Waveland Park Golf Club Des Moines

 

Waveland Park Clubhouse in 1913

Waveland Park Golf Club had nearly 250 members in 1913. Not bad for a club that started in 1907.

The present building went up in 1911 on ground leased from the city. It was three stories and built to be used.

The main floor held dining rooms, reception rooms, and a kitchen. Upstairs was a card room and a ladies’ locker room. The basement had another locker room and bath equipment. You could play 18 holes, eat, smoke, wash up, and sit down for cards without leaving the building.

The club met every week. There were smokers, card parties, and dances. The smokers meant cigars, speeches, and stories that improved with each telling. The card parties meant competition that lasted longer than daylight. The dances brought in the rest of the membership and made the place feel less like a sports club and more like a social one.

Running the operation in 1913 were G. A. Fairy, president; D. A. Haugh, secretary; and C. V. Ray, treasurer. Their portraits appeared in the Des Moines Register on September 7, 1913, alongside the report on the club’s growth.

(left to right) G. A. Fairy, president; D. A. Haugh, secretary; C. V. Ray, treasurer.

Members played in tournaments across Iowa and hosted events at Waveland. Golf was still new enough to feel modern. A man with clubs under his arm was saying something about where he thought the city was headed.

What set Waveland apart was simple. The city owned the grounds. The members built the culture. Public land. Private energy.

By 1913, Waveland was more than a course. It was where business was talked through after a round, where cards were played late, where music carried out over the fairways on dance nights.

Golf got people there. Everything else kept them.