Merion Cricket Club

Haverford, Pennsylvania · founded 1865

Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States · Members club

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A great front lawn that becomes tennis courts each summer.

Location: Haverford, on Philadelphia’s Main Line
Founded: 1865; tennis from about 1880
Clubhouse: 1896, by Frank Furness
On the grass: Pennsylvania Championships 1894 to 1974; the Davis Cup final of 1939
Status: National Historic Landmark, 1987
Grass courts: 22
Other courts: 11 clay (Har-Tru), 1 outdoor hard, 4 indoor hard; also 4 platform tennis, 10 squash, 8 pickleball, 4 padel (scheduled to open June 2026)
Guest play: Members and their guests
Season: Members
Address: 325 Montgomery Avenue, Haverford, Pennsylvania, 19041, United States

Why it is special

Merion was founded in 1865 by about fifteen young men from Merion and Radnor, the eldest of them twenty-two. Its stone clubhouse of 1896 is one of the few surviving buildings by Frank Furness, paid for by the railroad executive Alexander Cassatt after fire destroyed its predecessors.

In front of it lies a five-acre lawn that is marked out as grass tennis courts each season. The Pennsylvania Championships were played here from 1894 to 1974, and in September 1939 stands for some 8,000 people were built on the lawn for the Davis Cup final, in which Australia, led by John Bromwich and Adrian Quist, beat the United States 3-2 as war began in Europe.

The club produced US champions including William Clothier, R. Norris Williams and Vic Seixas, and was made a National Historic Landmark in 1987 for its role in American cricket, golf, squash and tennis. It is the grass court as a lawn first and a court second: laid out each year on the same great green in front of the house.

Champions here, 1961 to 1974

Year	Men's singles	Women's singles
1961	Jon Douglas	Billie Jean King
1962	Bill Bond	Margaret Court
1963	Chuck McKinley	Darlene Hard
1964	Dennis Ralston	Justina Bricka
1965	Charlie Pasarell	Billie Jean King
1966	Clark Graebner	Karen Krantzcke
1967	Cliff Drysdale	Mary-Ann Eisel
1969	Cliff Richey	Margaret Court
1973	Mike Estep	Not on the roll
1974	John Lloyd	Not on the roll

Every champion on the roll: Pennsylvania Grass Court Championships (Merion)

About the club

Merion Cricket Club is a private members’ club in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Founded in 1865, it held its first tennis match in 1881 and staged the Merion Cricket Club tournament on grass from 1886 to 1901, the forerunner of the Pennsylvania Lawn Tennis Championships. The club hosted the 1939 Davis Cup final. Tennis on grass is played on the Great Lawn, an area of about five acres of bent and poa turf that is set up seasonally with 22 grass courts. The club also has 11 Har-Tru courts, one outdoor and four indoor hard courts, platform tennis, squash, pickleball and padel. The clubhouse was designed by Frank Furness, and the club is a National Historic Landmark. Play is for members and their guests.