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newsFrom the Archives

A golf cart tunnel under 75 and other features of Dallas’ bygone country clubs

From golf on the greens to exclusive events, Glen Lakes, El Tivoli and Columbian Club provided their members with an abundance of amenities.

Editor’s note: Take a look back into The Dallas Morning News Archives.

Historic North Texas country clubs once served members of Dallas’ high society, offering an entertainment venue and place to socialize with their community. Whether it was year-round golf on the greens, or dinners and dancing, leisure was always at the forefront of these exclusive spaces.

We take a look into the history of three of Dallas’ bygone country clubs.

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Glen Lakes Country Club

Photograph of the Dallas Automobile Country Clubhouse published in The Dallas Morning News...
(The Dallas Morning News)
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Previous names: Dallas Automobile Country Club, Glen Haven Country Club

Location: Spanning both sides of Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane in the Glen Lakes neighborhood

What’s there now: Retail shopping and lakeside apartment complexes

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On March 28, 1914, the Dallas Automobile Country Club debuted as a leisure spot for wealthy motorists. Around its inception, the club had a membership of roughly 600 individuals, and inside the clubhouse, members enjoyed billiard tables, a café, and a ballroom where weekly dances were thrown.

Outdoors, members enjoyed picnic grounds and a 6-acre lake popular for wading, boating and fishing catfish and sun perch. In addition to its outdoor diversions, the club held businessmen’s lunches, boasted a bowling alley, and showed motion pictures every Friday evening.

In 1922, Miss Carrie Lee White and Miss Jennett Jenkins rechristened the club Glen Haven Country Club. The name change occurred due to recurring confusion between the Dallas Automobile Country Club and the Dallas Country Club located in Highland Park. Its name would change once more in 1933 to Glen Lakes Country Club.

In 1923, W. S. Bramlett assumed the club’s presidency, swiftly instating club improvements, including “the institution of an eighteen-hole golf course and the enlargement of the present clubhouse to twice the present size.” The club’s greens, allegedly some of the best in North Texas, were bisected by Central Expressway, which meant that the front nine holes were linked to the back nine by a golf cart tunnel burrowed under the highway. Conveniently enough, drinks were sold on the greens from golf carts.

Staff photograph of a caddy at Glen Lakes Country Club, date unknown.
Staff photograph of a caddy at Glen Lakes Country Club, date unknown.(Richard Pruitt)

During the summers, club members cooled off at the pool, which was fitted with a high diving board, and the club grounds made a popular Fourth of July fireworks spectator spot.

Up the ante: On June 30, 1972, a poker game at the club turned fatal. According to The News, Louis Eldon Gilbreath and his brother Thomas Lee Gilbreath “allegedly entered the clubhouse armed with knives, took a security guard’s pistol, lined the men in the clubhouse up against a wall and demanded they take off their clothes. Police called by a club employe [sic], came into the building as the two [brothers] were leaving and shot it out with them, killing Thomas Gilbreath.” Louis Gilbreath was indicted on two counts of attempted murder of a police office, assault with a prohibited weapon and robbery with a firearm.”

Later: The club hosted a plethora of golf tournaments over the years, most notably the Dallas Civitan Open, a Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament.

The club and its golf course were closed in 1977 upon being sold to developers.

OAK CLIFF

El Tivoli Country Club

Previous names: Dal-Oak Country Club, Cliff-Dale Country Club

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Location: 2715 W. Davis St.

What’s there now: The El Tivoli Place neighborhood.

In 1924, the Dal-Oak Country Club was established and built on an Oak Cliff property previously owned by the Catholic Diocese. The Dal-Oak name didn’t last for long, however, as the Cliff-Dale Country Club appeared in The News as early as December 1925. Cliff Dale was fitted with a golf course.

The club property had a tie to early Dallas settlers, the Reverchons, as Julien Reverchon and his father’s Rose Cottage estate existed on part of the club’s golf course.

