History of North Palm Beach Country ClubTHE HISTORY OF NORTH PALM BEACH COUNTRY CLUB
The history of the North Palm Beach Country Club dates back to 1925. The following
accounts were researched at the Palm Beach County Historical Society and interviews
with various people who lived during those tunes and thereafter.
Paris Singer (grandson of the founder of The Singer Sewing Machine Company),
originally had plans to build a golf club on the present NPBCC property. He had already
built the Everglades Club on Palm Beach in 1919 with a nine -hole golf course and by
1925 added another nine holes making it an 18 -hole, par 72 course. Addison Mizner had
designed the clubhouse and Seth Raynor, a golf course architect from South Hampton,
New York designed the course. At this same time, he was building the Blue Heron Hotel
on Singer Island. He wanted another golf course for his club members and hotelguests to
play. Eight months into the project and cash strapped, he convinced his good friend,
Harry Kelsey, who was developing Kelsey City (Lake Park), to take on the building of
the course. Singer recommended to Kelsey, a friend from Paris, France to do the design
of the clubhouse. Seth Raynor would design the golf course. Raynor, who was well
sought after, had been designing courses throughout the northeast and abroad for very
wealthy clubs. Just as he was to begin on Kelsey's course, he caught pneumonia and died
here in West Palm Beach on January 26, 1926. He had left approximately 30 courses on
the drawing board. His mentor, Charles Blair Macdonald upon hearing of Raynor's
passing, finished the final draft and came down to Florida to supervised the construction.
The club was called the Palm Beach Winter Club and it opened on January 7, 1927.
Macdonald, who coined the title "Golf Course Architect," designed the first 18 -hole golf
course in the United States in 1892. It was the Chicago Golf Club and is currently ranked
15f in the top 100 courses in America built before 1960. His greatest work was the
National Golf Links of America on South Hampton, Long Island. It is here that he hired
Raynor to do the engineering of the course. It opened in 1911 and is ranked 10ffi in the
top 100 courses in America before 1960. The two would go on to build a dozen or more
courses, some no longer in existence and others that are in the top 100 to this day. By
1915, the firm of Macdonald and Raynor was formed. Presently Macdonald and Raynor
have 5 courses in the top 100 in America. Seth Raynor has 8 courses on his own. These
were all done between 1911 and 1926.
The Palm Beach Winter Club remained open under the ownership of Harry Kelsey until
the spring of 1928 when Kelsey had financial troubles selling land. All of his holdings
were turned over to a trusteeship and were to be disposed of During this time, Singer's
Blue Heron Hotel caught fire and burned to the ground before ever being finished; the
1928 hurricane and stock market crash of 1929 delivered the final blows.
Local business and professional men temporarily organized the Palm Beach Winter Club
and retained a 15 -year lease of the club in the fall of 1929. The club operated at a loss
during this time. By then Sir Harry Oakes bought all of Harry Kelsey's holdings; all of
Kelsey City (Lake Park) and the land which now is North Palm Beach. He moved his
family into the Winter Club and used it as a temporary residence until his house in Palm
Beach was built. This was around 1930 and Oaks kept the club open and ran it at a loss
as well. Some of the back -nine holes where Overlook and Greenway Drive and portions
of Country Club Drive are now were moved over to where holes 13 — 17 are today.
After a while he closed the club and the course was left unkempt and overgrown using it
for riding polo ponies by he and his wife and children.
In 1943, Sir Harry Oakes was murdered in the Bahamas and his properties within his
holding company could not be disposed of until 1954 when his youngest son reached 21
years of age. The land was sold to John D. MacArthur including the Palm Beach Winter
Club. Some time thereafter, MacArthur sold a portion of the land to the Ross brothers,
which was developed into Forth Palm Beach. The Winter Club was part of the package.
They made some minor improvements to the course and clubhouse after being unused for
years and were reopened as a public course. The Village purchased the club in 1962,
built a new modern clubhouse and re -opened as The forth Palm Beach Country Club in
1963.