Fonds 554 Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club

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Summary information

Administrative history / Biographical sketch

The Grande Prairie Golf & Country Club began as the Richmond Hill Golf Course. Towards the end of the 1920s, Lawyer J.H. Sissons and Croften and Cady persuaded a group of Grande Prairie businessmen that an 80 acres parcel of high, rolling land on top of Richmond Hill would be perfect for a golf course. On May 13, 1929, the Richmond Hill Golf Club Ltd. was formed with thirty-nine charter members paying shares at $25.00 each. Three days later, they formed a company with Cady as president, H.T. Lamont vice-president, and J.H. Sissons secretary-treasurer. They purchased the land for $1000, brought in an Edmonton contractor to lay out the golf course, and hired a caretaker, but did their own clearing and brushing. The following spring, they built a 40’ x 40’ clubhouse, complete with a field stone fireplace. It was known locally as the Richmond Hill Golf and Country Club.

As early as 1932, there was a Ladies Committee or a Ladies Club associated with the Richmond Hill Golf Course, although no woman sat on the board until 1953. They were avid golfers, however, and the “Ladies of the Richmond Hill Golf and Country Club” were regularly covered in the papers.

By the early 1960s, the club was considering an expansion, and purchased 160 acres (twice the size of the old course) from John Bickell south-east of Grande Prairie. The new course was named the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club, opening in 1967, although the new club house did not open until 1968. The Richmond Hill Golf Course was sold to Malcolm Menzies, Paul Galway & Associates, and became a country acreage sub-division. The ladies club was also re-named the Ladies of the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club.

Custodial history

The first accession was created by club historian Audrey Merlo and deposited in South Peace Regional Archives by club member Marian Fukushima in 2010, with the permission of the club members. The second accession, which focused on the Ladies Golf Club, was donated by Jan Shields in 2016.

Scope and content

The fonds consists of records of records, scrapbooks, and ephemera created and collected by members of the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club and the related. Ladies Golf Club. This includes two articles about the history of the Richmond Hill Golf Club by Isabel Campbell and Cay Humphrey, a 1988 Golf Events Calendar, and 17 scrapbooks created by the Ladies of the Richmond Hill Golf and Country Club from 1961 to 1967, and the Ladies of the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club from 1967 to 2004. The scrapbooks contain news clippings about the ladies draws and tournaments as well as other activities, the expansion of the golf course, junior and men’s golfing, general news about activities at the Golf and Country Clubs, and regular columns which appeared in the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune. There are also a few newsletters from the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club and, beginning in 1976, a few photographs. In the 1980s, minutes of club meetings are being added to the scrapbooks as well as tournament programs and mementos from trips made by the Ladies Club. The records are consistent through the 1990s, but sporadic from 1999 to 2005. There are also executive records of Ladies Golf Club including minutes, agendas, tournament records, and financial statements which range from 1980 to 2007.

Notes

Title notes

• Source of title proper: Title of fonds based on contents.

Restrictions on access

There are no restrictions on access

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Access points

• Textual record (documentary form)
• Graphic material – photograph (documentary form)
• Sports, recreation and leisure* (subject)