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In June 1929, the El Tivoli Night Club was added to the property, and it debuted to more than 500 people. The night club’s facade was designed to resemble the Alamo, and the club regularly held themed holiday dances for members.

Photographs accompanying a story about the Dal-Oak Country Club in The Dallas Morning News...
Photographs accompanying a story about the Dal-Oak Country Club in The Dallas Morning News on Aug. 23, 1925.(The Dallas Morning News)

On June 25, 1930, Cliff-Dale’s clubhouse was subsumed by flames, and in 1931, El Tivoli Country Club rose in its ashes, revamping the club grounds’ golf course in 1934. Common events at the country club included weekly bridge parties, barn dances, wedding receptions for private parties, and free morning golf lessons for women club members.

In December 1943, El Tivoli Inc. purchased land adjacent to the club grounds from St. Paul’s Hospital and St. Cecilia Catholic Church, developing it into 200 brick-veneer homes. El Tivoli Place, as the addition was called, was annexed into the City of Dallas in 1944.

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THE CEDARS → EAST DALLAS → CARROLLTON

Columbian Club

Postcard featuring the facade of Columbian Club at Ervay and Pocahontas Streets, date...
Postcard featuring the facade of Columbian Club at Ervay and Pocahontas Streets, date unknown. Image provided courtesy of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society.(Dallas Jewish Historical Society)

Previous name: The Phoenix Club

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Location: Columbian Club lived three incarnations. The club’s first two locations were in Dallas at 1112 S. Ervay St. and later at 9201 Garland Rd. The Club’s final location was at 2525 Country Club Dr. in Carrollton.

What’s there now: E R L Thornton Fwy (first location), Reserve At White Rock Apartments (second location), Maridoe Golf Club (final location)

Formed in 1890, the Phoenix Club was a Jewish social club that took over the Young Men’s Jewish Association meeting space. The Phoenix and its successor the Columbian Club were created due to other private social clubs’ religious segregation against Jews.

The original charter of the Columbian Club in Dallas was signed in 1905, and it was an invite-only club that boasted a pool, a basement gym and bowling alley, and a large dance hall on its second floor for bat mitzvahs, weddings, and debutante balls.

Pages from a 1920 debutante ball program.  Images provided courtesy of the Dallas Jewish...
Pages from a 1920 debutante ball program. Images provided courtesy of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society.(Dallas Jewish Historical Society)

A fire wiped out the downtown Dallas club in 1931, and despite the Great Depression, the club managed to buy a property that overlooked White Rock Lake a few years later.

After recognizing the exorbitant cost of the club’s expansion at its lakeside location, the Club looked to the northern outskirts of Dallas. In 1951, Columbian Club purchasing 326 acres of land in Carrollton valued at $144,000. The entire club development cost $800,000, which included the construction of the new clubhouse, tennis courts, swimming pools, an 18-hole golf course, and a 30-acre lake.

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The club folded in 2008, transforming into The Honors Club Dallas and eventually the Maridoe Club, which still exists today.

Existing Dallas County clubs

Various country clubs offer social and golf memberships to this day, though some by invite only. Existing clubs include:

  • Dallas Country Club, est. 1896
  • Lakewood Country Club, est. 1912
  • Dallas Athletic Club, est. 1919
  • Brook Hollow Golf Club, est. 1920
  • Northwood Club, est. 1946
  • Brookhaven Country Club, est. 1957
  • Preston Trail Golf Club, est. 1965
  • Prestonwood Country Club, est. 1968
  • Royal Oaks Country Club, est. 1969
  • Bent Tree Country Club, est. 1972
  • Thorntree Golf Club, est. 1983
  • Four Seasons Resort and Club, est. 1986
  • Dallas National Golf Club, est. 2002
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CORRECTED at 9:42 a.m. October 18 to include Brook Hollow Golf Club in the list of existing country clubs.