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Miniature Golf, Anyone?

Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about Phoenix history and memorials. This month, she is sharing her article on miniature golf.

Question: While playing miniature golf, if your swing goes wide, should you yell “two!”, rather than “four!”?

We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.

We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar “at” hotmail.com.


Dog legs, sand traps, water hazards, woods, and irons. While golf has a long history, miniature golf seems to have appeared in the early part of the 20th century. Perusing through lots of old newspaper articles, one will find references to miniature or mini golf especially in the Los Angeles area as early as the 1920s.

Ad for the three courses in Phoenix created by Price and Allen

What was the attraction of this “sport/game”? It took less time to play, took up far less acreage to build, needed no special equipment for the player since the putter was provided, and cost a lot less than the full sized game would.

The Valley of the Sun became a mecca for golf courses and golfers, but it also became home to a number of themed miniature golf courses.

Reed E. Price and Nephi Allen, partners in a construction firm, became intrigued with the concept and eventually built three such courses in Phoenix. Price had seen several courses in Los Angeles and decided to copy the idea (with permission). Working with Robert Gosnell, Price proposed a course next to the new Green Gables restaurant on 24th Street and Thomas Road. Gosnell insisted that the course’s theme match the restaurant’s.

Green Gables score card & rules (courtesy of Tony Arme, Sr.)

When the course opened in November 1951, young and old entered through a gothic castle entrance to play miniature golf. One of the most challenging holes was approached by hitting the ball over a drawbridge. Not an easy feat when you consider that the drawbridge when up and down on a regular schedule and you had to plan carefully when you putted in order for your ball to make it across.

In December of the following year, Price and Allen opened Westwood Acres at 2410 W. Thomas. This 18-hole course had a western theme. However, the theme later changed to a Hawaiian theme and was called Hono Lea.

Alpine Valley at 27th Avenue and Northern opened in February 1960. Yes, you could see the Alps, a Swiss Chalet, a castle, and even a Swiss Church while playing this course.

Hono Lea score card (front)

Like a full-sized course, players had a score card. There was also a par score which thousands of kids and adults across the valley tried to achieve. Unlike those full-sized courses though, players might discover prizes for a hole-in-one such as a free game. Naturally there were always some mischievous players who tried to circumvent rules in order to cash in on the “prizes.”

Price and Allen did install the course at Legend City, but as everyone knows, that site did not last. And the other themed parks Price and Allen built eventually could not compete with newer places and closed. Times and interests change, but for those who played these courses, the fond memories remain.

Alpine Valley score card
July 3, 2020by phxAdmin
Blogroll

Facing Our Past

Recent events have me thinking about how Americans are now facing our past in ways that we have not before.

As realtors we are strictly forbidden from treating people differently based on their race. We can lose our licenses, be fined, etc.

For us, this is an issue that is important enough to talk about, even on our real estate pages. After all, there is a huge disparity in inter-generational wealth and home ownership, which is a direct result of racists laws from our past.

We cannot, as realtors, ignore that. We have to educate ourselves and do better.

And as reasonable human beings, Michelle and I support the Black Lives Matter movement.

For us, the movement is asking Americans to reject simply having laws on the books that only pretend to protect all people, while still allowing a pervasive disparity in how different races are treated in the United States.

While I will leave it to you to decide how you want to address this in your own lives, I want to share a podcast that I think will help explain why America has never dealt with its past adequately.

It is worth 51 minutes and 31 seconds of your day to listen to this. Please, trust me. Listen while you’re taking a walk or puttering around in the garden.

This is not a podcast that covers the basics that you see in the news, or the list of needed police reforms. Although that is good to know.

No, this podcast from WNYC Studios asks what happened in the last 150 years that prevented us as a nation from truly facing our history, opting instead for an idealized telling of it.

The podcast covers how Germany dealt with its past, but we never did.

Having lived in Germany during high school, I know that Germans did confront their historic crimes in a way that the US never has.

This reporting gives me hope for the future. There is a proven way that America can confront and heal by acknowledging its past.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

July 3, 2020by phxAdmin

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