New Haven Lawn Club

The New Haven Lawn Club is a private club that offers outdoor tennis, paddle tennis, swimming, indoor squash, community activities, and dining to members and their guests. Located in the heart of New Haven, the clubhouse has been at the center of the city’s social life for more than 125 years and continues to host many events, concerts, dinners, dances, weddings, and celebrations. The New Haven Lawn Club has a storied past and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2003 (1). The Lawn Club’s history is intertwined with the professional and upper-class families of New Haven over the last century, including many Yale faculty and staff.

The New Haven Lawn Club has been the tenant since they purchased the lot in 1891. The current clubhouse was the second to be built on the property and was completed in 1931.

In 1884, the Lawn Club secured “the use of a large tract of land owned by Colonel Frank Fellows just north of Sachem Street” (24). According to Sanborn Maps and other maps, no buildings were on the property when the Lawn Club began their activities (25). In 1891, the group organized the New Haven Lawn Company which purchased several cities lots from the Fellows family (26). To accommodate its growing membership, the Lawn Club purchased a 40’ by 109’ lot running west from Orange Street in 1912 (27). Finally, in order to head off possible street extensions from the east (Pearl Street) and the south (Lincoln Street) two additional lots were added in 1920 and 1923 to reach its current size of 6.38 acres (28).

The New Haven Lawn Club Association was founded by members of New Haven’s old-line upper-middle class in the mid-1880s to create a place for leisure activities, including ‘lawn tennis’ and other sports. One of the earliest mentions of the Lawn Club can be found in the September 25, 1884 edition of the New Haven Register, which states that “prominent New Haven lovers of lawn tennis” planned to open courts, archery, and croquet grounds on Whitney Avenue (11). The Lawn Club formally incorporated in 1891 and purchased an interior piece of land with access to Whitney Avenue from Colonel Frank Fellows (12).

Lawn tennis became increasingly popular in the late 19th century and considered suitable for women to play (13). Many athletic and country clubs were springing up around the U.S. as interest in sports and outdoor activities rose along with more leisure time for certain economic groups. The Lawn Club was one of the earliest social clubs to be built in New Haven or in the central Connecticut area, preceding the New Haven Country Club by more than ten years. Many regional and statewide tennis competitions were held at the Club regularly, including the first New England Tennis Championship in 1886 (14). The Lawn Club continued to host important tournaments and matches by national champions through the 1920s and 1930s, including the Connecticut State Championship (15). Other sports offered at the Club included squash, badminton, and bowling, as well as sledding and skating in the winter. 

In addition to athletic activities, the Lawn Club served as a social focal point for New Haven’s elite class at the turn of the century. The original clubhouse included a stately ballroom and other dining and entertainment areas and offered dancing and social etiquette classes for children of members. From its very beginning, the New Haven Lawn Club carved out an important role as a venue for many local celebrations, dinners, weddings, concerts, parties, and important occasions.

New Haven has a long history as a center for squash enthusiasts and it started at the Lawn Club (16). The original clubhouse incorporated two squash courts, two more were added in 1916 and a professional squash player hired to work with dedicated members (17). Five courts were included in the 1931 clubhouse building and have been converted to four international courts. Yale houses the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame and built the Brady Squash Center with 15 international courts which opened in 1999. Women’s intercollegiate squash had its origins in New Haven when the women Lawn Club members grew tired of including college players in their national Howe Cup tournament and convinced Yale to host the first intercollegiate women’s tournament in 1973 (18). Finally, in 2010, the Hopkins School, a college-preparatory school located in New Haven, converted part of a gym into the Kneisel Squash Center with six international squash courts. The Lawn Club has played an important role in building and maintaining the squash tradition in the central Connecticut area.

The original subscribers of the Lawn Club included many New Haven families from the business and academic elite and the membership grew to 350 families by 1890. Membership dipped in the late 1900s but grew again to more than 600 families by 1916 (19). While the number of memberships has fluctuated over the years, it has stabilized to number about 500 families. Original membership was limited to mostly white, protestant families and excluded “Catholics, Jews and newcomers,” according to Yale professor Douglas W. Rae (20). However, the Lawn Club has evolved to include new activities, children’s summer camps, and events that appeal to a broader range of the community. 

The Lawn Club’s association with Yale goes back to the Club’s very inception. In the 1890s, Yale University held a mortgage for the New Haven Lawn Company and continued to provide second mortgages and loans in the years after the Company first incorporated (21). The Lawn Club membership included many Yale faculty and alumni who remained in the area after graduation. Given the Lawn Club’s proximity to Yale, many University-sponsored events and meetings continue to be held in its various dining rooms and the ballroom. 

