Louis Keller

Louis Keller (February 27, 1857 – February 16, 1922) was an American publisher, social arbiter of high society, and golf club owner. He is best known as the founder of the Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey and as the first publisher of the Social Register.

Early life

Louis Keller was born on February 27, 1857 in New York City. His grandfather was from Switzerland. His French-born father, Charles M. Keller, was a lawyer who drafted the Patent Act of 1836 and served the first Commissioner of Patents. His French-born mother, Heloise de Chazournes, came from an aristocratic Catholic family who was prominent in New York society. They lived in an apartment at 128 Madison Avenue, where Louis grew up. They were not part of the New York elite because they were Catholic, not Protestant, nor were they long established in the United States. His father, who died when Louis was seventeen years old, had a dairy farm in Springfield, New Jersey.

Career

As a young adult, he was indecisive about starting a career. His attempt to reinvent himself as a gentleman farmer proved to be a failure. Instead, he took on the tradition of hosting an annual picnic on his family farm in Springfield, New Jersey, where he invited many members of high society. The event received extensive coverage in publications about high society each year. Indeed, the guest list was reprinted in those publications.

In 1885, he published a gossip newspaper about high society, Town Topics. Two years later, in 1887, he published the first issue of the Social Register. The publication was loosely based on the registry for the Metropolitan National Horse Show, held at the original Madison Square Garden on Madison Avenue and East 26th Street since 1883, listing its attendees and directors. It was copyrighted, thus forbidding anyone from publishing the entire list and making it more secret and exclusive. It was far more inclusive than Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred," the number, reputedly, that could be accommodated in the ballroom of Mrs. William Astor (Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor).

Through his associations with members of high society, he realized many of them were learning how to play golf. As a result, in 1895, he founded the Baltusrol Golf Club on his family farm. The name came from a friend who owned a farm called "Baltusroll Way," named after farmer Baltus Roll (1769–1831). The golf course was designed by George Hunter, an Englishman. The club hosted championships of the United States Golf Association (USGA) in 1901, 1903 and 1904. However, the clubhouse burned down on March 27, 1909. It was rebuilt that same year, to the design of architect Chester Kirk. In 1915, the club hosted the U.S. Open. In 1916, Keller purchased more land to expand the golf course. Two years later, in 1918, he hired A.W. Tillinghast to design the second course.

In order to provide better transportation to Baltusrol Golf Club, Keller became a partner in the New Orange Four Junction Railroad, which became the Rahway Valley Railroad in 1904. The railroad, based in New Orange, NJ (now Kenilworth), was extended to Summit, NJ in 1906, with a station a short walk from the golf club's main gate. The Rahway Valley Railroad became one of the more successful short line railroads in the United States, operated by Mr. Keller's estate following his death in 1922, until it was sold to Delaware Otsego Corporation in 1986.

He was a member of the (now defunct) Calumet Club of New York City and the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C., two social clubs. He was also a member of the Metropolitan Golf Association and the New Jersey State Golf Association.

Personal life

He resided at 12 West 56th Street. In Who Killed Society?, Cleveland Amory said he was "uninterested in girls, had a curious looking drooping moustache, and spoke in a squeaky affected voice."

Death

He died of an intestinal ailment on February 16, 1922, at the French Hospital in New York City. He was 67 years old. At the time of his death, he was a resident of Springfield at the Baltusrol Golf Club.