Rolling Road Golf Club has a long-standing history in the Catonsville Community. Originally, Catonsville was part of the commonwealth of Virginia until 1634, when it officially became part of Maryland. In 1707 the village that is now Catonsville had a population of 250; however, the population of the area so close to the port of Baltimore continued to grow steadily. In 1805 the Maryland State legislature designated the west-bound road from Baltimore to the Ellicott Brother’s flour mill on the Patapsco River as the Frederick Turnpike (later Frederick Road). And in 1810, the town of “Catonsville” was founded when Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, commissioned his son-in-law, Richard Caton, to develop the portion of his estate bordered by the turnpike. The 90 acres of Rolling Road Golf Club was part of this original estate gifted to Richard Caton as a wedding present from his father-in-law.
The history of a series of elite social clubs began in the 1890’s with the Catonsville Casino, located on the site of what now is Catonsville High School. It was a social center for elite families of the region. Oddly enough, there was no gambling there, or golf. The grounds, spanning 8 acres, were home to a wide variety of sports fields including baseball, tennis, cricket, lacrosse, and a winter tennis court made of crushed stone. Many important sporting events of the time were held there, including an 1894 football game between Princeton and the University of Virginia. That game was witnessed by some 4,000 spectators. As the popularity for the Catonsville Casino grew, it morphed into the Catonsville Country Club. The following year, the club’s baseball team won the Suburban League championship title over several other clubs in the greater Baltimore area. Unfortunately, the beautiful Catonsville Country Club’s three-story clubhouse burned down in 1906. The membership was undeterred by the devastating loss and began making plans to rebuild the very next day. In 1909, the Catonsville Country Club clubhouse was rebuilt, but without a golf course. After a long search for suitable property, “Bloomsbury Farm,” the land that Rolling Road Golf Club currently resides on, was purchased in 1916. From 1848 to 1965, Rolling Road Golf Club as it exists today was a part of the “Farmlands” purchased by the Lurmans (another prominent Catonsville family). In 1881, on a tract of land passed down from his parents, Gustav Lurman Jr. built the estate known as Bloomsbury Farms. The Lurman Woodland Theater on Catonsville High School’s grounds is named in his memory. In 1919, what was “Bloomsbury Farm” officially became Rolling Road Golf Club and the original charter was filed and approved by the membership. The Bloomsbury Farms mansion later served as the clubhouse for Rolling Road and was actually the earliest clubhouse in continual use from 1919 to 1991, when it burned to the ground in a fire. The first 9 holes of the golf course were built by hand and the golf course officially opened on July 1, 1919. In 1922, the second of the 9 holes were designed and completed by a world-renowned player and golf course architect Willie Park, Jr.
Born Musselburgh, Scotland, the ‘cradle of golf,’ Willie Park, Jr. is remembered as one of the greatest golfers and course designers of the last century. His story and the story of his father, Willie, and uncle, Mungo, are an integral part of golf's heritage. Willie Park Sr., also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, won the Open Championship four times and also ran a very successful golf equipment business that his son later expanded. Park, Jr. carried on in his father's footsteps and won the British Open in 1887 and 1889. Willie Park, Jr. was a pioneer of parkland courses at a time when golf courses were traditionally built along the coast. Park designed approximately 170 courses in Europe, America and Canada. Rolling Road Golf Club managed to remain in operation during the Great Depression, largely due to the purchase of Club stock by Mr. Henry Morton. Due large drop in membership during the Depression years, members ran an ad in the Catonsville Argus that the club is under new management and would be offering "full privilege memberships" for $100 a year, payable quarterly. On March 6th, 1959, Club members formed a holding company, known as the Beltway Realty Company, and purchased Rolling Road Golf Club. To this day, Club members become stockholders in the Beltway Realty Company upon joining the club. The Clubhouse as it stands today was rebuilt in 1991 after the original Rolling Road Golf Club mansion, built in 1881, caught fire in 1987. Rolling Road Golf Club continues to be not only an exceptional golf course, but an important part of the Catonsville community and a historic landmark.