Platform Tennis saves Fox Meadow Tennis Club

By the fall of 1934, the Great Depression had begun to hit many clubs extremely hard. Membership in the Fox Meadow Tennis Club, which had been well over 100 families, dropped to 77. The club had begun to run a deficit. Strenuous measures had to be taken. There were two schools of thought. One school favored extreme economy, saving the cash reserve as long as possible. Another group, having total faith in what platform tennis might do for the club, favored putting up another platform.  They suggested raising part of the funds by members’ underwriting.  This would provide a stove for the clubhouse, and enable it to function fully as a winter club. To help put over this policy, they urged the establishment of a special winter membership for the six months from November 1, 1934, to May 1, 1935. Those willing to bet on the future of platform tennis won out, and the newly authorized court didn’t have to be called a practice tennis court. The new court helped the game take off at the club as the first court had been monopolized by a small group, discouraging others from trying the game.

The special winter memberships were at first limited to twenty families, each charged a rate of slightly less than half the annual dues. The plan was so successful that by May of 1935, most of the special members accepted an opportunity to switch to regular membership. In the fall of 1935, the directors voted to erect a third platform. By May 1936, the special winter memberships were abolished in favor of all or nothing. Family membership in the club had increased from 77 to 112.

A year or two later, the maximum (at that time) of 130 was reached, and there was a waiting list. The club increased its dues. It had become a year-round club for tennis and platform tennis. A club, which had been dead six months of the year and rather sick for the other six months, was now very much alive all year.

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944, and Platform Paddle Tennis, 1958, and Diana Reische, Fox Meadow Tennis Club – The First Hundred Years, 1983