Special Collections: Seaview Country Club Records

The Seaview Country Club is a country club, hotel, and golf course located in Galloway, New Jersey. Seaview was founded as the Seaview Golf Club in 1914 by Clarence C. Geist, a public utility magnate from Indiana.Initial construction of Seaview was completed in 1914, with Hugh Wilson and Donald Ross completing the club’s first golf course - known as the Bay Course - in that year. The clubhouse and the golf course officially opened on January 9, 1915. Seaview was originally founded as an exclusive gentlemen’s club, with access to club facilities limited to members only.

After Geist’s death in 1938, the club was sold to Elwood Kirkman and Thomas Glenn in 1941 and renamed Seaview Country Club. The Marriott Corporation purchased the club in 1984. Marriott eventually sold the club to LaSalle Hotel Properties, who continued to run Seaview as a public hotel and private country club. In late September 2010, Stockton University, then the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, purchased the Seaview Country Club from LaSalle. Stockton helped renovate the nearly century-old club, with the intent that it would serve as both dormitories for students as well as facilities for the school’s Hospitality and Tourism programs. Run by Dolce Hotels and Resorts, Seaview stayed under Stockton’s stewardship until August 1, 2018, when it was sold to the Florida-based KDG Capital LLC. 

Early in its history, Seaview was considered a prime golfing location on the East Coast. Seaview even hosted the PGA Championship in 1942. Golf legend Sam Snead ended up winning the tournament at Seaview, one of Snead’s record 82 PGA tournament wins and his first of seven Majors. Since 1942, Seaview has hosted several other professional golf tournaments, including the 2012 ShopRite LPGA Classic, which has been played at Seaview 16 times from 1986 through 2014.

This collection includes a variety of materials, including memos and letters to and from club management, estimates and invoices for building renovations and golf course construction, materials guests and members would receive during their stays and the club, photographs, and various newspaper clippings and historical documents from throughout the Club’s history. This collection was transferred to Stockton University’s Richard E. Bjork Library Special Collections in 2010, shortly after the College purchased the Country Club. As such, it does not contain information about the college’s management of the site, nor does it include information about it after 2010. Some of this information may be found in the University Archives.

Collection processed by Daniel Tidcombe, Fall 2023. 

While Stockton University’s Bjork Library’s Special Collection and Archives owns the collection, Stockton may not own the copyright for all of the items. Researchers wishing to reproduce materials are responsible for obtaining the proper permissions.