Especially when what is being changed has a history that is more than a century old .

The Board of Directors at Jefferson Lakeside Country Club approved a rebranding of the club in November 2019 .

The name changed to Lakeside Park Club , an homage to the original name of the property developed by Richmond businessman Lewis Ginter in 1896 .

There is a new logo and scorecard . The golf course flagsticks are wooden , and the flags are pennant style . A new sign ( temporary at the moment ) at the entrance ( 1700 Lakeside Avenue ) displays the logo and the new name and recognizes the club ’ s feature attraction , an original Donald Ross designed golf course .

“ Every business whether it ’ s a private entity or any type of club or organization ,

you ’ ve got to change with the times . This was a perfect time for us ,” says Rubin Unowitz , Lakeside ’ s longest-tenured member ( more than 55 years ). “ The name change ( from country club to golf club ) has opened us up to a larger demographic . Everything is kind of falling into place ( despite the pandemic ), and I think it ’ s something we can build on for the future .”

A newly installed entrance sign emphasizes the Donald Ross design golf course at Lakeside Park Club .

DRAWING ON HISTORY The process for rebranding began almost two years ago . When Jeff Crabbe was hired as the PGA general manager of Jefferson Lakeside Country Club in January 2019 , the board of directors and the planning committee already were talking about updating the club ’ s logo and a possible name change .

In the summer of 2019 , the club and Sugarloaf Social Club , a small golf marketing

and rebranding company , got together through Instagram . Sugarloaf clients included Pinehurst Country Club ’ s No . 4 course in North Carolina and Tiger Woods ’ par-3 course at Pebble Beach .

“ We invited them here because they like Donald Ross courses . They weren ’ t familiar with here although one of them lives in Richmond now ,” Crabbe says . “ They played the course and loved it . They joined that day and through conversations about what we were trying to do , they said this is kind of what we do . Can we take a shot at doing the rebrand ?

“ Sugarloaf ’ s goal was to draw on the history of the club and Donald Ross , which we really hadn ’ t taken advantage

CHRIS LANG