Woodmont Country Club
By 1921, the Town and Country Club, founded by members of
Washington's German-Jewish community, had reached a membership of
250 and started looking for more spacious quarters outside of the
District. What they settled on was "an old, run-down country
house, complete with a tuneless grand piano" - Winona in
Bethesda. The house and land were purchased from Walter G.,
Beverly K., and Agnes Peter, three of the children of Armistead
and Martha Peter.
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
Extensive renovations turned the Georgian brick house into a
white columned mansion and the surrounding land into a nine-hole
golf course (expanded to eighteen holes by playing each hole from
two sets of tees). The double row of sycamore trees near
Rockville Pike still marks the entrance drive to the clubhouse.
In 1930 the club officially became Woodmont Country Club, the
name by which it had been informally known.
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
Woodmont Golf Course
Rita Mhley. Woodmont Country Club, a history, Rockville,
MD., 1988.
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
F.H.M. Klinge. Atlas of Montgomery
Country, v.1. Lansdale, Pa., 1931.
Countesy Montgomery County Historical Society
The Club suffered from a loss of members and income during the
Depression and World War II. Then, just as it was beginning to
enjoy the post-War prosperity (it had leased an additional ten
acres from a fourth Peter heir, George Freeland Peter, to expand
the golf course to eighteen holes and had made plans to renovate
the club house), the Federal Government announced its intention
to purchase the property for NIH in 1948. The Club relocated five
miles north on Rockville Pike, where it still remains, while the
Bethesda property and house were operated as the public Glenbrook
Golf Course until 1955. Ground was broken for the National
Library of Medicine in 1959.
Post-War Club Activities
Dance, 1947
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
Dinner-Dance, 1946
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
Expanded Golf Course, 1947
Courtesy Woodmont Country Club
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