A hidden gem in plain sight: LB Lawn Bowling Club celebrates 90th anniversary this month
By DIANNE RUSSELL
Photos by Mary Hurlbut
A jewel of the community for nine decades, Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club is obviously in plain sight, however, it’s anything but “plain.” From its Heisler Park perch, the greens offer a spectacular view of the ocean and lush foliage of surrounding areas. Due to its location, it has the largest club membership in America – 305.
Few clubs or organizations in Laguna can boast such longevity. For many residents, Laguna Beach Lawn Bowling Club needs no introduction, but for those unfamiliar with this one-of-a-kind resource for exercise, fun, and socializing, this unique entity deserves revisiting.
Club Historian Linda Jahraus, who joined the club in 1992 and served as president from 2005-2006, has been researching its history for 15 years. Thanks to her persistent digging into the nitty gritty of its inception and early days, residents are privy to a bounty of fascinating details.
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Curt Bartsch sporting club shirt
Curt Bartsch, club president from 2010-2011, clearly has a passion for the Lawn Bowling Club. “When I retired in 2006, my wife and I were looking for something we could do together. This is perfect. Before the pandemic, we used to have Thursday socials, and we met people socializing. There’s a lot of comradery here and in the sport in general. We’ve visited lawn bowling clubs around the world – when you visit, they ask you to play. It’s a sport that’s conducive to friendships and companionship.”
“It’s also a very economical sport,” Linda adds, “and it’s a lot more exercise than it looks. There’s a lot of bending, especially during a tournament.”
The club has 70 sets of bowls they loan out to members.
Jahraus influence
The Jahraus family, one of the few multi-generational families in Laguna, has been here since 1903 and played a significant role in the evolution of the site of the Lawn Bowling Club. Linda is married to Jeff Jahraus.
In 1929, Elmer Jahraus (Jeff’s great-grandfather) was instrumental in saving what was to become Heisler Park. Developer Howard Heisler, who deeded the land to Orange County in 1924, decided to go back on his promise to dedicate the land as a park and instead wanted to build a hotel and houses. Then Anna Hill and Jahraus stepped in with a lawsuit that went all the way to the Supreme Court – and they won. Ultimately, the land became Heisler Park.
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Bowling with an ocean view
Laguna residents can thank Harlan S. Kittle for the development of the bowling green in Heisler Park. An avid lawn bowler, whose father was also into the sport, Kittle moved to Laguna from Beverly Hills shortly after Laguna Beach was incorporated in 1927. He immediately began a campaign to develop a bowling green on the point of the cliff in the parkland.
The Jahraus family built one of the first houses above the greens, and Kittle tried to purchase it, but they were unwilling to sell.
It took some doing, and a little money to get the greens going.
Kittle gets the ball rolling
“Kittle got the garden club involved and recruited 20-25 people who donated one dollar,” Linda says. “He also received money from the city and in 1931 built the first green for a thousand dollars.”
A clubhouse was built in 1933, mainly to store the bowls. As the popularity of the sport grew, so did the club. A second green was added in 1952, qualifying the club for tournament play. A tournament in 1953 drew 30 teams with 89 men and one woman participating.
The City Council declared Laguna Beach the lawn bowling capital of the United States in 1957.
However, the council denied the club permission to add a third green in 1958, but a new clubhouse was approved and built in 1968.
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New clubhouse built in 1968
The proposed third green would have been where the picnic tables are now, which back then was a croquet court.
Lawn Bowling was first played in Laguna on November 2, 1931, on a green installed by the bowlers, and the club had 114 members on opening day. Laguna Beach Woman’s Club members helped with the planting.
It originally was an all-male club. “There were a couple of members who didn’t want women to play,” Linda says. “They eventually allowed women to play, but on different days than the men – men on one day, women on another.”
Currently, out of the club’s 305 members, 60 percent are male and 40 percent female.
Another interesting fact is that the club is self-sustained. They pay for everything themselves, including maintenance and mowing the lawn three times a week.
Trivia and traditions
Sports trivia fans might be delighted to know that the membership has included Gavvy Cravath, Babe Ruth’s predecessor at home run king, and Jimmy Austin, third baseman for the old St. Louis Browns.
