Nahant, MA to Celebrate 150th Anniversary of Tennis
Site of the first tennis ever played in the U.S. in Nahant, MA will host a 150th anniversary of tennis celebration on Saturday, July 13 at Nahant Tennis.
At just one square mile, the quintessential seaside town of Nahant is the smallest municipality by area in Massachusetts. Yet in addition to its picturesque vantages of the Atlantic Ocean and Boston skyline, the peninsula also boasts the distinction as the site of the first tennis played in America, in August 1874.
To commemorate this historic event, there will be a 150th anniversary celebration this summer in Nahant that will include tennis in period dress with wooden racquets, and more.
Two men holding wooden racquets at the site of the first tennis ever played in Nahant, Massachusetts. Photo Credit: Nahant Historical Society.
The modern game of tennis dates back to Feb. 23, 1874, when Major Walter Clopton Wingfield filed a patent with the British Patent Office and began selling the game in a wooden box containing four bats, a net, poles, bag of balls and court equipment. But in his definitive book, The Bud Collins History of Tennis, the late tennis journalist and sportscaster detailed rival theories regarding America’s introduction to tennis.
According to Collins, James Arthur Beebe brought a tennis set he purchased in London to the Nahant home (shown below) owned by his father-in-law, William Appleton, in the summer of 1874. Appleton’s nephew, James Dwight—a future physician, organizer of the inaugural U.S. Championships at Newport, R.I., in 1881, and president of the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association from 1882-84 and 1894-1911—then laid out a court on the front lawn for a match with his cousin, Fred Sears, older brother of Richard Dudley Sears.
In the article “Lawn Tennis in New England,” which appeared in Volume 18 of Outings magazine in May 1891, Dwight wrote, “The rackets were spoon shaped and very light…and the balls were large, uncovered rubber balls, just such, in fact, as are sold for children. The court was not laid out in a rectangle as now, but was narrowest at the net and widest at the base line; the service line was twenty-six feet from the net. What a chance for service it must have given if anyone had known how to serve!”
Yet, Mary Ewing Outerbridge has been celebrated by some historians for introducing tennis to America in 1874, using a tennis set given to her by British army officers stationed in Bermuda where she was vacationing.
However, Dr. Richard Dwight (son of Dr. James Dwight) noted in his June 1990 article, “The Early History of Tennis in the United States,” that Outerbridge’s return trip to New York, on Feb. 2, 1874, preceded Wingfield’s sale of lawn tennis kits on Feb. 23, 1874. As a result, he surmised that Outerbridge took the tennis set home from her Bermuda trip the following year and set up a court at the Staten Island (N.Y.) Cricket and Baseball Club not before the spring of 1875.
Regardless, event organizers in Nahant are focused on festivity rather than points of contention.
"For those of us who are historians as well as tennis lovers, it’s amazing,” says Nahant Tennis President Andrea Gogolos, who has served for four years on the all-volunteer board governing the community club, with membership open to all.
Peter Foukal, a past president of Nahant Tennis and chair of the Nahant Tennis Sesquicentennial Committee, shares the widely expressed pride that a “worldwide phenomenon started in a quiet way here.”
The celebration in Nahant will kick off on Sunday, June 30, with a presentation, “Tennis Etiquette Through the Edwardian Era,” at 2 p.m. ET at the Nahant Historical Society. The talk will include a display of vintage tennis photographs and related artifacts from the Nahant Historical Society collection.
Festivities resume at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 13, at Nahant Tennis, with an introduction of honored guests: Olympic silver medalist and former Top 10 player Tim Mayotte; Dan Sears, a descendant of seven-time U.S. National Championships singles titlist Richard Dudley Sears; North Shore tennis legend Avis Murray; and representation from the USTA.
At 9 a.m., 32 competitors will play a friendly round-robin doubles tournament in vintage dress with wooden racquets on the four clay courts. Following a boxed lunch catered at noon by Nahant Country Club, Sears will discuss “The First Great U.S. Tennis Champion: Richard Dudley Sears.” Mayotte will then present “Changes in Tennis Technique Through the Eras” before taking to the court for an exhibition match with three of Nahant’s top juniors.
“It’s all very exciting,” says Mayotte, a resident of Chestnut Hill, Mass., west of Boston, who has visited the plaque near East Point commemorating the first game of lawn tennis during family visits to Nahant Beach.
Ca. 1960 of the Appleton Home in Nahant, where James Arthur Beebe brought his first ever tennis set from London. Photo Credit: Nahant Historical Society.
“When you’re playing on the tour, you only think about that time period in the sport. But the older you get, you realize it’s part of something bigger. To have this origin story so close to home is very special.”
“It will be a fun celebration, but it’s also important to appreciate that what happened here helped make tennis what it is today,” adds Mary Livingston, a member of the Tennis Sesquicentennial Committee. “This is an opportunity to see players as they would have looked, hear from a descendant of America’s first tennis champion, and gain an understanding from modern superstar Tim Mayotte of how the sport evolved from a gentleman’s game to the elite, highly paid athletes of today.”
“We’re all looking forward to the [anniversary] events, of course, but I’d like this occasion to extend beyond our club,” Foukal says. “It’s a reason for all American tennis fans to celebrate.”
This article was originally published in the July 2024 Issue of Racquet Sports Industry Magazine.
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