Shady Rest Golf Club
Shady Rest Golf Club is a 9-hole, par 33 golf course located in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, measuring 2247 yards. Cost tier: Economy. No driving range on site.
820 Jerusalem Rd, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076-2003
Historic public 9-hole course in Scotch Plains, the first African American country club in the U.S., listed on the National Register.
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About This Course
Shady Rest Golf Club is the first African American country club in the United States. In 1921, a group of Black investors known as the Progressive Realty Company, led by Scotch Plains resident Henry Willis Sr., purchased the property and opened it as Shady Rest Golf and Country Club. The club quickly grew to 200 members and became a center of Black middle-class social life in New Jersey from the 1920s through the 1960s, attracting entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie.
Shady Rest was home to John Matthew Shippen Jr., the first American-born African American golf professional. Tennis players Ora Washington and Althea Gibson also played on its courts. In 1964, Scotch Plains Township took ownership and made the course public. The National Park Service listed Shady Rest on the National Register of Historic Places. The nine-hole, par-33 course plays 2,247 yards.
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820 Jerusalem Rd, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076-2003
Historic public 9-hole course in Scotch Plains, the first African American country club in the U.S., listed on the National Register.