Country Club

A country club is a privately owned club, often with a closed membership, that generally offers both a variety of recreational sports and facilities for dining and entertaining. Typical athletic offerings are golf, tennis, and swimming. A country club is most commonly located in city outskirts or suburbs, and is distinguished from an urban athletic club by having substantial grounds for outdoor activities.

Country clubs originated in Scotland and first appeared in the US in the early 1880s. Country clubs had a profound effect on expanding suburbanization and are considered to be the precursor to gated community development.

Country clubs can be exclusive organizations. In small towns, membership in the country club is often not as exclusive or expensive as in larger cities where there is competition for a limited number of memberships. In addition to the fees, some clubs have additional requirements to join. For example, membership can be limited to those who reside in a particular housing community.

Country clubs were founded by upper-class elites between 1880 and 1930. By 1907, country clubs were claimed to be “the very essence of American upper-class.” The number of country clubs increased exponentially with industrialization, the rise in incomes, and suburbanization in the 1920s. During the 1920s, country clubs acted as community social centers. However, the number of country clubs decreased drastically during the Great Depression for lack of membership funding.

Historically, many country clubs refused to admit members of minority racial groups as well those of specific faiths, such as Jews and Catholics. This was known as being “restricted”. Discrimination was not limited to clubs founded by Protestants. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, clubs founded by German Jews regularly excluded Eastern European Jews, and the Anti-Defamation League reported in 1962 that 18% of clubs that identified as Christian had some Jewish members, but only 4% of clubs that identified as Jewish had any Gentile members.

Beginning in the 1960s civil rights lawsuits forced clubs to drop exclusionary policies, but de facto discrimination still occurs in cases until protest or legal remedies are brought to bear.

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