KNOLLWOOD
SECTION
THE
PILOT
KNOLLWOOD
SECTION
Is a Paper Devoted to the Upbuilding of the Sandhill Territory of North Carolina
VOL. 9, NO. 11.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1929.
VASS, N. C.
PINE NEEDLES
INN KEYSTONE
OF KNOLLWOOD
Classic Tudor Structure Central
Figure, with Golf Course
Surrounding It
The central figure in the Knollwood
development is the Pine Needles Inn.
It is situated in the heart of one
of the most interesting eighteen-hole
golf courses that Donald Ross ever
built. The topography of the area
on which the links are laid out is such
that Mr. Ross could give his imagi
nation full scope, which he did, and
the result is one that gratifies him
sufficiently to induce him to build
a fine big house on the Knollwood
Heights, just overlooking Fairways'
No. 1 and No. 18, the start and the
finish of the Pine Needles course.
The Inn is a classic Tudor struc
ture of five stories, fire-proof and
modem, built of steel frame and
brick, with all the conveniences that
give it a front rank among the ho
tels of the South. Its surroundings
are the golf links, and with them
numerous groups of buildings sites,
wWch are already going into the
hands of buyers who are building a
high class type of homes. Pine
Needles is in easy reach of Pinehurst,
Southern Pines, and the other adja
cent villages and is but a few min
utes run from the golf courses at
those points, where seven other
courses are available, while across
the Midland road is another course
at the Mid Pines club. On the Bar
ber estate, adjoining Knollwood
Heights, just to the west of Pine
Needles, is another attractive course
in process of construction, which will
give in all ten courses in the immed
iate vicinity. It is needless to say
that such a number of golf courses in
the vicinity, of the type that they are,
makes this a prominent center of
golfing world. This is thej heart
of the big tournament life of
the United States, more big con
tests taking place in Pinehurst and
the neighboring golf fields than in any
half dozen other places in the
South. Pine Needles Inn is a Pine
hurst hotel, under the management
that has made Pinehurst famous, and
it is of the Pinehurst character of
management and excellence. It was
opened for the first time in January,
1928, and in a short time had filled
to capacity. It’s fame had gone out
before the doors were swung hack forj
its arriving visitors. |
Pine Needles Inn affords all the I
I
comforts and conveniences that visi- j
tors or residents at Knollwood 1
Heights may desire, and the courte
sies of the Pine Needles golf course
are at the pleasure of Knollwood
Heights residents. Fairways No. 1,
16, 17 and 18 flank the Knollwood
Heights building sites. The inhabi
tants of the buildings on a consider
able portion of Fairway Drive, on
Knollwood Heights and on Short road
and Groove drive, can watch much of
the game that is in progress, while
many of them will have the fairways
as their big lawn.
THE NEW PINE NEEDLES INN
Knollwood Heights New
Development, With Inn
and Houses but Year Old
Pine Needles Opened in 1928, the Center of Rural
Group of Attractive Homes Among
the Long Leaf Pines
GROWTH HAS BEEN REMARKABLE
Glenna Collett Sees
Knollwood Central Figure
of America's Playground
National Champion Calls Pinc( Needles Golf
Course Her Favorite Because of Beauty
and Home Atmosphere
By Glenna Collett
The Pine Needles and its golf
course has become the nucleus of a
new development having most of the
to the making of a smooth footing and
good lie for player and iball. The
grass used is the Creeping Bent,
grown with such success on the fair-
THE LURE OF KNOLLWOOD
Wherever the language of golf
is spoken, the names of Donald
Ross and Glenna Collett are known.
Donald Ross is the leading golf
course architect in America.
Miss Glenna Collett, America’s
women’s national champion, makes
her winter residence at the Pine
Needles Inn.
Donald Ross laid out the Pine •
Needles and all seven other courses
in the Knollwood vicinity. He is
just completing his home on Knoll
wood Heights.
