Both clubs and private estate owners usually built the first courts in accordance with plans and specifications provided by Cogswell and Blanchard—at first for nothing and later for a nominal fee.

Professor Eliot Dunlap Smith of Yale University assisted in early court improvements with Cogswell and Blanchard. Along with his personal experience playing, he consulted the Yale Department of Forestry for advice. In later years, Scarsdale architect Richard H. Tatlow also served as an advisor and worked in the American Paddle Tennis Association, the forerunner of the present day American Platform Tennis Association (APTA).

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944, and Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959

By December, there were eight platforms in Scarsdale alone and the first open tournament took place, with forty-two entries. The new, larger Cogswell platform and court were the venue for the finals. Earle Gatchell and Fessenden Blanchard, representing the Old Army Athletes, won an exciting final match, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2, from Randolph Compton and James N. Hynson. “Paddled their way to victory on dry land,” said The New York Times.

By the end of the year, more than twenty courts had been constructed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. These $500-$600 courts were initially popular on private estates. Later on, leading tennis clubs constructed their own courts.

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944, and Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959

Historical Factoid: Lois Proctor – shown above presenting the trophy to Blanchard and Gatchell – had taken quite a “shine” to Blanchard (see note at left)

Source: Blanchard Scrapbook 1929-1963

Frederick Lewis Allen, Editor of Harper’s Magazine, wrote the following letter on February 19, 1932 to a lady who had asked him what he thought of the game. The letter was written before the Evans invention had made taking balls off the backstop an assured success, before the sanding technique had practically eliminated slipping during a rain, and when the game was still largely confined to those who learned it on the Cogswell court.

“I know of no other active game which can so readily be played outdoors at all seasons and in virtually all weathers. In Scarsdale we play it every week-end from October to May (and sometimes on week-day evenings by artificial light). Golf links and tennis courts may be out of commission; skating ponds may not be frozen over; there may be no skiing or coasting—yet Paddle Tennis goes right on. We play it when the thermometer is below freezing and the snow has to be shoveled off the court. We play it on rainy days, for the wet doesn’t hurt the wooden paddles, and if the court gets a little slippery that is not fatal. I cannot exactly recommend playing in a really heavy rainstorm or a driving snow storm’, but I have played in both and enjoyed it—stopping every few minutes to shovel the fresh snow or standing rainwater off the court with a strange instrument known as a squeegee. To be able to count on the exercise and the sport all year round is an immense boon.

Another advantage is that the court is so small that many people whose grounds are not large enough to include a tennis court can easily find space for a Paddle Tennis platform; and that the platform is relatively inexpensive to build and the cost of upkeep is negligible. But these advantages would count for little if the game itself were inferior. I consider it one of the best games ever invented

Anybody who has ever played lawn tennis finds it absurdly easy to learn: I have seen men take a respectable part in a doubles match with seasoned players after only an hour’s practice. It is one of those games in which the relatively poor player is not completely outclassed and humiliated; even the duffer can return enough drives to feel that he is something more than a helpless bystander. One reason is that the paddle is so short that the ball is easy to hit quickly and with fair accuracy. You can pick any four players out of a group and be sure that they will be able to work up a pretty good match.

Yet I must not give the impression that because the game is easy to learn it is mild and innocuous. Although Paddle Tennis is less tiring than lawn tennis because the court being smaller there is less running, on the other hand the ball goes back and forth much more quickly than in lawn tennis; the rallies are usually longer, the pauses between them are shorter, and the players are on the move every second. They can (and do) hit the ball just as hard as they please; and there are plenty of opportunities for strategic placing, for outguessing one’s opponent, for alternating smashes with lobs or deep drives with cross-court pokes at the net. Most of the play, by the way, is near the net—in doubles, at least—and that means quick and exciting action. If anybody thinks Paddle Tennis is merely a children’s game or a sort of overgrown ping-pong, the sight of a fast set of men’s doubles will soon remove the idea from his mind.

If the fun that thirty or forty of us have had in Scarsdale is any criterion, it offers first-class sport—to say nothing of exercise—to anybody who can hit a sponge-rubber ball with a wooden paddle and move faster than a walk.”

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

Vassar President Henry MacCraken dropped by the Blanchard’s unexpectedly in late 1931 “to find out about paddle tennis.” It was a necessary visit since an alumna had donated a court.

The article headline in the New York Sun on October 24, 1931 read: “Paddle Tennis to Be Tried Out at Vassar.”

At the end of a brief article about the game the Sun added, “Vassar is the first college to experiment with the new form of sport.” Unfortunately, the experiment was a failure, likely due to poor choices of court location and backstops, and the fact that there was only one court.

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Platform Paddle Tennis, 1959

Also see The game starts to catch on