Club TImes: March/April 2023

Presented By The Heritage Committee IN HONOR OF THE 125 TH ANNIVERSARY

Better By the Decade A CLOSER LOOK AT 1918-1937

AAC HISTORY AT A GLANCE

1924 Club purchases the Lyric Theatre building for $275,000 and remodels it. 1925 A fire destroys the East Lake clubhouse and with it the original Havermeyer Trophy. June 15, 1926 The downtown club on Carnegie Way opens. The 10-story building

Pictured: Bobby Jones was the only person to be honored with two ticker-tape parades in New York City (1926 and 1930)

measured 140,000 square feet and included athletic facilities, exercise rooms, and 45 guest rooms. The purchase and renovation cost $1.25M.

August 1926 The third East Lake clubhouse opens designed by architects Hentz, Reid & Alder .

The Roaring Twenties The Roaring 20’s marked Atlanta Athletic Club’s Golden Age of Sports with champions like Bobby Jones, Alexa Stirling, Watts Gunn, Perry Adair and tennis champ Bitsy Grant, the “Mighty Atom.” The Great Depression in the 1930’s began the “Lean Years” of the Club that lasted until 1945. Thanks to the leadership of the Club’s longest serving president, Scott Hudson, the Club survived and later thrived.

1928 AAC buys an undeveloped tract of land and hires Donald Ross to design the No. 2 course. May 31, 1930 AAC opens the No. 2 course at East Lake to much fanfare, but the growing financial crisis quickly made apparent that the AAC, like most clubs in America, was going to struggle to remain solvent.