Old Beaver Dam golf course couldn't hold back development

Washington Post Staff Writer

I grew up in Anacostia in the 1930s. My father, who was a machinist at the Government Printing Office, was an avid golfer. I recall that he would often play at a golf course named Beaver Dam somewhere in the D.C. area. Now, as I am a senior and avid golfer, too, I have wondered where this course was. I have not been able to find it despite my searching. Any idea what happened to it?

- William Barrett Jr., Rockville

Development happened to it. The loud, spinning wheels of progress - so at odds with the bucolic escape that golf promises - rolled over Beaver Dam.

The history is this: In 1921, some members of the City Club, a private club in the District, wanted a place to swing their mashie niblicks. They selected 250 acres in Landover, and two years later a nine-hole course opened on the former cow pasture. It was designed by William S. Flynn, who was later to redesign the Naval Academy Golf Club and New York's famed Shinnecock Hills. An 18-hole Flynn course was added to Beaver Dam in 1927.

In 1933, Beaver Dam's president, Edward Brashears, an insurance and transportation lawyer, bought the club outright. In 1936, it was described as one of the toughest courses in the area. Wrote The Post: "Only three men have been good enough to break 70 at Beaver Dam Country Club." They were Martin McCarthy and Roger Peacock, who each shot 69, and the amazing Cliff Spencer, who shot 68. Three years later, Spencer shot a 5-under-par 67, a course record that apparently was never broken.

On Dec. 4, 1941, Beaver Dam pro Al Houghton, his assistant, Walter Bogley Jr., and brothers Clifton and Lewis Eisele bought the club. They changed the name to the Prince George's Golf and Country Club. It was still the only country club in the county, and the hope was to double the membership to 500 in the coming year.

In 1949, the famous Babe Didrikson Zaharias competed in the Women's National Open Golf Tournament there. (Her game fell apart on the final day, and she came in second to Louise Suggs, another legend of women's golf.) In 1952, the course was the setting for the National Celebrities Tournament, sponsored by The Post. Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and one-armed phenom Jimmy Nichols were among the entrants.

In 1956, the club was sold again, to 100 of its members. The golf course was a selling point for nearby homes. While residents were unlikely to join the country club, developers promised a view over rolling fairways. Three-bedroom ramblers were going for $15,450 at Old Beaver Dam Estates. "The country club life at a budget price," read the headline on one ad. "Ahh-h, this is living!"

But the course was taking a beating. The land around it was being developed at a rapid pace. Nine holes had been sold off for an apartment building. Warehouses were springing up. By 1977, the country club was down to 153 acres, and duffers found themselves playing on a narrow grass median between crowded neighborhoods and a light industrial area.

Members wanted to sell the club and decamp somewhere less developed. But to get top dollar, they wanted the land rezoned for light industrial use. The county balked. The following year, a deal was struck. Country club members traded the remaining land for an undeveloped parcel near Mitchellville. They also got $2.6 million. They called their new club the Country Club at Woodmore.

What's left of Beaver Dam Golf Club is now Kentland Community Center Park. The original clubhouse, a converted barn, was destroyed by a fire in 1932. County residents can rent out its replacement, now called the Prince George's Ballroom. A small driving range and a couple of holes allow golf to be taught on Saturdays.

The names of nearby streets - Country Club Road, Country Club Court - hint at the area's past. Perhaps they echo with the ghostly sound of drivers striking balls.

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