Ardsley Country Club builds a court in response to APTA efforts to grow the game

The Ardsley Country Club in Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY was one of the first clubs to build a court based on the APTA’s grow the game initiative. Blanchard’s Scrapbook included a picture of the court being used in 1935 although the caption was Ardsley Racquet and Swim Club which had by then merged with the Ardsley Club², an informal offshoot of The Ardsley Casino¹, that year to form The Ardsley Country Club. Interestingly the player in the dark sweater is very likely Stuart R. Stevenson³, an avid racquets player, who was the club’s representative to the APTA. He was the grandson of one of the founder of the The Ardsley Casino in 1985, Amzi Lorenzo Barber “The Asphalt King”, and his wife Julia.

The courtIt was removed during WWII as the wood was rotting and could not be replaced due to lack of materials during the war.

Note 1: The Ardsley Casino was created through the support of some of the most notable and successful men in the US including Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan. The Casino was built overlooking the Hudson River and had a private dock to accommodate the yachts of members. In addition to a casino there were grass tennis courts that attracted top ranked players and the “finest and longest golf course in the world” designed by Willie Dunn who became the first gold professional. The Casino also had construct a large stable annex nearby from which a the stagecoach Tally-Ho left daily for the Hotel Brunswick on lower Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Casino clubhouse was torn down in 1936

Note 2: This offshoot had been formed in 1927 and had been using the stable complex built by The Ardsley Casino as a clubhouse.

Note 3: Stevenson was a Princeton graduate turned his sweater inside out when playing as it sported a “P’ logo but it was considered bad form to displayed it. He developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after this picture was taken and become legally blind by 1940 when it spread to his eyes.