brownsruncc

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MIDDLETOWN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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Madison Township Bicentennial Sketches
(1799-1999)

by George C. Crout

Madison Township Communities

Growth of Local Institutions
 

Brown's Run Country Club

Frank Myers, retired editor and publisher of the Middletown Journal, wrote a book on the Brown's Run Country Club, published in 1996, in which he traced its history. He recounted how George M. Verity, founder and long-time president of the Armco Steel Corp. introduced golf to the area. In 1915 he laid out a 9-hole course, which became Forest hills. He also was responsible for Wildwood, an 18-hole course.

But Verity also loved horseback riding and this brought him to Madison Township. He began purchasing hilly, forested land along Brown's Run opening it up for use as bridle paths. A 1930 Atlas shows a 76-acre plat listed as the "Verity Park Club". Verity added to this holding and eventually owned 600 acres of land.

In the spring of 1935, he and his wife visited the Verity ancestral home, Pately Bridge. in the Vale of Nid in Yorkshire. Viewing the beautiful, English countryside his ancestors had tended, an idea came to him of a use for his Brown's Run land. Hiring Fred Ruscher he had begun some construction work for a dairy barn in 1933. Peyton Goins was employed to oversee a small dairy operation, beginning with 12 cattle, which would grow to a herd of 160 cows. In 1957 that dairy barn became the clubhouse for a country club.

Three years after Verity's death, Metz and Irma McGraw in 1945 purchased Niderdale Farms, converting it into a horse farm. Later the property would go on the market. With the aid of local industrial and bank financing, the land was purchased for a country club and a real estate entity set up known as the Heno Realty Corporation (Heno being the name once used for West Middletown). In order to provide additional funding for development, as well as control residential development surrounding the golf course about half the acreage was put in the hands of Heno Rea", and the remainder reserved for the golf course and clubhouse. With cash thus generated and club fees, work began on the course, which opened in 1957.

Due to the scarcity of water, real estate development was held until 1969 when Middletown water was brought across the river to West Middletown and piped to the area through the efforts of the Heno Realty Company. In the same year, the company built the first road into the subdivision. Development began in two areas. Along the west side of the course was Cloister Cliffs and off the southwest side, the Litchfield-Niderdale area with other fine homes scattered along Thomas Road and Bunker Lane at the southeast corner. By 1996 over 100 homes surrounded the Brown's Run Country Club. The building of secluded country estates has spread to other areas of the township.

According to Myers, the year 1996 --- the club's 40th anniversary year-- found the golf course newly modernized with bent grass fairways, and a club membership of almost 500.Madison High School Community Sketches 1999


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