Friday, February 15, 1929.
*^HEP1L0T, a Paper With Character, Vass, North Carolina
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THE ROBERT G. MORRISON RESIDENCE
Donald Ross House
Resembles a Castle
Noted Golf Architect Builds
Large Home in Midst of
His Handiwork
THE DONALD ROSS CASTLE
Attractive House of
Robert G. Morrison
Pittsburgh Man Buys Talbot
Johnson Residence for a
Winter Home
Nearly a year ago a group of half
a dozen men agreed to build on Knoll-
wood Heights, the scheme being to in
sure to each of the group a number of
neighbors around him, and the attend
ant stimulus to the development of the
community that such a step would en
sure. There were George Van Keuren,
Donald Ross, Roy Pushee, * Talbot
Johnson, Herbert Vail and R. A.
Dlmstead, who had already built one
house, which he sold to John Blox-
3iam. The type of houses contemplat
ed was to cost around $12,000, but
when the plans were drawn It was
found that the prospective owners had
decided on more ambitious structures,
and the result is an average of twice
the intended sum, and a fine collec
tion of houses that give Knollwood
Heights a distinctive standing as a
conspicuous creation of handsome
homes.
The Robert G. Morrison home is the
house built by Talbot Johnson, and
with the furnishings it represents an
outlay of probably $40,000, although
the exact figures have not been sought
by The Pilot, as it is not of great
concern. The fact is that here is one
of the most modem and commanding
residences in the Sandhills, with
everything that inventive genius has
made possible for service in domestic
affairs. When the Morrisons saw the
house and its location they asked Mr.
Johnson if he would sell it, and they
quickly closed a deal when he said
he would. The new folks are from
that hustling hive of industry, Pitts
burg, which is contributing a lot of
pood people to the Sandhills.
It is the intention of the Morri
sons to add to their new house, for
they have sufficient ground to make
of it a more roomy location as well
as a somewhat more elaborate insti
tution. The Pittsburgh idea of go
ing forward will be the attitude of the
new neighbors on Knollwood Heights,
and it is plain enough that when Tal
bot Johnson interested Robert G.
Morrison in a home at Knollwood he
added a valuable asset to the Sand
hills. The house, as the picture shows,
is a classical thing that will always
be one of the features of this land of
winter resort villages. It is furnish
ed inside as harmoniously with the
general style of the building as the
house outside indicates. It is a fine
building with a householder who will
add greatly to the charm of this re
gion as a place to live.
n
New Residence of George Van Keuren
Van Keuren Home on
Edge of Golf Course
Located on Short Road, Owner
Can See Start and Finish
of Matches
Among the first men to see the pos-
silibities under the shadow of the
Pine Needles Inn was George van
Keuren, who has been keeping his
eye on opportunities and conditions in
the Sandhills. He selected a loca
tion of Short road, close by Fairway
18 and not far from No. 1. He is
thus handy to the beginning and the
finish of all the tournaments that take
place, and also close to the beginning
and the end when he or his friends
want to play golf. Mr. Van Keuren
v/as one of the group of half a dozen
men who last spring planned to build
houses near each other, which plan
has given to Knollwood Heights its
marked advance during the past eight
months. The plans were for houses
that would harmonize with each
other, and with the general concep
tion of Knollwood development, as
well as fitting in with the surface of
the country, and the location of the
Pine Needles and the Mid Pines and
their courses. The Van Keuren house
is a commanding creation, simple in
its lines, roomy in its arrangement,
and finished with the elegance that
the buildings today can offer the
home mailer. It makes a good com
panion for the Donald Ross house and
the fine home of the Morrisons, both
of which are close by. It occupies a
large scope of ground, giving unlim
ited landscape possibilities.
When Donald Ross delivered to the
builder the plans for his new house
he did not contract for a house as
the original idea of the half dozen
men in the group contemplated. He
went far beyond the conception of a
house of ten or twelve thousand dol
lars and ordered the construction of
what looks like a castle But it is to
become much more than that. In af
ter years the Donald Ross home will
be a shrine. Donald Ross is the crea
tor of golf as it is practiced in the
United States, which now leads the
world in this sport, and is still go
ing strong in its forward growth.
