BACK IN TIME: The Old Tappan Golf Course Turns 50

This week the Old Tappan Golf Course celebrates its 50th anniversary, having opened on July 4, 1969. “Then and now” aerial photographs show changes to the course itself, but even moreso, they show just how much the borough has developed around it in the past half-century. 

In the early 1960s, the borough’s newly formed Recreation Commission identified a municipally-owned golf course as a means to three ends: providing a local recreational facility, preserving land, and generating revenue for the town. At the time, Old Tappan had about 3,500 residents. The land was dotted by farms, and much of the immediate vicinity was woodland.

An aerial shot of a more rural Old Tappan shows the newly created golf course with Lake Tappan beyond in 1969.
A modern aerial view, with Ampssler Way in the foreground and the golf course beyond.

In a 1966 referendum, Old Tappan voters approved a $600,000 bond issue to construct a golf course on 50 acres of farmland—sold at $7,500 per acre—that had been owned by the DeWolf family for 10 generations over hundreds of years. (Their 1704 farmhouse still stands on 1 acre of property on DeWolf Road, nestled between the seventh and ninth greens.)

The nine-hole course officially opened on July 4, 1969, the first community-owned golf course in New Jersey.