Forums

Help Identifying Hawthorn Glen Chess Set

Sort:
Shadowcat73

I am a brand new chess.com member and have a question to anyone who might have played at the old Hawthorn Glen chess club in Milwaukee during the early 1970's. The club owned several Staunton sets that appeared to have been made of bakelite and were extremely heavy. The club no longer exists and despite searching online, I've not been able to identify any sets that look like what I recall the club using.  I regret I do not have any pictures of the sets I'm trying to identify, but perhaps someone on the forum has a similar memory of playing on them?

Thank you for any information!

Ronbo710

Have you checked out the Drueke Player's Choice set from back then? They were made in Michigan (not too far awaySmile) . Just a Guess ... 

Shadowcat73

Thanks!  I actually had a Drueke Player's Choice set from back then (#35, I think).  The club's pieces, however, were somewhat larger and a LOT heavier.  The white pieces were yellow with some depth to the plastic, making me think it might have been made out of Bakelite.

cgrau

Shadowcat, I played in a number of tournaments in Milwaukee in the late sixties. The Western Open, the North Central, and some others. Plastic Windsor sets were used. Is this what you are thinking of?

Shadowcat73

cgrau, thanks!

Other than the distinct parting line - which the Hawthorn Glen sets didn't have - and lack of "marbling" on the white pieces, I think this set is pretty close.  The parting lines could certainly worn themselves smooth after years of play, by the time I saw them.  The set shown looks injection molded rather than compression molded the way I would expect the phenolic/Bakelite pieces would look.

The box for pieces looks exactly right.

It's very possible that this is what the sets used at Hawthorn Glen looked like when they were new.

Shadowcat73

Shadowcat73

My best guess was that the old Hawthorn Glen chess club was using the #21 Windsor Castle set that the USCF offered back in the early '60's.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!!

 

glmino

That was a neat little bit...

 I hope those were the ones You were looking for!

 

Shadowcat73

Thank you!  I have fond memories of playing on those sets and the club also had some very heavy linen boards that held up well against hours of speed chess.  The Hawthorne Glen building (built in 1939 as part of the WPA project) is no longer used for chess (it's been repurposed as a Nature Center) but it still exists and will always have a special place in my memory for playing chess during my high school years.

Photo of the Hawthorn Glen building from a July 2016 visit

 

Shadowcat73
Hawthorn Glen was repurposed as a Nature Center.