Congressional Country Club

Excerpt

Congressional Country Club: Celebrating 75 Years

A National Institution

It was an inspired vision that led to the founding of Congressional Country Club, creating a national institution that has endured for three-quarters of a century.  The Club’s rich and diverse heritage encompasses multiple generations of families, U.S. Presidents, world war, an economic depression, the OSS occupation, changing American lifestyles—and global recognition for showcasing some of the most notable golf tournaments in history.

Today, Congressional occupies a central place in our country’s past, in golf lore, and in the social life of the nation’s capital. The Club’s ambitious founding framework is at the heart of this tradition, when a pair of enterprising individuals sought to conceive “a new National Institution… an organization formed for a distinctive purpose and of distinctive membership… a club national and international in its scope and recognition.”

Congressional was born on remote farmland that, whenever it rained, became a quagmire so muddy, construction had to be temporarily halted. In 1924, in an elegant and widely publicized celebration befitting a Club named “Congressional,” the fledgling organization opened its gates for the first time. Its outstanding golf course and $1 million clubhouse—complete with a rare indoor pool and two-story gymnasium—made national headlines. It was the age of jazz and prohibition, and members immersed themselves in the good life.