The Knollwood Heights development
enjoys the distinction of being abso
lutely and wholly new. Pine Needles
Inn, about which the whole settle
ment is created, was built in 1027,
opened in 1928 and is now in its sec
ond season. The first house on Knoll
wood Heights in this new movement
was built last spring. Two houses
nearer the Midland road had been built
a couple of years earlier, but the
Knollwood Heights settlement is not
yet a year old. Making the streets
and laying water and sewer lines was
commenced as the Pine Needles Inn
was nearing completion, and under
high pressure has been going forward
ever since.
Knollwood Heights is therefore
modem in ev^jy particular. The
houses are equipped with every mod
em device. They are built with mod
em material, and in accordance with
all modem practices. It is a neigh-
borhdod that is practically alone in
its thorough newness, freshness and
modem adaptation. It was built in
the woods, so there are no question
able quarters of the community. The
entire development high character,
I no dilapidation, no poverty row, no
' objectionable feature or neighborhood.
A clean slate from the forest to the
new homes. In this respect it is un
parallelled, except for the Mid Pines
settlement directly across the state
highway, and which is a slightly old
er companion of Knollwood Heights.
Mid Pines is also new, and modem.
With the exception of one house which
Judge Way substantially rebuilt, there
is not an old house in the Mid Pines
area. Mid Pines and Knollwood
Heights are two units in what will
ultimately be the definite Knollwood
Village. But it will be a different
village than any other, for it will re
main in a rural group of homes on
ample area, as every location that is
sold is measured by acreage and not
by feet. !^oIlwood building sites are
not town lots. They are home sites
for country homes, and laid out with
the purpose of making in the Knoll>
wood area one of the most pleasant
home places on the globe.
Sandhills Climate
Ideal Year ’Round
SCENE DURING RECENT MID-SOUTH OPEN
KNOLLWOOD AIRPORT WINS
PRAISE OF VISITING PILOTS
The new Knollwood flying field has
recently been officially recognized and
approved by the United States Gov
ernment. It has been widely used
this winter and has earned the praise
of all pilots landing on its wide ex
panse of smooth Bermuda grass. Lloyd
Yost, well known pilot, makes his
headquarters there, maintaining sev
eral planes for use of Sand3iills
CTests. Many parties from the north
have dropped down on the field for
week-end stays, and that the field is
a distinct asset to the Knollwood
colony is already an established fact.
characteristics of a Sandhills resort Cuba and Nassau. It grows
and a few of its own. It is the begin
ning of a growth that will eventually
link Pinehurst and Southern Pines.
Although I am interested in this
growth and look forward to it with
pleasure, simply because one always
likes to see the seeds that one has
planted bear fruit, I hate to think
of the time when Knollwood will be so
large that it will perforce lose some
of the intimate, personal charm it
row has. More houses will be built
ench season, and more golfers will
ply our course until it will be almost
impossible to know all the residents.;
At present, Pine Needles is more
like an informal club well on the way
to being entirely independent of the
olher Sandhills communities for its
sports. Tennis courts, an archery
range, and a children’s playground are
under construction; we have our own
stables housing some fifteen horses
and miles of bridle trails; and Donald
Ross himself considers this course the
best piece of work he has done in this
region. All these facilities are drop
ped down in a natural setting of woods . ^ T ^ 1 ^ ^
and lakes that give a pleasant sense! Miss Glenna Collett, National Women s Golf Champion, Miss Louise Fordyce, Youngstown, former
of quiet and isolation not to be found! OhioState Champion and Miss Elizabeth Gordon, professional golfer of Providence, R. I.,
in most resorts. The fairways stretch | putting on the third green of the Fine Needles course, with the inn in the background
between rows of giant pine trees over j long streamers which
rolling country making 18 holes that j spj-gg^j outward to cover up the bare
The climate of the North Carolina
Sandhills is about the most agreeable
all-the-year climate on the continent.
It avoids the extreme heat of summer
and the disagreeable cold of winter.
