Nature was tamed here long ago. Japanese cut-leaf maples grow at a demure pace in the filtered sunlight under old shade trees. Towering pines and copper beeches lord over rhododendrons and azaleas.
Lush lawns flow down gentle hillsides to man-made lakes.
If the shade of Albert Payson Terhune came strolling by, one of the famous collies of his novels bounding alongside, no one would blink. Yet the RGCC, as it is known, was once a frontier of sorts, forging a suburban lifestyle that would become ubiquitous in the postwar years. After starting out as a private estate, the grounds were sold and developed in 1940 as one of the first planned residential communities. The kicker, however, was that the purchase of an RGCC home brought with it an automatic membership in the country club, including golf course privileges. There's no way to become a full member of the club without a deed, and by law a deed requires membership in the club.