|
Above: Langston’ s bunkers before the renovation project. At right: D. C. congresswoman
Eleanor Holmes Norton at Langston’ s Heritage Celebration in 2013 with Calvin Peete,
Lee Elder and James Black.
|
|||
|
Thus began a collaborative effort between Golf Course Specialists and the Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents to revive Langston, and specifically, its practice area that had fallen into disrepair.
A HISTORIC COURSE Langston opened in 1938 and was built at the insistence of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the era of segregation, Washington’ s black golfers were not allowed to play the city’ s other public courses, save for a threadbare facility near the National Mall with sand greens and dusty fairways.
The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Project Administration, both created as part of Roosevelt’ s New Deal to provide jobs during the Depression, began construction starting in 1936. The facility was named for John Mercer Langston, the first African-American from Virginia to serve in the U. S. Congress.
For more than 20 years, up until 1997, there was some talk that the golf course would become a parking lot for RFK
|
stadium, or that it would be the site for a new football stadium. Fortunately, neither happened.
Instead, over the years, Langston became a gathering point for African-American players all around D. C. and the nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs. It attracted its share of celebrity African-American players, including boxer Joe Louis, entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and musician Duke Ellington, not to mention playing professionals like Ted Rhodes, Jim Thorpe, Lee Elder and Calvin Peete.
Langston also played host to a number of tournaments on the old United Golf Association circuit, the only tour where black pros could play competitive golf( for pitiful purses) before the PGA of America eliminated its Caucasian-only clause in 1961.
Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Langston has always been under the purview of the National Park Service, which owns the property. It’ s never really been a significant priority, and the hoops that must be run through to get adequate funding to keep all three courses in prime condition has always been a problem.
|
FINDING A SOLUTION When Thomas and Norton visited Langston, one need stood out more than most. Back in 1998, the U. S. Golf Association Foundation gave the course a grant to construct what was then a state-of-the art short game practice area. Over the next 20 years, it was heavily utilized by The First Tee, not to mention the scores of players who blasted shots out of its seven bunkers, chipped to a practice green and worked on their putting virtually from dawn to dusk.
Two decades later, that area needed serious help. There was hardly any sand left in the bunkers and not much playable grass all around.
“ When we showed it to them,” Thomas said of the World Golf Foundation,“ they liked the idea of renovating it. It was very visible, and it was an amenity that everyone could enjoy.”
|
PHOTOS COURTESY LANGSTON GOLF COURSE |