The Little Red Clock Shop History
The ancient and exquisite Little Red Clock Shop is a distinctive feature of The Country Club. It was built in 1790 by Gabriel Curtis for his son, Lewis, a skilled and successful clock maker. Five years after construction Gabriel paid Judah Woodruff 13 shillings to install a show window of thirty-two panes.
Originally, the clock shop was on Farmington Avenue between the clubhouse and the condominiums which were then known as the Elm Tree Inn. At a time before 1889 the clock shop was moved to the east side of Waterville Road just north of the eighteenth green where it served as a residence.
There is some evidence that the Little Red Clock Shop was the members' gathering place after the original clubhouse burned in 1901. This is uncertain, but we do know that the Little Red Clock Shop remained on Waterville Road until the 1930's when it was moved to the right of the first fairway just below the first tee.
Here it served as a warming house for skaters and curlers. Until the 1940's skating and curling were major winter sports at the country club. The small stream, now underground, which flowed in front of the first tee was dammed in winter to form a rink. About 1936 the Little Red Clock Shop was moved to its present location and became the Pro-Shop.
Today as members stand on the first tee to begin a round of golf they are directly before the Little Red Clock Shop. When play is completed and members post their scores in the computer they stand directly before the thirty-two paned show window installed by Judah Woodruff more than two hundred years ago.
