Lakewood Lore

Golf courses providing a 'links' with Lakewood past

Little Links, the city-owned miniature golf course in Kauffman Park, which will begin its fourth year of operation this May, is not the first such recreation attraction in Lakewood.

Old-timers remember, with more than just a twinge of nostalgia, other such meccas that popped up hereabouts during the initial craze of the sport -- a period from the late 1920s until World War II.

One of the most popular was built on the site of what is now Lakewood City Hall. It ran north from Detroit to the railroad tracks between Thoreau and Lakewood avenues.

Douglas Fisher, who grew up on nearby Arliss Drive, vividly remembers that early golfing haven, which included both a miniature course and a driving range. "It was open day and night and, as a kid lying in bed, I could hear the golf balls being hit toward the tracks," he said.

Fisher, now retired and a volunteer cashier at Lakewood Library's book sales, also recalls the huge floodlights on the golf premises.

"They lit up the driving range as well as the back of my house, and they attracted big flocks of gulls from Lake Erie," he recollected.

Likewise, when Wayne Cahoon, of similar vintage, was a boy, he lived only a short distance from the duffers' paradise.

"I used to walk my dog Happy, a half-beagle and half-spaniel, along the railroad tracks, and he'd pick up golf balls that had made it over the high netting surrounding the driving range, said Cahoon, who now serves as Lakewood Historical Society's photo file chairman.

The Detroit facility also kindles tugging memories for longtime Lakewoodites Leonard Haas, a retired newspaper sportswriter, and John McGinness, onetime paymaster at East Ohio Gas Co.

Robert Lawther, former Lakweood mayor, said his father, the late Rev. Leroy Lawther of Lakewood Presbyterian Church, played there. And, among other club-flailing customers, there were the sports minded Mahall brothers, Arthur and Cornelius, of Mahall's Twenty lanes in Lakewood.

Before the turn of the century, much of the land upon which the early golf hub eventually was built was owned by Lakewood pioneer Alexander B. Allen, who, with another early settler, Ezra Nicholson, formed the name-search committee that chose the name Lakewood for our community when it had grown to hamlet size in 1889.

Allen, frequently described as "the distinguished gentleman with the sideburns," put up a beautiful home on the property. Set back from Detroit Avenue, it was a landmark for many years before being torn down. The miniature golf course was reported to have been built in front of the home, the driving range behind it.

It appears the Detroit golf complex started in business in 1931. It was a venture of the Practice Golf Course Co., which was incorporated in 1930 with a capital of $200,000. Harry B. Moore was the first manager.

In 1937, the enterprise was listed in the city directory as the Lakewood Driving Range, with William H. Kay as manager. it continued as such until was closed in 1942.

Then the real estate, after being vacant for several years, was selected by the city of Lakewood, together with the Cuyahoga County and Federal Housing Authorities, on which to erect 50 metal-roofed quonset homes and thus provide low-cost housing for some of the returning World War II veterans and their families.

The dwellings were modestly furnished. There were two families to each hut, with family quarters separated by a common wall.

The homes remained at the location for more than a decade, after which they were removed to prepare the acreage for our current City Hall.

Although residents of the veterans housing project knew that a change was imminent, some weren't particularly pleased when they received their eviction notices.

"I wasn't too popular," said retired Lakewood water superintendent John Scofield, who was asked to serve the notice one warm day in the spring of 1955.

Scofield recalled hat he himself wasn't particularly happy about the assignment, either. But it was given to him by his boss at the time, City Engineer Harlan Bartels, so he was obliged to carry it out.

In 1959, the new, expanded $1.7 million home for City Hall was completed on the land, and the move was made from the old Robert Rhodes mansion in Lakewood Park, where city business had been conducted since 1918.

Lest we forget, Little Links in Kauffman Park at the north end of Arthur Avenue, now the only miniature golf course in Lakewood, is scheduled to reopen for the season May 27.

Its prices have not changed since its inception on May 24, 1991, according to Karyl Aghajanian, city coordinator in charge.

They are: children younger than 6, 50 cents; ages 6-18 and senior citizens, $1.50; adult Lakewood residents, $2; non-residents, $2.50. Hours will be from noon until 10 p.m. seven days a week.

Aghajanian pointed out that the landscaped, 18-hole course, which will remain open through Labor Day, is handicapped accessible, sells soft drinks, ice cream and candy, and is made to order for families, children and the elderly.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post March 2, 1995. Reprinted with permission.

Web editor's note: Little Links closed after the 2005 season.

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