Message from Mayor Josh Losardo | September 22, 2021
This year Scotch Plains celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Shady Rest County Club – the first African American Golf and Country Club in the United States.
Shady Rest was created out of necessity; private clubs in the 1920s, and for many decades afterward, commonly refused to allow membership to African Americans or other minority groups.
Shady Rest made history in many ways. One of them was serving as home to John Matthew Shippen Jr., the son of a former slave and Presbyterian minister. He was the very first American-born professional golfer, and Shippen proudly served as the golf pro at Shady Rest from 1932 until the town took over the course in 1964.
I have often been confused by the different names associated with the club (Jerseyland, Shady Rest and Scotch Hills) so I did some digging. As far as I can tell, the “Scotch Hills” name first appeared on March 3, 1964, when Scotch Plains Mayor Edward H. Peterson announced that the Township was taking control.
And I can’t understand why the town would have changed the name – especially at a time in history when the Civil Rights movement was leading the national agenda.
Shady Rest, after all, is a national treasure and a source of huge pride to the African American community here in Scotch Plains, as well as throughout the country. Why change the name and eliminate history?
It is time, in my opinion, to right a wrong.
Restoring the proper name serves as a reminder of the enduring legacy of Black cultural contributions to our town and Country. Taking this step should also remind us all of a dark time when a segregated club like Shady Rest was the only course available to many of our neighbors and friends, reinforcing the never-ending need to work together and move forward together as one people and one town.
It is for all these reasons that I conferred with Sylvia Hicks, chair of the Preserve Shady Rest Committee, and Mike Walsh, chairman of our Recreation Commission, to discuss working together to restore the historic Shady Rest Golf and Country Club name to our beloved and historic golf course, cementing the course's important place in American history, and to do so this year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the course.
I have learned from Ms. Hicks that one of the Preserve Shady Rest committee’s main goals is to have Shady Rest listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Hyperlink to: https://www.nj.com/news/2020/02/it-was-the-center-of-african-american-society-in-nj-locals-say-we-need-to-preserve-it.html), so restoring the course name honors its heritage.
I salute my colleagues on the Township Council and the Administration for their work on this important effort. For me, it is a tremendous source of pride to make this necessary, long-awaited correction. I suspect many of our residents have been waiting 57 years for this moment.
