In the middle of San Jose, we have an outcropping of hills historically known as the San Juan Bautista Hills. The hills are home to Oak Hill Memorial Park, the First Baptist Church (the “Church on the Hill”), Santa Clara County Communications (emergency service dispatch), and an area referred to as Communications Hill (has a large cell phone tower). These hills were also once the home to the American Dairy, a small Catholic cemetery, quicksilver mines, and a golf course.
The golf course, named Ironwood Swim and Golf Club, was a nine-hole course on the hill where the First Baptist Church now stands. It was created about 1960 on former pasture land by Stanley McDill (with wife Carolyn, son "Scott", and daughter Carol), in conjunction with a new residential development at the foot of the hill. The streets in the new tract were named after golf courses, with names like Ironwood, Rinconada, and Pebble Beach. The golf course operated into 1965, then gave way to the construction of the First Baptist Church, who had purchased the property from McDill in 1963. The club house, several small structures, and the pool all remain. The primary and diving pools are shaped like a golf club and ball.
The thirty-three acre course was lighted for night play, and open all year seven days a week, with the last tee-off at 9 pm. A neighboring resident who remembered the golf course, said that the lights were quite bright at night. According to Stan McDill’s daughter Carol, Stan really enjoyed cooking at the club house (“…made a great hamburger), and chatting at the food bar. She said that the club was very successful when it first opened, and might have remained so but for the hill being so cold and windy.
Further Reading in the California Room
- A Century of Service, edited by Dick Barrett
- San Jose City Directories
- San Jose phonebooks 1902 - present
- San Jose (and surrounding area) aerial photos 1931, 1948, 1960, 1968, 1981
- Clipping Files Communications Hill
- Looking Back: Willow Glen's Hilltop Christmas Tree
- Clipping Files Kell Cemetery
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