There's Croquet, and Then There's The Claremont Classic
There's Croquet, and Then There's The Claremont Classic.
Just beyond that porch, the emerald rectangle of a finely groomed croquet court is a relatively new addition in Claremont terms. But in terms of what it’s meant to the hotel and this community of 1,200 residents, the 30-year-old court is almost as important as the island’s breathtaking views.
In 1968, when Allen and Gertrude McCue became the Claremont’s new owners, they assumed responsibility for a community institution. Built in 1884 on Clark Point by retired Southwest Harbor sea captain Jesse Pease, the Claremont’s ownership had changed just once—in 1908 when Grace Pease, the captain’s widow, sold the hotel to Dr. Joseph Dana Phillips, a Southwest Harbor physician. But the McCues were not newcomers to the town. Gertrude’s grandfather, Rev. William Lawrence, had visited Southwest Harbor as a young man; and Sunset Farm, her parents’ Southwest Harbor home, always has been Gertrude’s favorite place.
But she had little time to enjoy it for months after that chilly April day in 1968 when she and Allen became the Claremont’s new owners. So much needed doing in so little time, before the hotel’s first summer guests arrived, that she paid scant attention when Allen told her he’d picked out a spot on the hotel lawn where he would soon oversee the installation of, “the finest croquet court on Mount Desert Island.”
“I suppose I should have taken him more seriously,” Gertrude says now. “But there was just too much going on. Why, we didn’t have a chef until the very day we opened.”
But Allen kept his promise. What with Maine’s unforgiving winters, the dandelions and crab grass of its reluctant springs, along with the many problems—as any horticulturist will tell you—of seeding bent grass (used for golf greens) anywhere on the briny coast of Maine, it was seven years before Allen’s determined dream of a tournament quality court came true. But during the week before Labor Day in 1976, the first Claremont Croquet Classic, as he named the hotel’s tournament, was played on a nearly perfect emerald-green, rolled rectangle of bent grass mowed as closely as a carpet.
Typically ahead of his time, Allen’s project was completed several years before croquet began the rocketing rise in popularity that started early in the next decade. But his enthusiasm never diminished. In Southwest Harbor and the hamlets of its Mount Desert neighbors, the Claremont game sailed directly into the community mainstream on the rising tide of Allen McCue’s enthusiasm. A salesman by training, he sold Claremont croquet to the populace the way FDR sold the New Deal.
The fire chief, the butcher, the grocer, and the lobsterman were each somehow persuaded of the bliss they would experience if only they picked up a croquet mallet and came to play on the finest court their island had ever seen.
Thus are legends born. The summer of 2001 will mark the Classic’s silver anniversary. The 24th, played through a remarkably perfect week of August weather, attracted more players than ever before. So many, in fact, that several matches had to be played on the courts of Southwest Harbor residents who—as they would be quick to acknowledge—would never have converted their lawns to courts without the Claremont’s leadership.
Allen died more than a decade ago, but Gertrude was on hand for the award ceremonies after the finals of the 24th Annual Claremont Croquet Classic. “You know,” she says, “I never took Allen that seriously when he told me about his plans for a court and the tournaments that would follow. But just look at what’s happened. We have more players than ever. It’s the big event of the summer.
“Oh, how I wish Allen could see this.”
He would also be pleased to learn that Claremont Court number two is under construction.
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