The architect for the 1931 clubhouse, Douglas William Orr, was an avid member of the Club and had already “developed a national reputation as an outstanding designer” according to a history of the Club prepared for a centennial celebration in 1991 (22). Orr had earned his Master’s in Architecture at Yale in 1929 and went on to build a thriving architecture firm based in New Haven. Mr. Orr served two terms as the President of the American Institute of Architects and served on a commission to renovate the Executive Mansion of the White House (23).

The New Haven Lawn Club is a rare open area near the center of the city surrounded by institutional and commercial buildings and several older residences. The Lawn Club is located several blocks north of downtown New Haven on the northeastern edge of the Yale University campus. The Lawn Club and its facilities are situated on a hidden, interior lot of 6.38 acres, with access to Whitney Avenue to the west and Humphrey Street to the north. The Club is surrounded by the institutional buildings of Yale University to the south and west, including the School and Management and other commercial and administrative buildings. Several multi-family and single-family residences share the Lawn Clubs eastern and northern borders (8).

The Lawn Club sits in the southern edge of the Whitney Avenue Historic District, an extensive residential neighborhood that stretches north along Whitney Avenue and east to Orange Street (9). This Historic District was designated in 1989 and is primarily residential but includes some institutional buildings, such as churches, schools, and a fire station, as well as small commercial buildings. The architecture of the Whitney Avenue Historic District is dominated by the styles of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, particularly Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival (10).

The New Haven Lawn Club structures include a main clubhouse, a pool house, eight full-size (and one half-size) outdoor tennis courts, two outdoor paddle courts, a 75-foot outdoor swimming pool, and a concrete shed. While the 1931 clubhouse is the primary focus of the National Register of Historic Places designation, the sprawling tennis courts retain their original historic layout and are considered a “contributing structure” in the building’s registration (2).

The clubhouse was constructed in 1931 to replace one built in the 1890s that was destroyed by fire in 1929. The existing clubhouse anchors the Northern corner of the property in an expansive footprint that resembles an irregular W. The structure, oriented away from the parking areas, envelops the outdoor social space to the South. Towering white window frames stand guard above the depressed tennis courts and pool. The center block of the clubhouse houses the kitchen and a 200-person dining room on the main level and has a lower walk-out level in the rear with a Grill Room restaurant, lounge, and enclosed loggia area facing the courts (3).

The clubhouse unabashedly exemplifies the streamlined Colonial Revival style prominent in the preceding decades, while weaving in elements of Art Moderne to develop a distinctive atmosphere fit for the city’s urban elites. The NRHP waxes poetic about the success of the brickwork in creating a “tension between tradition and modernity” to provide “a setting for play and socializing that blends comfort and elegance, familiarity and originality, formality and animation” (4). The design and materials used throughout the structure draw on an eclectic mixture to distinguish between the various components of the building and to create different atmospheres in the formal and less formal settings. The architects also brought in the influence of Streamline Moderne through their use of flat horizontality and, as the NRHP points out, “flat, hard surfaces with attenuated forms” and “zigzag shapes and references to machinery” (5).

The majestic entrance to the clubhouse is flanked by a series of neat arches that cover porticos half-hidden behind green and white hedging. The eastern wing of the clubhouse includes a formal ballroom with large windows and a barrel ceiling, as well as a lobby on the ground floor. Four squash courts occupy the lower level below the ballroom. The western wing incorporates a more casual members’ lounge, lobby area, private dining and card rooms on the main floor with locker rooms and fitness center on the lower level. The fitness center was originally designed to be a badminton court but has been used as an air raid headquarters, teen recreation room, and storage over the years (6). The upper level of the clubhouse contains smaller rooms that are now offices, a boardroom, and six guest rooms or suites for members or their guests to use for overnight stays. The additional primary structures on the campus include eight tennis courts, two paddle ball courts, a 75-foot outdoor pool, and pool house (completed in 1989). 

The clubhouse has undergone several renovations over the years to address changing membership needs and to update facilities. The most extensive renovations were undertaken in the 1980s when some rooms were reconfigured, and substantial interior decor renewed over two extensive projects totaling over $2 million. The same architecture firm was hired in order to remain true to its original design, according to New Haven Colonial Historical Society records (7).

(1) National Park Services. National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club. May 1, 2003. Accessed Feb. 18, 2018. A PDF of this document can be found in resources. https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/9eca5e9d-ebf1-4807-89eb-632451252ade .

