Clubs That Wouldn't Have Me As A Member
Groucho Marx said: "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member". Neither Groucho nor I would have had to worry about becoming members of several of the clubs described in Lara Lutz' book "Chesapeake's Western Shore: Vintage Vacationland" (2009), part of the Images of America Series of local photographic histories. Much of the book tells the story of several private resorts and clubs on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, largely in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, that flourished between the early 20th Century and the 1940s. These resorts catered to upper middle class and well-to-do residents of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. seeking a summer home away from the urban environment. As Lutz indicates, most of these clubs had "restricted" policies and did not admit African Americans or Jewish people. With the advent of Federal anti-discrimination laws, the construction of the Bay Bridge, and the end, for a time, of legalized slot machines in Maryland, these clubs gradually faded away.
Lutz does not countenance the anti-discrimination policy but describes it candidly, as a good historian, for what it was. Still, I felt uncomfortable seeing these communities in a context and series that celebrates local America. There is much to appreciate in the photos and discussions of the resorts -- the lovely scenery, the water on the Bay and the rivers, boats, forests, shady lanes, and amusement parks. Much of it is appealing. But the photos of the many residents, smug, well-off, and complacent enjoying themselves while excluding others left me cold or worse. Fie!
Beyond the discriminatory clubs, there is much to like in the book. As Lutz points out, Frederick Douglass' son, Charles, founded his own resort on the Western Chesapeake called Highland Beach located southeast of Annapolis. I would have liked more discussion of Highland Beach, which receives a brief four-page treatment in this book. In the 1920s, a group of largely Jewish businessmen from Washington D.C. founded a club known as The National Masonic Fishing and Country Club which had a predominantly Jewish clientele and which lasted into the late 1980s. Lutz offers a thorough treatment of this resort community.
Besides the resorts, Lutz offers an introductory chapter showing pictures of turn of the century Baltimore and rural Maryland scenes before the advent of the resorts. The book concludes with a treatment of Chesapeake Beach, a large amusement park which drew large crowds from the early 1900s until it finally closed in 1972, well past its prime.
I have read many books in the Images of America series and this was the first I didn't enjoy. It is difficult to feel a sense of nostalgia or loss for discriminatory private resorts.