When he came to America and fell
in with James Tufts, who was devel
oping an idea at his newly launched
resort at Pinehurst, the two evolved
rt thing they never dreamed of at the
start. The intention was a golf
course to afford a little sport at the
Pinehurst resort. But Ross is a gen
ius, and Tufts was another. Ross
planned far beyond what was anti
cipated, and Tufts encouraged him as
he went forward. Room was given
year by year for the desired expan
sion and the original primitive course
broadened into five courses now at
Pinehurst with an off shoot of two
more at Mid Pines and Pine Needles
and two at Southern Pines, and all
of them Donald Ross courses, and of
the highest order of design and con
struction.
Ross found in this region ample
land at low cost, and in every case
he was given hundreds of acres to
choose from in making all of the nine
courses. In addition he has one or
two other courses under way on the
Barber estate close by Pine Needles
and Mid Pines, and of the same high
character. In consequence Pinehurst,
which is the father of the golf move
ment, has come to be known all the
world over as the home of golf, and
here the pilgrims tend on the devout
journeys to the shrine of their de
votion. Ross is the Mahommed of the
golf cult and his home will be sought
out by the devotees years and years
ahead, for he is the man who has
made golf second to baseball alone as
ai. American sport.
With the devout coming to play
the game in the Pinehurst belt the
pilgrims to the Ross house will con
stitute a constant stream, for set on
the hillside, and in its big propor
tions arising amid a surrounding of
other fine homes and the golf courses
on all sides the Ross home will be a
feature striking as well as historical.
St. Andrews, in Scotland, the home
of golf in the old world, attracts vis
itors and players from every where,
but it is said that Pinehurst already
outnumbers St. Andrews in the num-
I her of players on the links and with
*a hundred and twenty-five millions of
' our own people to draw from and the
i number increasing daily it is an easy
• guess that the army of visitors to the
Sandhill golf fields will multiply in
greater ratio in the future than in
I the past. They will come to play the
1 game, to watch the multiplying classic
I tournaments, and to worship at the
shrine built by Donald Ross.
I The house of Donald Ross is on
i Fairway and Swoope drives, a few
I hundred feet from No. 1 and No. 18
fairways, the beginning and the end
of the game at Pine Needles, and but
a few minutes from the Mid Pines
course, and not much farther from the
courses at Pinehurst and Southern
Pines. It is in the center of the golf
belt of the Sandhills, which is tha
golf heart of the world, and the one
point where golf is recognized, not as
an adjunct, but as a basic factor in
the purpose of the resort industry.
More big golf events are scheduled at
Pinehurst than any other place on the
continent, if not on the globe, and
contests take place that enter players
by the hundreds. The high record is
somewhere around 350 in one tourna
ment, while the army of spectators
that follow the field in the play is
actually an army.
And the patron saint established
himself with his fine new house on
the Knollwood Heights, overlooking
two of his finest creations in the way
of golf courses in a development
where he was allowed to choose his
locations for the thirty-six holes from
six thousand acres. Golf devotees,
take off your hats and bow your heads
when you drive past Donald Ross*s
new house, for it is a shrine of your
cult.
SPANISH TYPE FOR HERBERT VAIL
THE PUSHEE CAPE COD COTTAGE
An interesting example of the new
types of hontes at Knollwood is the
Cape Cod cottage, built by Roy
Pushee, of Boston and Southern Pines,
on Fairway Drive, immediately oppo
site the Morrison home. Mr. Pushee
selected the Colonial designs that have
become pronounced as well as* prac
tical in the old Massachusetts colonies,
and built a substantial and roomy
cottage that is surrounded by growing
pines and other trees and plants. The
building embraces all the essentials
that are required in these days, and
is large enough for ample space and
•omfort, for the colonial architecture
frew out of the need to get the
*iost space and comfort in the early
^ays with the least outlet of money.
The architect obtained the results,
*nd in doing it created a handsome
home, which he placed in one of the
most suitable locations for a build
ing of this character.
It was immediately taken by Mrs.
D. R. Lewis and daughters of Chi-
cagio, who make another congenial ac
quisition to the group of good neigh
bors at Knollwood. A year ago when
Knollwood Heights was projected
Judge Way, the patriarch of the set
tlement, talking one day about the
prospects, said that what Knollwood
Needed was a lot of good neighbors.
He was speaking for himself as well
as for the community. But he is get
ting good neighbors, and that is one
of the best things about the place.
