Orange Hills Country Club

The land beneath Orange Hills was once the Lewis Bradley farm, sold in 1872 to New Haven businessmen Philander Ferry and Samuel Halliwell, who planned a new town called Tyler City that never took hold. In 1924 a group of New Haven residents bought the estate for golf, incorporating the Rolling Ridge Country Club in August 1925, and a nine-hole course opened on Memorial Day 1927. The club was sold in 1930 and renamed Orange Hills Country Club, and during the 1930s grass greens replaced the original sand greens. The Smith family, early financial backers, took over management and ownership in the following decades, and from 1956 to 1961 the course was expanded to 18 holes, work that course directories credit to architect Geoffrey Cornish. A new clubhouse on the hill followed in 1966, with views of nearby towns and Long Island Sound. Still family owned, Orange Hills operates as a public course.