Richter Park Golf Course

Richter Park began as a country retreat. In 1937 Stanley and Irene Richter, a New York couple, bought a working farm on the outskirts of Danbury as a vacation home, and they once raced horses across ground that is now a narrow par 5. After Stanley's death in the late 1960s, Irene gave the property to the city, which turned the house into an arts center and much of the farm into a golf course. Architect Edward C. Ryder drew up the plans and specifications in 1968, and the original nine holes opened around 1971; after acquiring more acreage, the city opened a second nine in 1974. Ryder's routing climbs over big wooded hills and past old stone walls and two reservoirs, with water in play on fourteen holes of the par-71 layout. Richter quickly earned a reputation as one of the finest municipal courses anywhere, and it remains home to the long-running Danbury Amateur.