Inverness Country Club and Park Lawn Beach Celebrate 100 Years in North Lake

Centennial honors Douglas Fraser’s 1920s vision for a golf course and lakeside community

The North Lake community marked a milestone in July with centennial celebrations honoring two institutions that have shaped life in the area for a century: Inverness Country Club and the Park Lawn Beach Subdivision.

The story of these communities began in 1916, when Douglas A. Fraser purchased farmland on North Territorial Road from Fred Glenn. After farming for a few years, Fraser divided the property, one part became a lakeside subdivision, while the other became a nine-hole golf course. The development led to the creation of the Park Lawn Beach subdivision and the Inverness Golf Course, later known as Inverness Country Club.

On July 19, more than 200 people attended a celebration at the Inverness Country Club. The next day, Park Lawn Beach Association residents gathered for their own event, with an “Island Brunch” as the highlight.

Fraser, whose Scottish family traced its roots to Inverness, Scotland, hence the club’s name, was born in Sarnia, Ontario, in 1883. After his father’s death in 1899, he moved to Detroit and by 1906 had become president and a partner in the American Brass & Iron Company.

Fraser’s vision created a community in which homeowners near the lake originally had access to both amenities. Over time, the golf course and subdivision grew into separate organizations.

“The golf course and the subdivision by the lake were split by Fraser once he had sold enough lots by the lake. Homeowners still had golf privileges, but in 1929, he filed an article of incorporation for Inverness Country Club, and in 1935, it was recorded,” historian Mary Sue Webb explains. “From 1935 to 1966, the golf course had homeowner members and was open to the public. In 1966, the golf course became private and required an annual membership fee to play.”

Webb notes that the subdivision also formalized its structure. “The subdivision by the lake since the split has been known as Park Lawn Beach Association, and it has an annual fee to cover expenses for maintenance for the private roads, mowing the Community Properties, and caring for the large amount of trees. Therefore, each part of the original development by Fraser is celebrating 100 years.”

Jack Secrist, author of A Brief History of Inverness Country Club, said the land “was an initial land grant to John Glenn in 1836, and his brother, the Reverend Charles Glenn, purchased adjacent land. The Glenn mansion later became the Inverness Country Club, and meals were available to members at the house for many years.”

Secrist also wrote, “The construction of the golf course was initiated in 1925 and overseen by Dan Denton, who served as both manager and superintendent for many years. The initial year for play at the golf course was 1927, and it was open not only to the Park Lawn Beach owners but also to the general public, of course, with a paid greens fee.

The economic hardships of the Depression thwarted Fraser’s original plans, and he relocated to Ann Arbor. Despite those challenges, the golf course stayed afloat during the Depression and war years by opening play to non-residents and collecting greens fees from the public. Membership gradually rebounded, and by 1964 the club had grown to 170 members.

Secrist notes, “The course managed to survive the Depression years, and by all accounts, Dan Denton was the person who kept it going during the down years.”

By the mid-1960s, weekend crowds led members to push for a private course. The Board concluded that a membership of 250 would make privatization possible, and in 1966, Inverness became a private club, with 219 members listed in that year’s audit. The same era saw course improvements, including reshaping the seventh green, redesigning several others, adding bunkers, installing the first irrigation system in 1968, and remodeling the clubhouse in 1976. A proposal to expand to 18 holes in the 1970s never advanced.

Today, both Inverness Country Club and the Park Lawn Beach Association carry forward traditions that began a century ago.