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Shady Rest Country Club in Scotch Plains, N.J., was the first Black country club in the U.S. Big names teed off during the day, and at night, entertainers like Ella Fitzgerald performed. It was the place to be. The clubhouse is still open, but some parts need work, so a grant is helping. Buffy Gorrilla checked on the progress.
BUFFY GORRILLA: Almost got run over by a golf cart, so I think it's a good sign that the links are alive.
Tom Donatelli is the chairman of the Preserve Shady Rest committee. He meets me outside the Shady Rest clubhouse, a cream-colored, wood-sided building that sits on the edge of a nine-hole golf course. This building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.
TOM DONATELLI: How are you? You must be Buffy.
GORRILLA: I am Buffy.
DONATELLI: Nice to meet you.
GORRILLA: This place was built in the 1700s. It was a two-room farmhouse, then a tavern, which was converted into a clubhouse in 1900. Then in 1921, a group of Black investors bought the clubhouse.
DONATELLI: Segregation was at his height, and the only country clubs in the area were for whites only. So the Progressive Realty Company purchased this land, and they created Shady Rest Country Club.
GORRILLA: And it became the first Black-owned country club in the United States.
DONATELLI: They had tennis lessons. They had tennis tournaments as well as they had Black golf tournaments here, too.
GORRILLA: There's a small museum. On display is a mix of sports memorabilia and photos.
DONATELLI: A lot of this is artifacts of the china and the silverware and things like that that were used during those years.
GORRILLA: There are rooms for events, but other parts of the building are closed.
DONATELLI: So we're about to go down the hall of fame over here.
GORRILLA: Among the photos hanging in the hallway is one of John Shippen Jr., the first American-born golf professional and the country's first Black golf professional, and one of tennis player Althea Gibson. During the day, it was all about sports, but after hours, big names played in the nightclub downstairs, the Villa Casanova - Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.
DONATELLI: So these people would play in New York, and then they would come here after their show because nobody would follow them out here to - all the way out to New Jersey. We actually have a picture of Ella Fitzgerald singing in the Villa Casanova.
GORRILLA: Can we go downstairs to see where the Villa Casanova nightclub was?
DONATELLI: Sure.
GORRILLA: The glittery nightclub is gone, in its place a dark, dank basement. Wires and what's left of the pressed tin ceiling hang sadly from above.
DONATELLI: This was their walkway to the nightclub and into the...
GORRILLA: The repair list is long. Restoring the Villa Casanova is one of many projects, but first come the structural repairs. To help cover the restoration costs, the group applied for a grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Brent Leggs is its executive director.
BRENT LEGGS: Since inviting proposals, the Action Fund's National Grant Program has received 6,169 funding proposals.
GORRILLA: In July, Shady Rest received a $75,000 grant, one of 30 awarded across the country this year. The goal, Leggs says...
LEGGS: Is to elevate these undertold or lesser-known stories.
GORRILLA: The story of Shady Rest interests Elizabeth Corshu. She stopped by the club to ask about golf lessons and was impressed.
ELIZABETH CORSHU: Anything that is such a gem as this historical site needs to be preserved, and I want to be a part of it.
GORRILLA: Donatelli says it could take between five and 10 years to finish the work, but the Preserve Shady Rest committee is ready to do what's needed to restore this historic gem. For NPR News, I'm Buffy Gorrilla in Scotch Plains, N.J.
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