User:KerryanOConnor/sandbox

The Dedham Country and Polo Club (DCPC), founded in 1887, is located in Dedham, Massachusetts.  One of the oldest private country clubs in Massachusetts, it is a premier family club with traditional values.  DCPC cultivates a family environment where rich traditions offer a timeless experience for friends and families to come together in community and enjoy shared values. Throughout the 167 acres of rolling rural terrain, the Club provides social and competitive interaction for its members, always with sportsmanship, integrity, and camaraderie.

The recently restored Seth Raynor-designed golf course, the only one in Massachusetts, is central to the Club which also features four indoor and four outdoor clay tennis courts, four paddle courts, trap shooting facilities, a pool, ice skating, and the clubhouse which is the heart of the Club.

HISTORY

The Dedham Polo Club

The Dedham Country and Polo Club can trace its heritage back to 1887 when a gathering hosted by George Nickerson, who owned a sprawling piece of property in Dedham, Ma. brought together William F. Weld, Frederic J. Stimson, Samuel D. Warren, and Herbert Maynard.  Following a delicious luncheon, the guests looked over the open lawn and decided it was the perfect place to play polo.  Few had seen or played polo in New England at that time, so this was indeed a novel idea.  In August 1887, the Dedham Polo Club was officially formed, with each member contributing an initiation fee of $86.14.  

The Dedham Golf Club

As the Dedham Polo Club grew, so did the interests of its members. Sometime in late 1893, a golf links was planned, but not on today’s existing location.  A 9-hole course was built on the property of General Stephen Weld, designed by Alex Findlay.  There was an offshoot of the Dedham Polo Club, the Dedham Golf Club, that was formed by many of the same members in 1897 and existed until 1901.

The Norfolk Country Club

On December 13, 1901, the Norfolk Country Club, consisting of many members of the defunct Dedham Golf Club as well as the thriving Dedham Polo Club, was incorporated.   A three-year lease was signed in 1902 for two parcels of land consisting of 83 acres of land -- the current location of the Dedham Country and Polo Club.  In 1910, prompted by a fire that destroyed the Dedham Polo Club’s clubhouse on High Street as well as the death of Samuel D. Warren, The Dedham Polo Club joined forces with the Norfolk Country Club on its property in Westwood thereby forming the Dedham Country and Polo Club.

In 1914, the Board voted to hire Donald Ross to design 9 new holes for the golf course.  Then on New Year’s Eve in 1917, the clubhouse burned down. Given the financial constraints brought on by WWI, Dedham had no clubhouse for several years.  Eventually, the Board decided to expand the membership by officially reincorporating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (May 10, 1920) “for the purpose of encouraging athletic exercises, outdoor and indoor sports and pastimes of all kinds, including particularly, but without limiting the generality of the foregoing, pony polo and other equestrian sports, the game of golf and the game of tennis; and for the establishment and maintenance of club quarters and grounds in connection with the same, and, for social purposes."  

The clubhouse opened in its current location 5 years after the fire in 1922, and after several years of struggle, the Club finally unveiled its 18-hole golf course in 1925.  

Golf

As the only Seth Raynor golf course in Massachusetts, the existing DCPC golf course is a product of more than 100 years of work and refinement at the hands of legendary architects, each of whom contributed to the character of the course. The early 9 hole course was designed by Donald Ross with further designs implemented by Herbert Fowler, but it was the most daring and bold of the golf architects, Seth Raynor, who eventually completed DCPC’s first 18 hole course between 1923 and 1925 with the design of current holes six through fifteen.  Modifications have been made over the years, including a significant renovation in 2018, but the course remains true to Seth Raynor’s intent and continues to challenge golfers to this day.