(2)  National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club, 7-7 and Image 12 and New Haven Lawn Club Association website. Accessed Feb. 17, 2018. http://www.nhlawnclub.com/web/pages/northstar. See also Connecticut Historical Commission. Historical Resources Inventory - Buildings and Structures. New Haven Lawn Club, No. 1023, New Haven Preservation Trust, (1981). See Resources.

(3)  National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club, 7-1, and Photo 3. See Images 1 and 13.

(4) National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club, 8-6.

(5) National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club, 8-7.

(6) E.J. Shumway, Floyd M. Shumway, and Richard Hegel, New Haven Lawn Club Association: The First One Hundred Years (New Haven: Eastern Press, Inc., 1991). This booklet was compiled and published in association with the Centennial Celebration of the New Haven Lawn Club. This 56-page booklet describes the early history and origins of the New Haven Lawn Club and describes changes to the buildings and grounds up through 1990. Also see New Haven Colonial Historical Society. Civil Defense Collection. (1940 - 1947). New Haven Museum. http://www.newhavenmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/MSS-B20.pdf.

(7) Shumway, 47-48.

(8) New Haven, CT. Online Assessment Database. New Haven Lawn Company property value and information. Accessed Feb. 17, 2018. See Image 10. http://gis.vgsi.com/newhavenct/Parcel.aspx?Pid=12760.

(9) See Image 11 and New Haven City Maps. Zoning and Historic District Maps. Accessed Feb. 18, 2018. https://newhavenct.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ac40cc5bf4c6495093c8515c4a93adfe. 

(10) For more information about the Whitney Avenue Historic District see National Park Services. National Register of Historic Places Collection. Whitney Avenue Historic District. Feb. 2, 1989. Accessed Feb. 18, 2018. https://npgallery.nps.gov/SearchResults?search_param=all&allFields=whitney+avenue+historic+district&view=grid&allFieldsFormat=AllWords&PageSize=60&filters=default.

(11) Shumway, 1.

(12) Gideon Fink Shapiro, “Gathering a Building,” Yale University Humanities Project, Historical Geography (2016). Accessed Feb 18, 2018. See Images 4, 7, 8, and 9. http://gatheringabuilding.yale.edu/#/routes/historical-geography.

(13) National Register of Historic Places Collection. New Haven Lawn Club, 8-1.

(14) Shumway, 3.

(15) Shumway, 11.

(16) Squash Magazine, “New Squash Haven” December 2010. Accessed online Feb. 20, 2018. http://squashmagazine.ussquash.com/2010/12/new-squash-haven/.

(17)  Shumway, 6.

(18) James Zug, Squash: A History of the Game, New York: Scribner (2003), 183-184.

(19)  Shumway, 7

(20) Douglas W. Rae, City: Urbanism and Its End. The Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University Series (New Haven: Yale University Press 2005), 158.

(21)  Shumway, 3, 22.

(22)  Shumway, 18.

(23)  Douglas Orr, Connecticut Architect. Vol. 2, No. 5 (1966) and Douglas William Orr Papers. 1929-1967. MSS 128. New Haven Museum. Accessed Feb. 20, 2018. http://www.newhavenmuseum.org/library/catalog-of-manuscript-collections/?album=1&gallery=141.

(24)  Shumway, 1 and Morning journal and courier. (New Haven [Conn.]), 27 Oct. 1884. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015483/1884-10-27/ed-1/seq-4/ .

(25)  See Image 6, Sanborn Map Company, New Haven, Volume 1, Yale University Library Digital Collection. Accessed Feb. 19, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/294314 See also Shapiro, Gathering a Building maps in Images. 

(26)  Shumway, 4 and Image 5 from New Haven Museum.

(27)  Shumway, 9.

(28)  Shumway, 10 and New Haven City Assessor’s Office plat map in Image 10.

(29) Internal Revenue Service. Exempt Organizations. New Haven Lawn Club Preservation Trust Inc., 81-4397386. Accessed February 20, 2018. https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/pub78Search.do?indexOfFirstRow=1250&zipCode=&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchCharities&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=&sortColumn=ein&totalResults=1463&names=new+haven+lawn+club+trust&resultsPerPage=250&indexOfFirstRow=1000&postDateTo=&searchChoice=pub78&state=CT

(30) New Haven Lawn Club Tennis Photos (1880-1935). Yale University Library, Historical New Haven Digital Collection. Repository: New Haven Museum. Accessed Feb. 22, 2018. http://yaleinsight.library.yale.edu/nhimageviewer/newhavenall.asp?groupno=8634