Jean-Simon Rhéaume – Contributor

The Old Lennoxville Golf Club, known today as Golf & Ski Vieux-Lennox, occupies a unique place in the recreational and cultural history of the Eastern Townships. Established in 1897 on what is now the campus of Bishop’s University, the course is one of the oldest nine-hole golf facilities in Canada. Although modest in scale compared to modern golf complexes, Golf & Ski Vieux-Lennox’s longevity, its relationship with the university and its stable presence within the community of Lennoxville make it a compelling heritage landscape.

Image courtesy of Old Lennoxville Golf and Ski Club

The origins of the club reflect the late-19th-century expansion of British-Canadian sporting culture. Golf, introduced to Canada earlier in the century by Scottish immigrants, was becoming increasingly popular among Anglophone middle-class communities. Bishop’s University, founded in 1843 and strongly influenced by British traditions, provided a natural environment for the sport to flourish. Members of the local anglophone elite and university affiliates championed the creation of a course, eventually securing a charter from the Royal Canadian Golf Association. By the turn of the century, the club was fully operational, offering a new recreational amenity within what remained a largely rural setting.

The original nine-hole layout, though simple, took advantage of the rolling and open terrain along the Massawippi River. Early descriptions of the course emphasize its pastoral character; wide fairways bordered by natural tree lines, with few artificial obstacles beyond the undulating ground itself. This integrated landscape became a defining element of the club’s identity. While many Canadian golf courses underwent dramatic redesigns in the mid-20th century, the Old Lennoxville course barely changed.

Throughout the 20th century, the club served dual roles. It was a social hub for the Lennoxville community and functioned as an extension of campus life at Bishop’s University. Students and faculty regularly used the grounds, and for decades the club offered a convenient recreational outlet in an academic setting that celebrated outdoor sports. This close relationship is reflected in the university archives, which hold club records, photographs and promotional material, now forming what is known as the MG-097 Lennoxville Golf Club Fonds.

The addition of cross-country ski trails in the winter (hence the “Golf & Ski” name), further expanded the property’s role as a multi-season community space. The ski trails were integrated without altering the fundamental layout of the course, ensuring that the original 1897 footprint remained largely intact.

In the postwar period, as Sherbrooke absorbed Lennoxville and the region urbanized, the course gained new symbolic value. While much of the surrounding environment is modernized residential construction, campus expansion, or commercial development, the golf course remains one of the few open green spaces preserved in its historic form. Today, its wooded edges, frequent sightings of local wildlife and unobstructed views create a preserved ecological pocket within the borough.

The club’s heritage significance lies not only in its age, but also in what it represents: a continuous recreational tradition within a community shaped by both anglophone and francophone influences. The Old Lennoxville Golf Club stands as a reminder of the region’s cultural layering, from early British-Canadian settlement patterns to the contemporary bilingual character of Sherbrooke. Its endurance demonstrates how sports spaces can serve as repositories of local memory, quietly documenting shifts in population, identity, and landscape.

Although modest in scale, the Old Lennoxville Golf Club remains an important historical landmark in the Eastern Townships. Its story is a rare example of continuity in a rapidly modernizing environment, offering a valuable case study for heritage scholars, archivists and community historians interested in the evolution of leisure landscapes in Québec.