Network, learn, and tour a 10 Most this September in Scotch Plains. This program will involve connecting with members of the Preserve Shady Rest Committee to learn about the history of the location and the grassroots effort to preserve its history, Barton Ross, of Barton Ross & Partners, LLC, who was the historic architect in charge of the multi-phase rehabilitation project, and preservation consultant, Margaret Newman, who led the effort for the successful application of Shady Rest Golf & Country Club to the State and National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

The Shady Rest Golf and Country Club in Scotch Plains have local, State, and National significance as the first African-American owned and operated country club in the United States. It has added significance as the home course of John Shippen, the first African American and the first American golf professional to play in a U.S. Open.

The clubhouse was originally the Ephraim Tucker Farmhouse built in the mid-1700’s. It remained a family farm until 1900 when the Westfield Golf Club converted the farmland into a nine-hole golf course and the farmhouse into a clubhouse. After the Westfield Golf Club merged with a Club in Cranford to form the Echo Lake Country Club in 1921, a group of prominent black investors known as Progressive Realty Company, purchased the property and organized Shady Rest Golf and Country Club. The Club became a center of African American society at the time hosting events that brought to Scotch Plains such luminaries as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Joe Louis, Althea Gibson, and Newark’s own Sarah Vaughn.

Drinks and light refreshments will be provided. 

This event is free to attend but donations to Preservation New Jersey to support our education and advocacy work across the state of New Jersey are appreciated. Registration is required.