135 Flagg Pl
ca. 1840

The Richmond County Country Club was organized in 1888, as a social club which offered fox hunting and other sports. The original clubhouse occupied a two-story Victorian mansion, located on the grounds of the former Vanderbilt estate, near Ocean Terrace and Little Clove Road. In 1897, the Club moved to its present location in Dongan Hills (known at the time as Garretson) to accommodate the rising interest in golf. George Cromwell, Club member and Staten Island's first borough president, assisted with the purchase of a 35-acre estate that included a large home. The house was presumably built by Agatha Mayer and purchased in 1878 by Junius Alexander, who had made his fortune on Wall Street and through the railroad business. He lived there with his family until his death in 1893. At the time, one side of the house had extensive grass lawns, which became a nine-hole golf course for the Club before it was sold in 1908 for residential development. A new course layout was designed by Robert White in 1916. He was the first President of the Professional Golfers' Association of America, and a founding member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.