Interior designer Susan Arann adds historic Van Cortlandt Golf Course to her resume

Susan Huckvale Arann seldom swings a golf club, but holds the unique distinction of leaving her mark on famous golf courses.

Ms. Arann of Westerleigh is an award-winning interior designer with more than 30 years of experience and a long list of accomplishments in dressing up many interiors. In addition to adding her magic to Richmond County Country Clubs main clubhouse, as well as the newer golf house on the Todt Hill course, she has left her mark at the South Shore Country Club when it was operated by the Toto family.

But now, after a year, the principal of American & International Designers Inc. unveils her restoration and renovation of the 111-year-old Van Cortlandt Golf Course in the Bronx. She has applied her smooth touch to the structures main clubroom, locker rooms and relocated pro shop.

I was delighted to receive this -- my all-time favorite -- assignment. Its just a beautiful place with tremendous history, said Ms. Arann. It has been a long, but delightful challenge to restore and retouch as much as possible and still maintain that original feeling.

With a broad smile, the Staten Island designer added, I am extremely honored to have done this at Van Cortlandt, which is the oldest public golf course in the United States and add that to my work at Richmond County Country Club, which is the oldest and only private golf course in the City of New York.

Van Cortlandt opened in 1895 on a 1,141-acre plot of parkland as a nine-hole golf course consuming 55-acres. The course was expanded to a 120-acre 18-hole course in 1899. The two-story clubhouse was built in 1902 featuring elements such as a grand staircase leading from the main clubroom to the second-floor locker rooms.

The existing woodwork was removed for meticulous rehabilitation and some was reused to create display cases in the new pro shop and to front the snack bar on the ground floor. A new snack bar was installed in the main clubroom along with an imposing natural stone fireplace, wood-lined tray ceiling french doors, refaced columns and extra windows. Most of the woodwork has been finished with a rich dark stain, together with the comfortable and carefully orchestrated gathering areas, makes the space warm and inviting.

We relied on old photos to maintain the feeling of the historic old structure that has been the site of filming Oliver Stones 1987 movie Wall Street and more recently filming of the HBO series of Boardwalk Empire, said Ms. Arann.

The Bronx layout has played host to countless N.Y. golfers as well as distinguished visitors including Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis and even the Three Stooges.

Van Cortlandt is a city-owned course and is leased to an operating company known as Van Cortlandt Golf LOC.

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Interior designer Susan Arann adds historic Van Cortlandt Golf Course to her resume