BRIEF CLUB HISTORY
On May 15, 1901, a select group of Wilmingtonians received a letter (see following document) announcing the formation of the Wilmington Country Club, a charter and the securing of a long-term lease for a suitable tract of land having been obtained. The Club had been incorporated under the laws of Delaware on April 22, 1901. The beginnings, however, trace back to 1882 when, on the front porch of the old Tatnall mansion at Delaware Avenue and Jefferson Street, the Delaware Cricket Club was organized by a group including Henry L. Tatnall, Jr. and his brother-in-law, Joshua Ernest Smith. In 1883 the Club purchased a playing field at 23rd and West Streets from Joseph Tatnall, and in 1885 it became the Delaware Field Club. A new club house was built in Elsmere in 1889 and activities were expanded to include baseball, football, and tennis. A nine-hole golf course was added about 1895. The Delaware Field Club became the true progenitor of the Wilmington Country Club when many of its members merged to form the new Club in 1901. Stock in the newly organized club was offered at $25.00 a share with no specific amount required, and the annual dues were to be $25.00. The land for the new club, 129 acres, most of which was leased from William duPont, Sr., was situated on the south side of what was then known as the Kennett Turnpike and within a four-minute walk from the Rising Sun terminus of the Wilmington City Railway. The site today includes Wilcastle Center, a public golf course, and the athletic fields of nearby Tower Hill School. Subsequently, a meeting was scheduled for subscribers on May 27, 1901, at the New Century Club in Wilmington “to effect the permanent organization of the Club, and to adopt By-laws and regulations for its government.” According to the certificate of incorporation of the Wilmington Country Club, “the object to be promoted is the maintenance of an association for social, intellectual and recreative purposes.” The formation of the Wilmington Country Club coincided with that of a number of other country clubs around the turn of the century, following the establishment in 1860 of the first Country Club in the United States – The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts; and, in 1888 the first Golf Club – The St. Andrews Club of Yonkers, New York. For the founding fathers of the Wilmington Country Club and its original membership, the Club was truly a Country Club. Most of them lived within a small, well-defined area – Delaware Avenue from West Street to Clayton Street – of what was then a much smaller Wilmington. Benjamin Nields, J. Ernest Smith, and Andrew C. Gray were the original subscribers to the capital stock; among the Club’s early directors were Henry B. Thompson, Henry L. Tatnall, Jr., E. Tatnall Warner, Alfred duPont and Joseph Bancroft, prominent civic leaders and presumably sports-minded individuals.
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