TESTERS Bp OE eer ee 
. 
ie ee oe a 
Vol. XIII 
=—— 
Manchester, Mass., Friday, June 4 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
AND REMINDER 
No. 23 
The Essex County Club’s New House 
(Article and Illustrations Repriated from Boston Evening Transcript) 
: 
By CHARLES E. ALEXANDER 
OMPLETION of the new Essex County Club House 
‘at Manchester is expected to give considerable im- 
petus to events at that place the coming season with far 
more adequate facilities and accommodations than were 
provided in the former clubhouse, which was burned. 
The new building to replace it is a fine example of a 
country clubhouse which will fully meet the requirements 
of the members. It is practically ready to be turned over 
to the club by the building committee, George E. Warren 
and Wallace Goodrich, with whom the late Arthur Lith- 
gow Devens also was appointed, and he served as chair- 
man of the committee. Since his death last year Mr. 
Warren and Mr. Goodrich have undertaken the respon- 
sibilities of supervision and have kept closely in touch 
with the architects, Parker, Thomas & Rice of Boston, 
and the contractors who have erected the clubhouse, J. T. 
Wilson & Son, Inc., of Nahant. 
The building committee is prepared to formally tura 
the building over to the club at the annual meeting of the 
members, which takes place on Saturday, June 12, and 
which will be followed by a dinner. The annual election 
of officers will be held and the nominating committee has 
fixed upon the following ballot: For president, Wilham 
Hooper; secretary, Dudley L. Pickman, Jr.; treasurer, 
Henry S. Grew, all of whom are named also as members 
of the board of governors, together with Colonel Henry 
E. Russell, Walter D. Denégre, George E. Warren, Wal- 
lace Goodrich, Amory Eliot, George R. White, George F. 
Willett and Edward C. Fitz. 
Although plans as yet are not in definite shape, there 
will be tennis and golf tournaments this season, also band 
concerts as in past years, with dinners, dances and other 
entertainments. Dudley Pickman, Jr., is expected to take 
an active part in planning some of the entertainments. 
It is possible that the first dinner dance will be on Friday, 
July 2, although this has not been definitely determined. 
There probably will be four dinner-dances this season. 
It fas been suggested that the band concerts on the lawn 
be given on Thursday afternoons in the future, as the 
mixed foursomes are planned for that day and there wiil 
be double interest in visiting the club at that time. In 
past years Wednesday has been concert day. The change 
to Thursday is to be fully con-  gossesoosssoones 
sidered, with announcement 
later as to the decision. 3 
Charles M. Amory is plan- 
ning the golf events and Philip 
Stockton the tennis  tourna- 
ments, as chairmen respectively 
of the golf and the tennis com- 
mittees. The golf course has 
been greatly improved since last 
season and new holes have been 
opened. Two of the four dirt 
tennis courts had to be sacri- 
ficed for the site of the building, 
but this has left two similar 
courts and there are eight grass 
Shore : 
BWRUOOMMOOVBOOMUOOBBWOOBBOO 
courts. Eventually, additional 
dirt courts will be made. George WMOOMMOOMBOOMNOOMNG 
+909 
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No one has seen 
America who has 
not seen the North 
F. Willett is chairman of the committee on the grounds, 
which have been under improvement and development 
from plans by Arthur A. Shurtleff, the Boston landscape 
architect. 
The house committee, Wallace Goodrich, George E. 
Warren and Frank B. Bemis, has worked to good pur- 
pose in the matter of interior furnishings and while these 
are not now complete, the clubhouse is practically ready 
and is likely to be fully so by the time the season has 
really begun to show activity. The committee has been 
handicapped in its work because of the failure of some 
materials, intended for hangings and the like, coming 
from the other side and delayed because of the war in 
Europe. All furniture throughout the house was espe- 
cially designed for the club. 
When the contract for building was awarded, a fairly 
good impression of the clubhouse and its plan was given 
in these columns. The building, constructed of Harvard 
brick, is English in type, of three stories with slated 
pitched roof and it is as nearly fireproof in construction 
as it could be made. The main entrance is marked by a 
series of columns supporting an ornamental pediment and 
balcony. This is on the west side. On the east frontage 
an octagonal clock tower is placed at the intersection of 
the main house with a projecting wing. The house 1s 
amply provided with spacious piazzas, so planned as to 
afford comfortable, well-shaded lounging places. The 
piazzas of the old clubhouse were at times uncomfortably 
warm, on fine summer days, and this condition was re- 
membered and avoided by the architects and house com- 
mittee, in planning the new building. 
The first floor contains the entrance hall and _stair- 
way, from which the office and men’s rooms are at the 
left, and those intended for ladies’ use have been placed 
at the right end of the house. From the hall is the big 
living-room, 43 by 24 feet in dimensions,. and directly 
behind this, in a wing, is the dining-room, about the same 
dimensions as those of the living-room. 
which forms a means of 
two big rooms, probably 
The tower-room, 
between these 
; will be used, in part, by 
musicians, music could then easily heard in 
the living and dining-rooms. The walls of the liv- 
SOOUNOOHMOONE ing-room have been decorated 
by George P. Fernald, of Bos- 
ton, and show classic scenes in- 
troducing temples amid _— sur- 
roundings which are Italian in 
character. These wall decora- 
tions are not unlike those found 
in some of the stately old-time 
mansions ; 
connection 
as be 
in Salem and_ else- 
where in Essex County. The 
second and third floors of the 
clubhouse have been well plan- 
ned to insure the entire comfort 
of the members and those privi- 
OOWBOOMBOOBBUOOKBOOBBOO 
e e e e 
- - . ° $3 leged to be guests there at any 
g time. The service department 
33 is thoroughly modern in its plan 
OOUBOONNOOHBOOHNOD and equipment. 
