- City:
- Kalamazoo, MI
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Golf Courses
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1936
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The second nine holes of the Milham Park Golf Course in Kalamazoo, Michigan, were constructed as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. From the Milham Park website: “The course is considered to be one of the best-conditioned municipal courses anywhere, and regularly hosts city and county tournaments. The first nine holes at were completed in 1931 and turned over to the KMGA for operation and maintenance. Robert Millar was the first golf professional at Milham Park. The second nine holes were built as a WPA-assisted project and put into play in June, 1936.” Built at the depth of the Depression, it’s entirely possible that the first nine holes were also a pre-New Deal relief effort.
Source notes
“Milham Park Golf Club,” Kalamazoo Municipal Golf Association, accessed August 12, 2014.Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish, Brent McKee on March 29, 2015.
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My grandfather, Walter W. Sweet was a stone mason, concrete mixer and finisher and other labor projects during the WPA for this project.
As a boy he loved to take me there as a little boy many times. He loved to show me everything he helped construct.
He had his own antique wheelbarrow that he loved to give me rides in. The wrought iron wheel made a distinctive gravelly grinding sound that was amplified by the steel tray. That sound was the sound of love and security that my grandfather provided me.
Grampa is in Heaven now 42 years. I am a grandfather and a great grandfather. I’ve given my grandchildren rides in that same wheelbarrow that is mine now. I use it on purpose and will intentionally go out of my way to roll that old iron wheel over concrete or gravel. It’s a wonderful sound to my soul.
This is my contribution to what Milham Park means to me.