Clayview Country Club

Clayview Country Club in Liberty has gone to the dogs.

The venerable swim and tennis club closed down its Liberty location with a dog swim and several other events over the Labor Day weekend. It will reopen next spring at a new site off Flintlock Road in Kansas City.

'This is a place with great memories, but we feel a lot of excitement when we look at where we're going next year,' said Rob Miller, chairman of the club's board.

The club has been a fixture of Kansas Street for decades: Liberty Mayor Bob Steinkamp said he remembered going to a party there after a summer practice for the William Jewell College football team in 1963.

Back then, Steinkamp said, the club was an island unto itself in the middle of nowhere. The Sears Grand shopping center across Conistor Road was a pasture full of Black Angus cattle. Frevert Hardware had just opened its store on Missouri 291, beginning the exodus of businesses from the downtown square.

Today, however, the club is something of an anachronism, surrounded by offices, retail shops and school facilities and fronting on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the metro. And just across Interstate 35 in Kansas City is Shoal Creek, a booming residential area full of potential sun-bathers and tennis players.

'It has served Liberty well over a number of years,' Steinkamp said. 'It's unfortunate that it's moving across the highway, but that's part of progress, I guess.'

The festivities last weekend weren't all that different from previous years', Miller said, except for the dog swim on Tuesday, which drew about 60 pups and their owners and marked the final swim at the club.

Next year, the Shoal Creek location will provide year-round activities, making the club more attractive to new members, Miller said. The new Clayview will have outdoor tennis courts and two pools as the Liberty location did, but also indoor courts and a fitness area. The club is working with the city of Kansas City to secure zoning and building permits for the site.

'In the demographics present and with the new homes coming in, this is a desired property,' Miller said. 'People want private swimming and tennis.'

Outdoor tennis courts at the new site should be ready for use by the beginning of the high school boys tennis season in March, Miller said. The pools and the rest of the amenities should be constructed in time for Memorial Day, the traditional start of the summer swimming season.
'We're excited to open it up and see the new things, the new adventures and the new memories that are created there,' he said.

The Kansas Street location may not sit idle for long. Local developer Tim Harris has already purchased the property and plans to redevelop it into a commercial site. That development will likely include restaurants along Kansas Street and hotel, shopping or office space on the bulk of the 11-acre site.

Significant engineering and infrastructure work remains before those plans are finalized, however, Steinkamp and the developers have said. 'It's a fine location,' Steinkamp said. 'Any retail or commercial use that goes into that location will not only benefit the developer, but also the city as well.'

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