Arcadia Brook Golf Course

Public Fee Golf Links and Horseback Riding Club

Arcadia Brook (now known as Arcadia Creek) originates in the hills southwest of Kalamazoo. For millennia, it flowed freely through open meadows and swampy grassland while winding its way toward the Kalamazoo River. As the village of Kalamazoo grew around it, the Arcadia became an important source of power for mills, breweries, and factories. From the 1910s until the 1960s, golf courses and “bridle grounds” filled the hills and vales next to Arcadia Brook where Western Michigan University’s main campus is today.

“A Gentleman’s Farm”

Back in 1868, merchant banker Robert Stanton Babcock purchased 16 acres of gently rolling farmland between Arcadia Brook and the old Territorial Road (Michigan Avenue), a mile or so southwest of the village. He established “a gentleman’s farm” on the property and built an elegant 23-room Italianate Villa known as “The Oaklands.”

By the 1890s, the Babcock estate and surrounding farmland had passed into the hands of Daniel Denison Streeter, a wealthy railroad mogul, and his wife, Amelia T. Austin Streeter, daughter of Kalamazoo pioneer Benjamin Miller Austin. Given the immense popularity of harness racing at the time, the Streeters turned the Oaklands into a well-respected farm for breeding horses. The Streeter farm was perhaps best known as the home of Peter the Great, one of the most famous trotters of all time.

“Municipal Golf Links”

Soon after D.D. Streeter’s death in 1909, the western portion of the Streeter farm was acquired by the West Side Land & Improvement Company. A section of the property bordering Michigan Avenue was platted for residential development as part of the Kalamazoo Park plat, while the rest remained undeveloped until after the First World War.

“‘Golf is the finest kind of health insurance. A ten-dollar bill is enough to start you on the golf cure if you’ve got municipal links to go to.’ (Bill) Roper says interest in golf is increasing tremendously because of the wholesome exercise it affords and the fascination it holds.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 8 May 1922

During the 1910s and 1920s, the game of golf saw a rapid rise in popularity. More than a million Americans were playing golf by then. In May 1922, Kalamazoo businessman and golf enthusiast Bertrand Hopper petitioned the city commission for the development of a municipal golf course for, as he termed it, “those who could not afford to join the country club.” According to Hopper, “if the city would provide a course hundreds of Kalamazoo people who are now deprived of the sport of playing golf would find an opportunity to indulge in the game with little expense” (Gazette).

“Those citizens who first brought to the attention of the city commission a proposal to establish a municipal course in Kalamazoo hardly dared hope that in two years’ time a beautiful public links would be in condition for opening and that a municipal golf association would be well under way.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 22 June 1924

It took a few months but once the proposal rose to the top of the Kalamazoo Real Estate Board’s list of activities for the coming year, the project quickly gained momentum. In February 1924, the commission approved a plan to lease (with an option to buy) the 67-acre western portion of the former Streeter property (west of Van de Giessen Road) for use as a municipal golf course. Included with the agreement was an additional 10-acre plot adjoining the property to the west, a gift from local realtor LeRoy Hornbeck, with the stipulation that it would be used as part of the golf course. The city agreed to purchase the Streeter property for $150 per acre and accepted Hornbeck’s gift of the additional 10 acres. Under the guidance of Kalamazoo realtor and developer Charles B. Hays, the committee spearheading the project expected to gather up to $10,000 for development of the proposed course, which it planned to have open by July that year.

“The Gateway Golf Club”

The new 9-hole municipal golf course was open for play by July 5, and within a short time, it was hosting up to 1,500 players each week. Although owned by the city, a group calling itself the Kalamazoo Municipal Golf Association was organized to oversee course maintenance and operation. In 1928, the course was officially named “The Gateway Golf Club of Kalamazoo” to correspond with the city’s then slogan, “The Gateway to Opportunity,” although most folks knew it simply as the municipal course.

Given the remarkable success of its first season, Charles Hays and LeRoy Hornbeck both offered options to extend the municipal course to 18 holes. Hays offered his 60-acre parcel adjacent to the east side of the existing course and Hornbeck offered an additional 20 acres to the west. The offers gathered a bit of excitement, but certain members of the city council felt that enough had already been spent on the golfing venture, so the expansion idea was tabled.

“First step in the belt tightening for 1943 came in the announcement a few days ago that the Gateway municipal course would not be opened this year…”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 3 January 1943

With the onset of World War II, wartime restrictions became apparent. The city’s municipal Gateway Golf Club was closed after the 1942 season due to budgetary cutbacks. In 1944, Western purchased the 70-acre golf course property as part of the planned postwar expansion of its campus. Kalamazoo Mayor Louis Sutherland said, “the city recognizes the worth of Western Michigan College, what it has meant to the city and what it will mean in the future,” adding “the city is inclined to help the college in any manner possible” (Gazette).

