Golf club sign hits close to home

Port man finds keepsake from country club his grandparents founded in building that is now part of nature preserve and set to be demolished

A LARGE SIGN advertising the Port Country Club was a treasure find for Jeff and Mary St. Peter during the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust’s estate sale at Forest Beach Migratory Preserve. Jeff St. Peter’s grandparents Clarence and Maxine founded the country club as a golf course at what was later Squires Country Club and is today the preserve . Photo by Sam Arendt
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

Jeff St. Peter walked out of the clubhouse at Forest Beach Migratory Preserve in the Town of Belgium Sept. 17 with a bit of history in his hands — a sign welcoming people to Port Country Club.

The sign is four by eight feet and touts the country club’s “famous steaks” and its golf course.

The sign, St. Peter said, is at his home right now but he’s not sure exactly where he’s going to hang it.

“We’ll have to find a home for it,” he said.

That’s because, in large part, the sign is more than just a remnant of the Port Country Club. It’s part of St. Peter’s family history.

Port Country Club, which is slated to be razed next year, was founded by his grandparents Clarence and Maxine St. Peter, and he grew up across the street from the golf course.

“I was there a lot,” St. Peter said. “My dad worked there every day, and I would go over there with him. I worked at the course since I was 11, doing everything from fixing golf carts to lawn mowing, until the late 70s. With a golf course, there’s never an end to the work.”

His father John was the golf pro and managed the restaurant, he said, and his aunts and uncles were involved in the business as well.

The sign he bought was one of the few things there that still had the Port Country Club name on it, St. Peter said.

He did find one other treasure — the desk that once graced his grandmother’s office.

St. Peter said it was bittersweet walking into the sale.

“There are a lot of memories in that building ,” he said. “That used to be a pretty happening place.”

Not only was it a popular golf course, restaurant and bar, it was also home to celebrations such as weddings.

“My parents were married there,” St. Peter said. “My aunt’s wedding was there.”

During the sale, St. Peter said he walked through the building and filmed it to send to his aunt Barbara St. Peter Casper, who lives in Arizona and helped her family develop the business.

Casper told Ozaukee Press that her parents developed the Port Country Club before she was born in 1946 as a nine-hole golf course. Through the years, the family added onto the farmhouse and built a pro shop. They also purchased more land and added nine more holes to the golf course.

By the early 1960s, Casper said, her father hired Milwaukee architect Herb Grassold for “the big renovation,” which included the bulk of what is today the clubhouse, a modern building with a lower-level pro shop, a large bar and restaurant that seated more than 500 people.

In February 1961, Casper’s father died in an airplane crash. The family continued to operate the country club until 1972, when they sold it. It 2008, the course was sold to the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust. St. Peter said that going into the sale was like stepping back in time.

“It was like you never left,” he said. “It was cool to see a lot of the people who used to work there, like the old cook and bartender. I found out some things I didn’t know. I spent quite a bit of time there wandering around.”

It was, he said, a chance to say goodbye.

It’s a shame, he said that the building is slated to be razed by the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, which operates the former golf club as a sanctuary. But, he said, he understands the decision.

“It would need a lot of work to be upgraded and repaired,” St. Peter said.

Land Trust President Marji Tomter said the organization expects to raze the clubhouse in the next year.

The sale, which the Land Trust billed as an estate sale, went well, she added.

The hot items at the sale were nostalgic signs and glassware, Tomter added.

“The sale was good,” Tomter said. “There were a lot of people who came who had history with the place — we heard a lot of good stories. It was almost like a mix of an estate sale and a class reunion.”

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Ozaukee Press

Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

125 E. Main St.
Port Washington, WI 53074
(262) 284-3494
 

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