There is history in those hills, more than anyone knows,
even as they are walking on them during a round at Port Jefferson Country Club (formerly Harbor Hills).
"I started asking some of the older members of the club about how it started and who the architects were. People remembered being caddies here and who the pros were, but many people didn't know the history of the club," said Phil Griffith, a retired teacher and current club historian. "But no one ever really investigated how it all began back in 1908."
Griffith's research, mostly at the local library, has resulted in an exhibit, "Port Jefferson Country Club at Harbor Hills: A Century of Golf" that will be displayed through Sept. 2 at the Port Jefferson Village Center.
Port Jefferson represents an unassuming piece of Long Island golf lore, which normally spotlights courses in the Hamptons and Nassau. But Harbor Hills' roots run very deep, Griffith said.
They trace to developer Dean Alvord, who established Belle Terre in Port Jefferson as a summer colony modeled after Newport, R.I. The Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Astors and J.P. Morgan visited the resort that featured a 100-room hotel (each room had its own fireplace and hot and cold running water, which was a rarity), equestrian trails, stables, tennis courts and a nine-hole golf course.
The course was designed by Alexander Findlay, a native of Scotland and friend of golf pioneer Harry Vardon.
After Alvord's real estate companies went into receivership (reported by The New York Times in 1913), the course did survive. After the Fallon family bought the development in 1924, it decided to offer more golf. Devereaux Emmit, the famed course architect who designed Garden City Golf Club and Salisbury Park (now Eisenhower Red), was hired to build an 18-hole layout.
"The courses operated concurrently until 1956," Griffith said, adding that Norman Winston bought the 600 acres of Harbor Hills and hired Alfred Tull to combine the nine and 18-hole courses into the one that still exists, calling it Harbor Hills Country Club.
Then in 1978, the Village of Port Jefferson bought the 175-acre property, which includes a mile of beach on Long Island Sound. "Hal Sheprow was the mayor and he had the foresight," Griffith said. "The village bought it for $2.2 million and today it is worth well over $60 million."
Having turned 100, the club is looking ahead. Griffith said there is talk of adjusting the course to fit modern bigger hitters, while keeping it playable for everybody.
The exhibit is on the first floor of the village center, just east of the ferry terminal. It is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. There is something for any history or golf buff. "I came away with a greater appreciation of the club and the famous people connected with it," Griffith said. "I'm sure John D. Rockefeller played there. I heard he took his first golf lesson from a pro who later worked at the club - the lesson cost 50 cents."
