Page 155 - John Anderson

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John Anderson once played a practical joke on the hotel guests by
erecting a prominent sign in the lobby which read: "Watch for
February 15th!" The next day, another sign, even more intriguing
read: "Watch for Harris, the dog-faced boy!" The signs got more
shocking as the week went by, and when everyone was overcome
with curiosity, Harris arrived. However, instead of a "dog-faced boy" he
turned out to be a friend of Anderson's, and a very charming young
man — "a beautiful dancer, and much in demand for parties."
Anderson and Price built the first golf course in Ormond — the first
golf course in Volusia County. This was a nine-hole golf course on the
mainland side of the river. It was close to the original railroad station,
at the west end of Granada Avenue, and ran parallel to the west side
of the tracks.

Later, an eighteen-hole golf course was laid out east of the Hotel
Ormond, and most of it remains to this day. Three hundred Italian
laborers were brought in the summer of 1887 to prepare the course
in time for the January 1888 opening of the hotel. Trainloads of
Bermuda grass were brought in, and all of it was planted by hand. The
men watered the grass day and night, and in charge of laying out the
course was P.F. Seabloom, a landscape architect who had
landscaped the grounds of Henry Flagler’s fabulous hotels in St
Augustine.

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