Филадельфия Крикет Клубы: АҚШ-тағы Ең Көне Клуб

Country club in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854, is the oldest country club in the United States. It has two locations: Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and Flourtown, Pennsylvania.

Founded on February 10, 1854, the Philadelphia Cricket Club is the oldest country club in the United States. As the name indicates, the club was formed by a group of young men of English ancestry who had played the game of cricket as students at the University of Pennsylvania. With the wish to continue to play together after their graduation, they formed the club under the leadership of William Rotch Wister. For the first 30 years of the club's existence, the club did not own any grounds and thus played cricket on any grounds available, such as at Camden, New Jersey. Then, in 1883, the club “came home” to Chestnut Hill due to the generosity of a benefactor, Henry H. Houston. Houston arranged for them to settle down at the club's present location on West Willow Grove Avenue in the St. Martins section of Chestnut Hill.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club has two locations. The original location in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia where the main offices are located, along with the tennis courts, squash facilities, an eight lane twenty five meter swimming pool, and a short nine hole golf course. The second location is ten minutes away in Whitemarsh Township, near Flourtown, which holds two 18 hole golf courses.

When the Golf Association of Philadelphia was organized in 1897, the club was one of four founding members with Merion, Philadelphia Country Club and Aronimink. Both the Wissahickon and Militia Hill courses have been recognized for their outstanding layouts and course conditions over the years. (Wissahickon has been named a top 100 classic course multiple times and Militia Hill a top 25 golf course in Pennsylvania).

The cricket team was initially disbanded in 1924 but was later revived in 1998. The club is now one of the hosts of the annual Philadelphia International Cricket Festival.

Eight singles courts and two hardball doubles courts round out PCC's squash program. Rich Wade is the director of squash. PCC has coached many national champions and countless players who went on to play intercollegiate squash.

In 2019 PCC won the Country Club Swim Association of Greater Philadelphia League Championship. In 2006 the swimming team placed fourth at the Country Club Swimming Association of Greater Philadelphia's League Championships led by the William Penn Charter's high school swimming coach Kevin Berkoff.

In 1881, the club was one of the founding members of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, today the USTA. The club hosted the inaugural U. S. Women's National Singles Championship in 1887, and continued to host the event until 1921, when it moved to Forest Hills. The Women's National Doubles Championship (which started in 1889) and Mixed Doubles Championship (which started in 1892) were also held at the club until 1921. These events later combined with the men's singles and doubles championships to form the U. S. Open. Annually, the club hosts the USTA 30 35 and 70s age group championships. The club operates 18 rotating grass courts, nine HydroClay courts, and two indoor hard courts.

In 2014, the platform tennis hut was listed as one of the most impressive by Town & Country. The club hosted the 2017 Philly Cricket Invitational for American Platform Tennis Association finals and was one of the National Championship hosts. The club has 4 permanent platform tennis courts.

Pickleball became a prominent sport at PCC in 2019. Constructing six outdoor courts and eight temporary indoor courts on the indoor tennis courts.

Due to the extensive efforts in recent years of the Trapshooting Committee, trapshooting has become a thriving sport at PCC. Competitions are held November through April at clubs around the Philadelphia region.