Western re-opened the Gateway golf course in 1946 and maintained it for several years while westward expansion of the campus continued. Golfers often referred to it as “Goat Hills” because of its rugged terrain. The course was finally closed in the fall of 1964 when the university broke ground on its new engineering and technology building. By 1967, the construction of Miller Auditorium and the extension of Howard Street northward from Stadium Drive had consumed the old golf course property.

Meanwhile, Charles B. Hays had acquired the eastern half of D.D. Streeter’s estate, including the former Burton C. Waite home and the accompanying outbuildings. Hays also acquired an additional 40-acre parcel on the north side of Michigan Avenue, part of the former Charles Wilbur estate.

“Happy Huntsman” Tea Room and Riding Academy

With the city not wanting to expand its municipal course, Hays developed his adjacent property (east of Van de Giessen Road) as a separate golf course and horseback riding facility. Originally intended as a 6-hole course called the Park American Hotel Golf and Riding Club (Hays owned the Park American Hotel), his plan soon became a “crowded” 9-hole course called the “Happy Huntsman” Tea Room and Riding Academy, a “golf course and bridle grounds” with 18 riding horses and a two-mile bridle path “winding through the hills” (Gazette). The “Tea Room,” located inside the former Waite mansion, was managed by Grace and Judson Graine, well-known and highly regarded caretakers of the old Streeter Farm.

“Along the east frontage a plat, once a cat tail swamp, has been converted for play and through it the Arcadia creek ripples its merry way through re-inforced stone embankments.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 28 October 1927

Arcadia Brook Golf Course

During the fall of 1927, Hays introduced area golfers to his new Arcadia Brook daily fee public golf course, “one of the most beautiful and sporty courses in the state.” Drawing its name from the old creek that bordered it, the Arcadia Brook “Front Nine” (or “Long Nine”) was a 9-hole par-36 course on the south side of Michigan Avenue (then US-12) designed by Kalamazoo architect A.M. Worthington. A year later, Hays unveiled a second par-30 “Back Nine” (or “Short Nine”) on the north side of the road where Kalamazoo College’s Angell Field and Western’s Goldsworth Valley are today. The original 9-hole Gateway municipal course and the neighboring 18-hole Arcadia Brook Golf Club both saw extensive use until the Second World War.

Arcadia Brook Grill

During the 1930s, an old brick farmhouse near the east end of the property was converted to a clubhouse called the Arcadia Brook Grill, with a dining room, lounge, pro shop, locker rooms, and showers. The building was at one time the home of Morris Gibbs, son of Charles Gibbs, the first Democratic sheriff in Kalamazoo County. It stood on the south side of Michigan Avenue, roughly where the WMU Student Recreation Center is today.

In 1943, Hays announced that Miss Virginia Hayes, “one of the very few women golf professionals in the country” (Gazette), would be returning to Arcadia Brook for her 12th season as greenskeeper and business manager. Although well patronized, 1943 would mark the final season for the original Arcadia Brook Golf Club.

In January 1944, the 22-acre Arcadia Brook “Back Nine” on the north side of the road was purchased by Kalamazoo College for its new athletic facility, which was to become Angell Field. The original college athletic field along Michigan Avenue between Academy and Lovell streets would be deeded to the city of Kalamazoo as part of the deal and transformed into a city park.

College Expansion

By 1941, the old Western State Normal School had become the Western Michigan College of Education, with student enrollment exceeding 2,600. The college was quickly outgrowing its historic East Campus location and the need to expand was apparent.

The Kanley family would play a pivotal role in the westward expansion of the Western State College (WMU) campus. In March 1944, shortly after the Kalamazoo College purchase was announced, Anna Carsten Kanley handed Western Michigan College president Dr. Paul Sangren a check for $50,000 (nearly $1 million in today’s dollars) in memory of her late husband, Fred W. Kanley, a well-known local businessman. The gift, along with another $75,000 in state funds, would allow Western to purchase the remaining (“Front Nine”) portion of the Arcadia Brook golf course. This included roughly 58 acres of the old Streeter farm (51 acres of the golf course and another 7 acres from home sites along the south side of Michigan Avenue) and would make possible the establishment of the Kanley Park athletic facility. Western used its newly acquired property to temporarily house the hundreds of veterans who attended postwar college as part of the GI Bill of Rights.

The barracks-type student housing known as “trailer village” was cleared out by 1953 to make way for the construction of WMU’s new physical education building and 5,100-seat Read Fieldhouse, both of which stand today on the former Arcadia Brook driving range. After a brief time as a dormitory, the clubhouse was remodeled during the late 1940s when it became the Arcadia Faculty Club lounge and veterans dining facility. The building, one of the last remaining remnants of the Arcadia Brook Golf Club, later served as offices for the WMU Safety and Security Department until 1992 when it was razed to make way for an addition to the Gary Student Recreation Center.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, August 2024. Revised and edited June 2025
Special thanks to Lynn Houghton, WMU Archives & Regional History Collections, for additional insight.