As you approach the entrance to Swope Park, you could be driving through the bed of an old lake. The lake was located on the grounds of the Evanston Golf Club, west of Swope Park in an area between 63rd and 65th, Prospect and Swope Parkway. (The Evanston Golf Club in not to be confused with the Swope Park Golf Club.) Old plats of Tuttle-Ayers & Woodward verify the location as described in Carrie Whitney's history of Kansas City, which lists the homes of the Evanston Golf Club from the time of its founding to 1905. She states: The Evanston Golf club was organized about 1897 when golf was new to the West. When the club first started the links were at Fairmount Park. The club moved from Fairmount on March 12, 1901, to Evanston, on the Independence Line, some distance east of Colonel Van Horn's country home on the high ground north of 15th Street. In the spring of 1905 the old Swope home and grounds opposite the entrance to Swope Park were leased for a term of 15 years. The old home was left standing and additions were built on either side. The Swope homestead had been noted for years as one of the most attractive seats in Jackson County. Today this entire area is completely filled by the wide mall and approaches to Swope Park, Southeast High School, the school's athletic field and private residences. There were 300 club members in 1908. John C. Fennell was president; Frank P. Sebree, vice-president; Alexander Janssen, treasurer; George B. Flack, secretary; Charles S. Jobes, James E. Seaver and E. F. Swinney made up the finance committee, and Robert W. Hodge, Elliott H. Jones and Henry E. Long were members of the greens and ground committee. Kansas City Times, July 9, 1977.
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