Desirable neighbors making desirable
homes in desirable houses make a de
sirable community, which is the case
at Knollwood.
u
Residence of John W. Bloxham
Bloxham First Buyer
of Knollwood Site
Pioneer Has Triangular Location
on Fairway Drive, and with
Attractive Home
On a pine-covered plateau at the
top of the ridge, but a short distance
from the fairways of the Pine Needles
golf course, Herbert Vail has built a
striking Spanish house, commodious,
modern and an adornment to the vi
cinity. It is two story, stucco, tile
roof, with those little adjuncts that
give individuality to the Moorish in
clination of Spanish work. Mr. Vail
is one of the younger business men
at Pinehurst. Associated with Paul
Dana the two are well known and
liked. When the first Knollwood
Heights lots were put on the market
a year ago they bought a location
together. This so pleased Mr. Vail
that he concluded to buy another lo
cation separately and build a house
on it, and after considerable delib
eration he selected the designs for
the building shown. Like all the
other Knollwood builders he finally
accepted plans that were more ambi
tious than he had at first intended,
but the result is that all of Knoll
wood Heights is a more substantial
creation than the first intent had
planned.
Mr. VaiFs house is conspicuous
both because it stands on a prominent
intersection of the drives and high on
the ridge as well as because of its
character and construction. It will
soon be finished, and it is his inten
tion to occupy it himself unless he
should sell it or rent it, which may
happen, ks inquiries are coming with
regard to it.’ But he says if some one
else takes it he will proceed at once
to build another house, for he is thor
oughly pleased with Knollwod Heists
as a home neighborhood.
Gerken House One
of Earliest Built
The Alloway cottage, the home of
Frederick Gerken, Jr., was the sec
ond house built at Knollwood by 01m-
stead and Austin. The first had been
the Bloxham house, close by Mr.
Gerken’s home. They are now build
ing their third one further down the
Fairway drive, and fronting on Fair
way 18. Mr. Gerken and family se
cured possession of the Alloway as
quickly as it was ready for occupa
tion, and have made of it a delightful
home. They have a pleasant location,
with the Bloxhams on the adjoining
lot, and form another good element
in the Knollwood social horizon. This
house is on a site chosen by Mr. 01m-
stead when he had all of Knollwood
Heights to select from, and under
the help of A. B. Yeomans he desig
nated the position of both cottages
that each should have a proper re
lationship to the other in the gen
eral scheme of the development of the
entire hiH* The outlook from the Al
loway cottage is a comprehensive pic
ture, the Inn is close by, and the
start and finish of the golf course,
holes 1^. 1 and 18, are but a few hun
dred feet down Short Road. Mr. Ger
ken has one of the choicest locations
on the ridge.
John W. Bloxham, of Southern
Pines, was the first buyer of a build
ing location on the Knollwood
Heights. When the plan was opened
to buyers he selected the triangle
bounded by the Fairway Drive,
Swoope drive and Crest road, con
taining about two and a quarter acres.
On this he proposed to build. But
soon after he bought this tract R. A.
Olmstead bought a similar acreage
across Indian Trail drive and began
the first house on the new property.
Before it was completed Olmstead
sold the house to Bloxham, who thus
became the pioneer of the new settle
ment. This Bloxham house stands on
a knob that gives an outlook over the
valley for miles, and that is in easy
touch with the Pine Needles Inn, the
Mid Pines, the golf courses, the high
way, and with all the facilities and
conveniences that abound in the
Knollwood neighborhood.
With the transfer of the new house
to Mr. Bloxham Mr. Olmstead com
menced another house close by, which
followed by others until the Bloxham
home is now one of a number that
are located in the vicinity of the Fair
way drive, and other buildings are in
progfress and still others in the hands
of architects for plans for early con
struction.
Mr. Bloxham is a business man'of
Southern Pines. He is rated as one
of the best insurance actuaries in
North Carolina, where he has had
wide experience. His connection with
I prominent insurance concerns has
j given him a standing in the line he
follows in the community, where he is
.also prominent in the various public
j and social activities. The Bloxhams
'make the best type of neighbors, al
though they are yet comparatively
young folks. Since these pioneers
settled as*the first inhabitant on
Knollwood Heights the family has ac
quired the distinction of possessing
the first child of the settlement. The
Bloxham baby is alrea<*y the oldest
inhabitant except its father and
mother. The kiddie coop is seen in
the picture.
SPORTING CENTER
Within a radius of ten miles, the
following sports are available to res
idents of Knollwood and guests of
the Pine Needles Inn:
At Pinehurst—Golf, tennis, polo, ar
chery, field trials, trapshooting, rid
ing, horse racing, game.
At Southern Pines—Hunting (witfli
the Moore County Hounds, by invita
tion.), tennis, golf, riding, roque^
game.
i
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I
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flesidence of Frederick Gerkgn, Jr.