Longue Vue Club and Golf Course

About this property

Longue Vue Club and Golf Course is a historic golf course and clubhouse in Penn Hills Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. It was founded in the 1920s. It was added to the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 1985, and the National Register of Historic Places on May 10, 2005. In 1920, Pittsburgh businessman Edward W. Mudge spoke with a group of his peers about wanting to establish a golf course of their own. These were men of power and great wealth, and among their ranks were Edward V. Babcock, mayor of Pittsburgh and president of Babcock Lumber Company; Ernest T. Weir, president of Weirton Steel Company; A.L. Humphrey, president of Westinghouse Air Brake Company; J. Morrison Hansen, president of Standard Steel Car Company; as well as 13 other corporate executives who enjoyed the game of golf, which was just beginning to sweep the country. They were also men of action, because one week later they acquired a farm and adjacent lots for $150,000. These 370 acres were dramatically sited atop the highest point in Penn Hills Township and commanded a sweeping panorama of the Allegheny River Valley. The founding fathers named it Longue Vue (French for "long view") Club. Legend has it that when Longue Vue couldn't meet expenses during the depression, the gents rolled dice or cut cards to see who would cover the shortfall that year. Not surprisingly, Longue Vue became known as "The Millionaires Club." In addition to golf, the Longue Vue stables were erected in 1922, and equestrians trotted along six miles of bridle paths. While relatively short-lived, the club’s first recreational activity is memorialized by the riding saddle in Longue Vue’s crest. The golf course at the Longue Vue Club was designed by a man who is sometimes forgotten, yet greatly recognized as being one of the forefathers of golf in America. Robert White, whom the Club still honors through a yearly golf event, was commissioned to build the golf course by Longue Vue’s Board of Governors in April 1922. Robert White was born in 1874 in St. Andrews, Scotland and immigrated to the United States in 1894. White began laying out courses from the time he arrived in the United States. In these years, it would typically only take him only one morning to walk the land and decide on nine tee and green locations. In 1902, Robert White helped found the Illinois Professional Golf Association and was appointed their president. This society was only the second of its kind in the world, due to the fact that the British PGA was only founded in 1901. When the United States PGA was founded in 1916, White was elected its first president due to his close relationship to nearly a third of the pros in the United States, and he held the position until 1920.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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