships which offer their guests use of the country club during their stay.
For more information on memberships, golf lessons, club facilities or events call
409-737-9800.
|