The Hartford Golf Club was founded in 1896, and immediately became a magnet for the social and business elite of Hartford. Its first golf course was built south of the present property, between Albany and Asylum Avenues. That course's thirteen-hole layout was problematic due to the terrain, and the club in 1914 purchased the southern portion of its present holdings. It hired Donald Ross to design the holes in this area, where fourteen holes were built. An eighteen-hole course was then made out of those plus four holes south of Albany Avenue. In 1945, the club purchased the northernmost portion of its land, which was developed with thirteen new holes, apparently also based on Donald Ross designs. The land south of Albany Avenue was sold in 1955. The golf club's 1914 purchased kicked off a residential construction boom to its southwest. Over the next twenty years, a neighborhood of high quality
Tudor Revival and
Colonial Revival houses were built on large well-landscaped lots, and it came to be one of West Hartford's most fashionable neighborhoods of the period. Roads were laid out in large rectangles, and properties adjacent to the golf were the largest and most lavish in the neighborhood. ==See also==