Besides a March snowstorm, I wanted you guys to see what goes on around here. Funny or sad, you decide.
BV
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Mansion taking its course
Golfers fear a good walk spoiled
By Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff, 03/07/99
BROOKLINE - It is a place of discretion and Old World manners,
where the art of understatement is affirmed by its very name: The
Country Club.
So, true to form, some members of the exclusive playground here, host to this year's Ryder Cup golf matches, are hot under their buttoned-down collars about the courtly club's newest neighbor - an enormous mansion taking shape just above the 11th green, the elevated finish to a long and testy hole.
The sprawling 25,000-square-foot home, being built by Reebok executive
Paul Fireman, is going over at the club on Clyde Street like an unreplaced divot on a manicured fairway.
''I'm sure they're in a lot of distress over this,'' said Robert D. Chellis, a former 25-year member of the club. ''It's ostentatious. It's pretentious. It probably spoils some view they have. They don't like change a lot. They must be furious about it.''
Publicly, at least, nothing could be further from the truth.
The 116-year-old club says it welcomes Fireman to the neighborhood.
Fireman says he intends to be a good neighbor.
But privately, there is trouble in paradise.
Some members said Fireman's dream house is an out-of-place, architectural blemish on the verdant view golfers once enjoyed marching up the storied fairway.
''He has absolutely transformed it to what looks like a rock pile,'' said one member, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. ''It's a shame it was not done in a way to preserve the land.''
William M. Braucher, a club member for 10 years, called the house
''aesthetically offensive. I'm not a fan of houses on golf courses. There are a few other houses close to the golf course, and I don't like those, either.''
As golfers from around the world arrive in September for the prestigious Ryder Cup matches, it will be difficult not to notice the newest address of Reebok's chairman and chief executive officer, who purchased 12 acres of land for $4 million and is eager to move in.
''I'm building a large, elegant home,'' Fireman said. ''It is not a castle. It's not there for ego purposes. I'm generally not of that nature. I keep a low profile.''
But the house's profile is so conspicuous, one golfer recently studying hisapproach shot to the hole wondered whether a new elementary school was taking shape.
Chip Tuttle, who does some public relations work for The Country Club,
disputed that the membership ''is up in arms'' over the project.
But, he added: ''Because of the sheer size and scope of the construction,members noticed it. You couldn't help noticing it. When they were doing the foundation, people weren't sure whether it was a home or a K Mart.''
If Fireman is hamstrung by declining income at his company, buffeted by layoffs and slack demand for athletic shoes, he is nothing but bullish when it comes to golf.
The chairman of the Stoughton-based sports gear giant bought a country
club of his own - Mashpee's 6,826-yard Willowbend - after, Fireman
contends, Oyster Harbors in Osterville refused him membership. Fireman
said the fact that he is Jewish dampened the country club's interest in his membership, a contention denied by Oyster Harbors.
Fireman said he has never applied for membership at Brookline's
1,300-member country club. And, he said, the country club's less than stellar record of including blacks, Jews, and Asians among its members had nothing to do with his latest purchase. The club, which did not admit its first black member until 1994, has repeatedly been accused of discriminating against minorities and has traditionally had few Jewish members.
Faced with a choice of tearing down and rebuilding a home he owns in
Newton, Fireman said he opted to purchase the tract.
''We designed a home for the future,'' Fireman said. ''The fact that it was adjacent to The Country Club [and] offered excellent views was great.
There's nothing nicer than being next to a beautiful country club. I have nothing against The Country Club. They're nice people.''
Ten times the size of other large homes in the neighborhood, town officials said Fireman has slightly scaled back plans for the house. A firing range was scrapped. A video room that would allow electronic golfing on any course in the country also has been eliminated.
The house does have limestone facing, a slate roof, an award-winning
architect, and rooms that are, well, cavernous.
''It's only a four-bedroom house,'' the owner said. ''The living space does not exceed 25,000 square feet. It's clearly a beautiful, glorious house. The rooms are big and they're well-appointed. There's a library, of course. There is a servants' quarters.''
Fireman said his new house sits 50 to 80 feet in back of club property, and trees partially screen the course, forming a buffer that will grow thicker over time.
John Cornish, chairman of the Ryder Cup committee for The Country Club,diminished any talk of discord.
''It's nothing earth-shaking,'' said Cornish. ''We've got a lot of houses around the course. It's part of modern living.''
Edwin I. Firestone, a club member since 1973, said it could have bought the property if it had been that concerned about a new neighbor.
''In five years, nobody will even know that the house is there,'' Firestone said. ''I don't consider it an eyesore. It's not as much an eyesore as The Breakers was when Vanderbilt built it [the Newport, R.I., Gilded Age mansion] in 1895.''
Whatever the reaction to the mansion inside the club's fences, there is a mixture of awe and glee from those who can't and don't belong to a club where men once raced horses and still go skeet shooting.
''That house has got to be the most expensive Ryder Cup ticket that has ever been bought,'' said John Bassett, a nonmember who has questioned the club's exclusivity and admissions policy.
Fireman said he hopes to move into the house by the end of the year, but probably not before the international tournament, which is expected to draw 30,000 fans on Sept. 22, 23, and 24.
''I haven't applied for membership there,'' Fireman said. ''But I might very well in the future. I'm going to be a good neighbor. And I hope they're going to be a good neighbor.''
This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 03/07/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
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