Although the rules of lawn bowling have changed over time, the fundamentals seem to have remained consistent, certainly since the 1300s, according to Jahraus.
Rules of attire are a significant tradition in lawn bowling, depending on the country or in some cases the club. Curt says, “They used to always wear white, and women’s skirts couldn’t be too short.”
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Banner made for 90th anniversary
The Newport Beach and Laguna Clubs have no color code for weekday pick-up games.
Linda relates a few memorable events that have happened over the years: a helicopter landed on a greens for a diving incident, and due to the emergencies that have occurred on the greens, they now have a resuscitator charger at the clubhouse.
During the 1993 fire, “I picked up my kids and their friends at school and took them to their grandmother’s house across from greens,” she says. “The kids were apprehensive, so I told them to go stand on the greens if the fire got too close. Of course, it didn’t come down this far, but the greens were covered in ashes.”
History
“Lawn bowling is played all over the world. It originated in Egypt. It’s called bocce in Italy, boules in France.”
The definition of lawn bowling: bowls, or lawn bowls, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a “jack” or “kitty.” It is played on a bowling green (a finely laid, close-mown, and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls) which may be flat, convex, or uneven.
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View of the grounds
Modern rules vary somewhat from country to country and the bowls vary in size, weight, and degree of bias, depending on local conditions. British bowlers prefer lighter balls for their wet, soft grass. Floridians prefer a minimum bias; Californians choose heavier ones. Every green has its peculiarities, just like golf courses.
Historians suggest that the game made its way across Europe with Julius Caesar’s troops and became entrenched in the British Isles. The Southampton Old Bowling Green Club, organized in A.D. 1299, is still active, the oldest on record.
The sport remains popular in England, Canada, and Scotland, where Glasgow claims 200 public bowling greens, including enclosed ones for winter play.
The American Revolution and anti-British sentiment stifled the game in the American “Colonies,” but Canadians kept it alive in the New World.
New Jersey is credited with the resurrection of lawn bowling in the United States. A small private club was started on the Atlantic coast in 1879. Two years later, it had spread to the Pacific shore.
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Custom made – Laguna Beach #1
“In the 70s the club membership was below 100,” says Curt. “We held an open house celebration to commemorate our 75th anniversary. We invited people to come, offered deals for memberships, and we got 14 new members. After that, open houses went nationwide when other clubs heard we got 14 new members in one day. They saw it as a way to get new members. So after that, every club nationwide, on the second Saturday in May, except for last year, we have a Saturday on the Greens.”
The greens were open during the pandemic and Curt says, “We wore masks and followed protocol. It was a place to go that was safe. But there were no tournaments or the U.S. Open.”
Before COVID-19, they also held parties on the outside patio.
An International Tournament, the U.S. Open, draws players from all over the world: Australia, Canada, England, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Typically, visiting players bring mementos to hang up in club house and, in the past, exchanged club pins.
Future plans
“We’re trying to be an Olympic Event, however, it’s not fast-paced. In the 1923 Olympics, it was a demo sport,” Linda says. “We’d also like it to have more television coverage. There’s a lot of indoor bowling, which is similar to curling.”
There’s no lack of greens in Southern California, 30 to be exact. A few of the places that have lawn bowling greens are: Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Laguna Woods, Los Angeles, Santa Anita, San Diego, Riverside, and Balboa Park.
On April 24, members will celebrate their 90th milestone with club towels and pins and then continue the celebration all year long.
Young, old, novice, or veteran players can all enjoy both social and tournament bowls. The club provides ongoing complimentary lessons in basics, strategy, etiquette, and team games. Visitors may try different bowls. New members must take three lessons.
The Laguna Beach Bowling Club has much to be proud of – they have grown and prospered since 1931 and continue to be one of Laguna’s extraordinary treasures.
The Laguna Beach Bowling Club is located at 455 Cliff Dr.
For more information, go to www.lagunabeachlawnbowlingclub.com.
The latest round of severe weather throughout the South and Southeast has produced an unusually heavy and widespread amount of hail, with hailstones the size of baseballs or even bigger. Most severe thunderstorms produce hail but not with the intensity of this particular episode. It’s all about the speed of the updraft that determines the size of a hailstone.
