First club court built at Fox Meadow Tennis Club in Scarsdale, NY

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[click to enlarge] Aerial view of FMTC in 1937. At the left stands the windmill in Crane Meadow, just below Church Lane. The first paddle court can be seen at the curve of the driveway. Aerial view of FMTC in 1937. At the left stands the windmill in Crane Meadow, just below Church Lane. The first paddle court can be seen at the curve of the driveway.
[click to enlarge]

Of the twenty-five or more families comprising the Old Army Athletes (O.A.A.) in 1928, five were members of Fox Meadow Tennis Club and one of them had built their own court. They urged the club to put in a paddle court so Fox Meadow could become a year round sports rendezvous.

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944

Expanding into an untried sport in the midst of a national economic depression was risky. Gradually worn down by the arguments of its O.A.A. members, the Board of Directors of the Fox Meadow Tennis Club had a meeting on April 15, 1931, to make a crucial decision. Should they or should they not put up a platform tennis court? They represented a tennis club and some of the avid tennis-playing members didn’t warm up a bit. Finally, a happy compromise was proposed on which the conservatives and the enthusiasts could agree. The club would put up a platform with a boarded end, marked suitably for practicing tennis strokes. It would also be marked for platform tennis with an easily removable net at the center.

On motion “duly made, seconded and carried [as the minutes of that meeting read] the Board authorized the construction of a Practice Tennis Court.” On November 1, 1931, the grand opening of the new platform, no longer called a “practice tennis court,” was featured by matches between teams from “both sides of the tracks.”

Source: Adapted from Fessenden S. Blanchard, Paddle Tennis, 1944, and Platform Paddle Tennis, 1958

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