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When, in 1880, American lawn
tennis players recognized need for uniform rules, a
"Committee on Revision" worked over various editions of
the English Marylebone (cricket club) code and produced
Rules of Lawn Tennis as adopted by the cricket and lawn
tennis clubs of Philadelphia, published by J.B.
Lippincott. The clubs were Philadelphia Lawn Tennis
Club, Athletic Association-University of Pennsylvania,
and six cricket clubs: Belmont, Chestnut Hill,
Germantown, Merion, Philadelphia, and Young America.
(Hereinafter CC means Cricket Club). Quickly six became
five as Philadelphia CC absorbed Chestnut Hill CC. This
article attempts neither to rehash prominent tennis
events covered elsewhere in this volume, except brief
mention, nor to relate the five's glorious cricket
history from the 1850s to cricket's virtual extinction
in America during the 1920s, except for the short
overview below. Cricket survives locally only at
Haverford College and Merion Cricket Club.
The English brought cricket to the
American colonies and later infusions of British
artisans, businessmen, and workmen kept it alive. They
played it everywhere they settled. Textile workers from
Nottingham flocked to Germantown's Manheim and exhibited
wild, rough matches followed by hard drinking, male-only
parties. In New York English business sedately observed
the Laws of Cricket and traditional amenities-mostly. By
mid-19th century industrial growth, transportation and
communication advances, urbanization, and increased
toleration towards athletics fostered the rise of
organized American sports, including cricket: " As
expanding cities encroached upon traditional recreation
areas, residents had to organize to acquire and maintain
playing grounds...sportsmen joined together to rent or
purchase space for cricket, baseball...and other
athletic clubs." (George Kirsch, The Creation of
American Team Sports, 1959, p. 9)
" As the first cricket in
Philadelphia was closely bound up with 'stakes and ale',
cricket clubs were formed by anxious parents in the
1850s to protect their sons from contaminating
associations. The cricket clubs gave the game an air of
respectability." (.E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia
Gentlemen, 1958, 1979 ed., p.359). A subscriber to
Spirit of the Times, in 1857, wrote "everybody plays
cricket in Philadelphia from the child to the old man."
The five elitist clubs dominated local cricket and
served as social hubs. In 1870 comment in Spirit of the
Times stressed social aspects, "In Philadelphia cricket
is the favorite pastime with the fashionable world, the
ladies of the Quaker City especially take great interest
in it...the attendance is always of the most
distinguished characters, the carriages of the wealthier
classes surrounding the field, and the leading belles of
the city crowding the reception-rooms of the
club-houses." As tennis surfaced, these clubs promptly
adopted it at recreational and tournament levels.
Eventually tennis supplanted cricket as the club's prime
sport.
Belmont CC was organized September
3, 1874 and disbanded in late 1912. First located at
40th & Aspen Streets in West Philadelphia, it moved
several times before settling on two square blocks
bordering on 49th & Baltimore, one block each for
cricket and tennis. Belmont men, in 1897, challenged the
other clubs to a tournament but I do not know if it
materialized. An important addition, in 1880, was the
ladies Outdoor Club of West Philadelphia, formed the
year before to provide archery, croquet, and lawn
tennis. An early leader in women's tennis, it produced
the first U.S. Women's champions, Nellie Hansell and
Birdie Townsend and near-champions Margarette Ballard
and Laura Knight. Its best men competitors were Allison
Scott, Milton Work of later contract bridge fame, Gus
Remak, Marmaduke Smith, Dr. Philip B. Hawk, Harry F.
Allen, and Al Hoskins. Belmont hosted the Pennsylvania
Intercollegiates
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1886-87; the first Philadelphia
& District mens championship, 1888; and several
"open" (as distinguished from
"closed" club) events.
The Germantown village clubs,
Germantown and Young America, founded 1854 and 1855,
became strong rivals. Both proved powers in American
cricket, the latter once called national champion,
although no such honor then existed. Germantown CC's
grounds were at Nicetown, Young America bordering
Manheim Street. Clarence and Joseph Clark and Fred
Taylor represented Young America in tennis matches
versus Boston and New York clubs, 1880-83. Young America
staged the first important annual invitation tournament,
1882-87, the winners being Dr. James Dwight, Allison
Scott and the two Clarks, who also played cricket for
Young America. Circumstances forced an amicable merger
of the two clubs in 1889 under the Germantown CC name at
new grounds on Manheim Street with a magnificent new
clubhouse, "Manheim," designed by the
prestigious architectural firm of McKim, Meade, and
(Stanford) White.
As related in other articles,
Germantown CC subsequently hosted Davis Cup matches,
national mens singles and doubles championships, many
state and local championships, and in scholastic
tournaments, including the Stille Cup, donated by member
Ewing Stille. Bill Tilden and his older brother Herbert
learned tennis there and represented the club in
Inter-Club League competition. Three of Bill's greatest
triumphs were his 1922-23 national mens championships
won at Germantown. In recent decades the club has staged
national senior mens age bracket grass court
championships. Germantown CC also has sponsored bowling,
field hockey, and soccer teams.
Philadelphia CC, founded February
10, 1854, eldest of the five, played first at Camden,
NJ, then at numerous leased and rented grounds before,
in 1884, occupying seven acres bordering Willow Grove
Avenue at Wissahickon (now St. Martin's) in western
Chestnut Hill, donated as cricket and tennis grounds by
Henry Howard Houston. Besides proud records in tennis
and cricket, until "in 1925 stumps were drawn for
the last time," Philadelphia competed in contract
bridge, field hockey, golf, soccer, squash, and
swimming. The main tennis tournaments conducted on club
turf were national womens and girls and Middle States
mens and womens championships, and, in recent years,
national grass court junior events. Tennis professionals
employed included George Kerr and James Reid.
Outstanding member-players included Dick Williams, Dr.
Carl Fischer who won 9 club singles titles, and Joe
Carpenter, who won five; and among the early women,
Annabelle Wister and Amy Williams; and later, Hope
Knowles Rawls.
Merion CC, founded 1865, used
grounds near Wynnewood Station, 1865-73; fives acres in
Ardmore, 1873-92; and acreage near the Haverford
railroad station, 1892 to present. Fire twice destroyed
clubhouses in 1896. A ladies unit in 1879, started
tennis at the club and later field hockey, squash,
contract bridge, croquet and soccer commenced. Merion
historian Charles E. Reilly, Jr. wrote "There is no
vista more beautiful to my eye than Merion's Great
Lawn...(that magnificent green acreage) as viewed from
the main building porch." Almost countless cricket
and lawn tennis matches have transpired there and lawn
tennis still is contested there. Major tournaments held
at Merion include the mens Intercollegiate, Mens
Pennsylvania Lawn Tennis, Womens Pennsylvania and
Eastern States Championships. Outstanding member players
at the national level: William J. Clothier, R. Norris
Williams, E. Victor Seixas, L. Straight Clark, Dorothy
Green Briggs, Madge Harshaw Yosters, Anne Page Homer,
and Anne B. Townsend.
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