Eliminating Severely Disturbed Areas: Tuxedo Park Historic Golf Course

    While ACS performs many surveys on properties slated to be developed into golf courses, ACS had the rare opportunity to conduct a survey on a former section of one of the oldest golf courses in North America. The Tuxedo Park historic golf course presents an example of a project where landscape features play an equal or even larger role than structural remains or artifacts in the interpretation of the past. Significant amounts of disturbance to the property, however, resulted in a dramatically reduced subsurface testing pattern.

1903 map showing a portion of the course and related facilities which included much of the project area

    Located in the Ramapo Valley of Orange County, New York, the Tuxedo Park historic golf course was a late 19th Century facility catering to the wealthy patrons from New York City who vacationed at glamorous summer homes in the exclusive community of Tuxedo Park. The growth of industrialization during this era expanded the class of "nouveau riche" that also marked the increase of leisure time and representative facilities in American life. The Tuxedo Park golf course is commonly referenced as one of the oldest golf courses in North America, and was in operation until the mid-1950s when a highway was planned to run through the course. The project property was subsequently used as a gravel quarry, a landform-specific economic activity which unfortunately parallels the distribution of prehistoric sites in the region to a large extent. Phase I testing of the property was mostly limited to areas on the outskirts of the quarry and along the historic road that borders the project area.

    Traces of several prehistoric sites were identified on the property, but mostly in areas which had been disturbed by other historic processes such as orchard plantings, gardening, and grading. Several Madison projectile points in the assemblage indicate a Late Woodland (ca. 1,000 to 400 years ago) focus that likely included agricultural efforts. The well drained property would similarly be used for agricultural efforts into the historic era, as well as light industry marked by a saw factory that was in operation during the early to mid-19th Century. By the end of the century, however, the Tuxedo Park Association acquired large tracts of land with some sections used to create an 18-hole golf course. Remnant features of the course on the property include several tee and green areas where considerable landscaping efforts are revealed by man- made terraces and knolls. Surviving structures include a caddy shack, traces of the clubhouse, and the stone foundation of a stable used to tend the horses and carriages of patrons. While the extensive amount of quarrying on the property substantially reduced the amount of testing required on this otherwise highly sensitive property, it unfortunately also impacted the integrity of the course and many of its prominent landscape and structural features.