The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium
The Forest Hills Tennis Stadium is an American and International icon, situated in the earliest planned garden community countrywide, the Forest Hills Gardens. The Stadium embodies firsts in tennis, music, architectural, and social history, and was referred to as the “World Capital of Tennis.” Designed by award-winning public building architect Kenneth M. Murchison, and built by The Foundation Co. in 1923, it was the first concrete tennis stadium in the U.S. The Stadium features eagles, terra-cotta shields bearing the West Side Tennis Club logo, archways, simplified cornice detail, flagpoles, authentic grandstands seating 14,000, etc. The Stadium was the 1st home of the US Open (through 1978), & was also home to singles championships, the Davis Cup, Wightman Cup, etc. It hosted tennis greats such as Bill Tilden, Helen Jacobs, Billie Jean King, Roger Federer, and Arthur Ashe & Althea Gibson who broke the racial color barrier. The Stadium also played cinematic roles, as it featured key scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Strangers On A Train.” The annual Forest Hills Music Festival and concerts took ground in the late 1950s – late 1990s, featuring the likes of The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross, The Monkees, The Who, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Simon & Garfunkel, Trini Lopez, Peter, Paul, & Mary, etc. The Stadium & Clubhouse and its history has long-influenced our cultural possessions and media, including records & CDs, films, maps, the Forest Hills tennis racquet, clothing, postcards, (news) photos, videos, news, matchcovers, ads, etc. The Tudor-style Clubhouse dates to 1913, and was designed by famed architect Grosvenor Atterbury & John Almay Tompkins. The West Side Tennis Club was established in 1892, & first operated courts on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The West Side Tennis Club helped establish the sport of tennis in the US. Forest Hills is known for tennis, and tennis helped place Forest Hills on the map. In MIT’s Nov. 1922 “The Technology Review,” an ad referred to the stadium as “America’s Tennis Stadium,” and history has proven how it was built for the greater public.
Show your support and please the petition to have the Stadium designated! http://www.petitiononline.com/FHtennis/petition.html