“The Death of the Country Club” cried a 2010s headline, citing a nationwide decline in the private-member institutions as young families opted out of the very communities many had grown up experiencing. Around the same time, an urgent letter-writing campaign began: “Save Forest Hills Stadium,” spurred by the impending sale and demolition of a landmark building that had served as the symbolic and architectural lynchpin of West Side Tennis Club. Nearly a century old, the stadium appeared to have been given its last rites following decades of declining revenue and memberships—a trend for clubs across the country.
But reports of the demise of the private tennis club are greatly exaggerated—and as the pandemic gave clubs across the US a second chance at life, Forest Hills, as it has been known since hosting the first US Open in 1915, was experiencing a resurgence as well. Even after the community board voted to save the stadium and began a hugely successful concert series that continues to this day, the West Side Tennis Club kept searching for ways to engage with its history and diversify its membership. It’s paying off.