Tempered by the proximity of the
ocean in the east, sheltered from the
storms of winter by the high moun
tains of the westapn part of the
1 state, favored by a large proportion
of sunny days, winter weather rarely
shows a lower temperature than 26
degrees, while the summer extreme
IS not often much above 90. The bliz
zards of the West are turned north
ward by the mountains, and are
practically unheard of in the North
Carolina Sandhills. Sunstroke in
summer is unheard of. The sandy soil
exerts a modifying* influence in tem
p-ring both heat and cold, while the
j soft blanket of pine forests over a
I large part of the region retains the
I warmth of the earth in winter, breaks
: th{- raw winds that cannot penetrate
jthe thick pin? covers, and acts as a
j balance in all the climatic phenom-
I ena. This is the children’s paradise,
; as they may be out of doors almost
! every day of the year, and that is
also a great stimulus to the older
I folks who are beginning to feel the
I ripors of winter in the North or to
: feel discomfort in ths warmer days
! f f summer where the thermometer
is less favorable than here.
PHOTOS BY HEMMER
All photographs in this Knollwood
Section of The Pilot are by Hemmer,
1 Pinehurst photographer.
can not be matched in this section for
beauty and interest.
I have come to prefer the new
spaces. The greens are softer than
those on the Pinehurst courses and
therefore more like grass greens. It
Pine Needles course to any of the | is possible to use a pitch shot with
others in the Sandhills primarily be-1 greater safety. Northerners playing
cause of its beauty and its associa- j their first game on sand greens find
tions that make it seem like home to I it easier at Pine Needles. I myself
me, and more than that, because of its i prefer the pitch shot because it makes
technical advantages. It can he com- a prettier game to watdh and is more
pared favorably with any links in the I sporting than the approach which is
country for its layout. Its traps and j rolled up with a midiron or a putter.
hazards are better placed than those
of the Pinehurst coures. No. 4 is
an exceptionally fine short hole and
will doubtless some day be as famous
as the Cathedral hole of which, with
it^s girdle of pines and water, it is
I think the women who played here
recently in the Midsouth Open will
agree with me in most of what I
say and many of them have been won
over to playing here exclusively while
in the Sandhills. Aside from the ad-
MID PINES CLUB PIONEER IN NEW DEVELOPMENT
The why of the Sandhills resorts making a pleasant place in winter for combination of mild climate and win-
is logical. The whole movement is folks to escape to from the North, ter sport caught the attention of
an evolution. John T. Patrick would That was a workable proposition. It people everywhere. So came Pine-
have established here a big sanatar-1 was a swift movement from its in- hurst and Southern Pines,
ium, and James Tufts proposed to; ception, and when he called Donald In a few years Pinehurst found that
cieate a community in which invalids' Ross to undertake to localize the new it must expand beyond the village
might enjoy longer life and self-sus-j game of golf in this section the Sand- boundaries, and Mid Pines, backed
taining prosperity. But medical men j hills found its future guaranteed, generously by Pinehurst, became a
advised against the assemblage of in-' Golf was just then attracting atten- factor. Mid Pines is an organization
valids in any place in one big col-1 tion, and with golf to be found in the of individuals, with a half million dol-
ony, and that idea was abandoned. ^ winter months when it was desirable lar club house including its equip-
not had excessive use. The North
Carolina soil lends itself readily
Some Visitors At The Flying Field
suggestive The fairways are in ex- j vantages of the course, they liked the
cellent condition because they have {quiet and homelike atmospheit of the
hotel where they found that a special
play is made to individual needs and
whimfi.
Knollwood has drawn around itself
an atmosphere of quiet refinement
that I hope it will always retain, no
matter how far its boundaries may be
pushed. Even in passing through one
absorbs some of this spirit from its
broad winding driveways, its gracious
homes, and the dignity of the Pine
Needles Hotel. The>e characteriitics
have been achieved through the eare-
ful thought and planning of the back
ers of Knollwood and will draw an
ever-increasing crow^ of people who
are looking for just such ftn environ
ment.
Then Mr. Tufts turned to the plan of to get away from cold weather the
(Continued on page 2)
the attractive mid pines clubhouse
on Midland Road, the half-million dollar winter home of an exclusive membershto, m
by one of Donald Ross' famous golf courses and directly across the double
road from the Pine Needles Course
is surrounded