Casperkill Golf Club

Casperkill Golf Club in Poughkeepsie grew out of IBM's wartime expansion in the city. In the early 1900s the land was divided among farms and estates, including the Dickerson Farm, Kingwood Park and the Cedar Hill farm. When IBM began to expand in Poughkeepsie in the 1940s, the company acquired these properties for an extension of its employee country club and for post-war housing, and it hired Robert Trent Jones Sr. to design a golf course. A nine-hole course opened in 1944 at the IBM plant; a contemporary trade photo shows IBM chief Thomas J. Watson with Jones at the dedication. The IBM country club quickly became a popular gathering place for employees and local residents. The course later grew to 18 holes and today operates as a public course, with towering oaks and ponds along the Casperkill creek that gives the club its name.