I heard part of a conversation the other day where an older guy was telling a younger one that the northeast part of town was home to the original El Paso Country Club.
Being ever eager to inform I thought that I would write what I have found out about the claim.
The original club house was designed by Henry Trost and was built in the 1908-1909 period. It was located at the intersection of Mountain and Dyer. It had a 9 hole golf course. Two holes were on the club’s property and 7 were on Fort Bliss.
The club house burned down Friday night, May 2, 1916.
A schism in the membership developed. It seems that most of the financial and commerce community lived on the east side of the mountain in the communities along Alabama. They wanted to rebuild their club on the existing site. The avid golfers wanted to take Zack White up on his offer to donate land to build a country club and golf course in the upper valley where the club is located today.
The answer? Build two club houses. The El Paso Morning Times reported in it’s Friday, August 4, 1916 edition that “The directors, after much deliberation, hit upon the scheme of building two club houses”. They decided to build one at the old location and at the Zach White location (where the club is now) they would build another club house and a golf course.
Brutus
elpasospeak 
The first country club was built at that location to be near Ft. Bliss for the convenience of Army officers and their wives. Many prominent El Pasoans moved to that area — to Morning Side Heights, a neighborhood built in 1911. Morning Side Heights was fairly isolated at the time but was connected to the rest of El Paso by a street car that ran on Newman Road (now Dyer). Go up Dyer, take a left on McKinley Avenue and you’ll see the beautiful bungalow houses still standing today — most are over 100 years old. In 1927, Charles Lindberg, the famous aviator, was entertained at 3901 McKinley during his goodwill tour with his famous plane. Lots of history in that area. See “Password” (publication of El Paso County Historical Society), vol. XXXII, No. 1 (Spring 1987) pp. 37-42 for an interesting article by Helen Gillett, who grew up in that area.
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