Page 28 - Special Feature.indd

PLACES

Galt Country Club continues to score

Construction of the nine-hole course and
its clubhouse cost approximately $11,500
and was completed in early 1907, allowing
this new club to wrap up its first season
on Oct. 31 of that year. It was an exciting
time for club members and local golf
enthusiasts, which included many female
golfers who regularly played in weekly
competitions plus ‘fun’ events such as
‘cemetery golf’, ‘bogey golf’ and ‘obstacle
golf’.
Within a few short years, the club upped
the ante by adding lawn bowling and lawn
tennis and began to garner even more
interest thanks to the growing popularity of
the automobile. Previously, club members
arrived by horse-drawn carriages and
train, but as the roads began to fill with
automobiles it became apparent action
was needed and in 1913 a $6,000 upgrade
was undertaken to improve the Galt-
Galt Country Club in the early 1900s. City of Cambridge Archives Photo
Preston Road (now Coronation Boulevard).
Briethaupt, whose family owned the Berlin At this time, golfing was not permitted
(Kitchener) and Waterloo Railway, and G.D. on Sundays and the clubhouse remained
Forbes, President of Forbes Company Ltd., closed, but in 1917 in a narrow 59-58 vote,
a major Hespeler textile manufacturer. members agreed to open the clubhouse
on Sundays. However, it wouldn’t be until
However, prior to their involvement much the early 1920s before golfing would be
of the property was developed in the permitted on the ‘day of rest’.
early 1800s by Andrew Groff, a farmer
and entrepreneur who supplemented The club continued to gain attention,
Mergers are familiar in business. his income by opening a store, tavern, a even hosting royalty when the Duke of
Not only did a merger play a role in the small distillery, and a grist mill which he Devonshire – Victor Cavendish - and
formation of many local businesses and powered by damming the creek located his daughters visited in June of 1918 as
the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, near the club’s current parking lot. (Groff well as hosted an exhibition match in
but the creation of the Galt Country Club. Creek, which runs along the first hole, was 1920 featuring several champion golfers
including Chick Evans, the 1920 U.S.
For nearly 120 years, golfers have named in his honoured). Open Champion, George Cumming, past
locked to this recreational oasis finding In 1881, he sold the property to Robert Canadian Open Champion, and George
camaraderie and solace, not to mention Dawson who successfully farmed the land S. Lyon, a multiple Canadian Amateur
friendly competition, along the banks of – even developing a new strain of wheat – Champion.
the Grand River. for several years before moving to Paris,
Ont., to continue farming a ter selling it In 1923, members voted to change the
The club, a long-time member of the club’s name to the Riverview Golf and
Chamber, was the brainchild of several to Andrew Oliver who remained its owner Country Club. However, this name wouldn’t
prominent business leaders, many of until his death. be around for long since Galt and Preston
whom paved the way for economic In June of 1906, Ontario Lt. Governor Wm. had both begun to expand rapidly and so
prosperity in what was known then Mortimer Clark granted a charter to the did the interest in golf. In fact, the Parks
as Waterloo County. Among them was Waterloo County Golf and Country Club Commission in Galt had to act when
M.N. Todd, owner of Galt Flower Mills Limited (later the Galt Country Club) golf “enthusiasts” began testing their
and President of the Galt, Preston and paving the way for those business leaders skills in local parks causing damage to
Hespeler Street Railway, C.R.H. Warnock, to purchase an 85-acre parcel of the land the turf with their clubs. Meanwhile, the
President of the Galt Knitting Company, from Oliver’s estate for approximately nine-hole course began to become more
Seagram distillery heir E.F. Seagram, W.H. $5,500. congested, even though club members

28 Spring 2024 www.cambridgechamber.com