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Tennis Anyone? Where Elegance Meets Finesse Court-Side

Black and white photograph of the tennis courts at the Cascade Golf and Tennis Club. A high wooden fence surrounds the tennis court. Men, wearing white trousers and a white shirt, and women, wearing a long white skirt in a white shirt with long sleeves and wearing a hat, play tennis. On the left side is the club house.

Photograph

Tennis courts, Cascade Golf and Tennis Club, About 1914

Wm. Notman & Son

McCord Stewart Museum

 

Tennis came to Quebec in the 1870s. Its popularity took off in summer communities because the amount of terrain required to build a court was relatively modest (60 feet by 120 feet for the average tennis court), as was the investment.

The ambitions of Metis were greater. And the number of people willing and wanting to play tennis was large right from the start. By 1914, the Little Metis Tennis Club had six courts. A range of trophies was awarded every year to members of all ages and both sexes to recognize prowess on the court. Once separate, the tennis club merged with the golf club, becoming the Cascade Golf and Tennis Club in 1919.

The rules of play have always been rigidly enforced in Metis. In the early days women had to don dresses long enough to cover their ankles. Players still have to dress in tennis whites. There was no tennis on Sundays either – at least not until Sunday service (at the church located right next to the tennis courts) – was over.

It was not uncommon to find matches written up in the Montreal newspapers, illustrating both the high quality of tennis and the curiosity of competitors anxious to know how their teammates were doing on the tennis ladder.