By David Westin
Chronicle Staff Writer
It's arguably the most-photographed and best known golf course clubhouse in the United States. Its only rival in the world would be the clubhouse at St. Andrews in Scotland, and that one had a considerable head start.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Augusta National's clubhouse has been flattered many times over. In Augusta, some residents have built replica houses of the clubhouse. One Augusta car dealer's showroom is a carbon copy, though smaller, of the famed clubhouse. Even a local movie theater tips its hat to the clubhouse with its design.
Over the years, many wings have been added to the Augusta National clubhouse. The main clubhouse, which is at the end of Magnolia Lane, was constructed in 1854 as a manor house. The work was done by Dennis Redmond, the owner of the property. It was then an indigo plantation.
From the outside today, the main clubhouse looks much as it did when it was built. It was always a three-story structure, supposedly so Redmond could watch his workers in the fields.
At the time of its construction, the manor house was famous in the South for being one of the first cement houses in the region.
That was one reason that the Augusta National founders decided to turn the house into the course's clubhouse.
In his book, The Story of the Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts wrote that "the local people would not like it at all if we scrapped this famous old concrete building" to build a new clubhouse. In the book, Roberts called the building "attractive and distinctive."
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