Another great club, where OneStinkyPony (Aka Katie and Stinky her pony) hunted with occasionally. One time Sam said he looked down and there was little Stinky sitting at his stirrup taking the fences with the big horses.
On December 3, 1892, a meeting of the residents of Green Spring Valley and its vicinity was called by Mr. Redmond C. Stewart “for the purpose of definitely organizing a foxhunting club.” While hunting foxes was not new to local residents, it was with farmers’ packs, or night hunting. Redmond Stewart’s plan was a natural outcropping of his passion for hunting: as a teenager, he hunted his own private pack of five couple of hounds. But now his vision was for an organized club, with a board and officers, initially comprised of friends and family, and a dedication to breeding a top-notch pack of hounds. To that end, Stewart crossed American hounds—in his mind “the best for hunting the fox in Maryland”--with English hounds to add bone and biddability. The first fixture card was sent out for December 1892 and invited 127 men from both the surrounding neighborhood and sportsmen in Baltimore. Annual dues were $5.
In 1893, the first joint meet with the Elkridge Fox Hunting Club was held, and started a connection that survives to this day in the form of joint meets with the Elkridge Harford Foxhounds, as well as race meets such as the Maryland Hunt Cup and the Grand National.
In 1893, the club moved from Cliffholme, Redmond Stewart’s home off Park Heights Avenue, to rented quarters at the Ten Mile House on Reisterstown Road. The move to new kennels and a clubhouse necessitated the increasing of dues to $10.
In 1897, having again outgrown their accommodations, the Club purchased ten acres lying between the Green Spring Valley Road and the Green Spring branch of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad. A shingle clubhouse with a spacious front porch, kennels and stable were constructed, and while the Clubhouse was rebuilt following a fire, this is still the site of the Green Spring Hunt (Lower) Club.
The Club expanded again, both in acreage and in activities, adding card games and clay tennis courts, and in 1914 a 10 hole golf course.
At the same time, the country around the club was becoming more developed, and more and more meets were being carded to the North. (The northernmost meet was St. John’s Church—along hack from Green Spring Valley Road.) In 1925, it was decided to move the hunting component of the Club to a 168-acre farm named “Stamford” on Mantua Mill Road, the present home of the Green Spring Valley Hounds.
Also shifting from the “lower” to the “upper” clubs were the annual horse show and the annual landowners’ luncheon—major events on Baltimore’s social calendar. The depression of the 1930s and the war years of the ‘40s brought about significant changes. During the Depression, the number of hunting members and the number of hounds were both decreased. Hunt positions were eliminated. In the 1940s many prominent members joined the fighting. Grace Miller was appointed MFH—the first woman to hold the position—due largely to the fact that most of the men were overseas. Also in the 40s Les Grimes was hired, at 19 the youngest professional huntsman ever hired to hunt a professional pack—and who hunted the GSVH hounds for 35 years.In the late 50s it was decided to formally separate the governance of the “upper” and “lower” clubs. A new corporation was formed: the Green Spring Valley Hounds, Inc. However it wasn’t until 1974 that members could elect to join the Upper Club without going through the Lower Club’s nomination and enrollment process.
In 1981, huntsman Les Grimes passed the baton to his whipper-in, Andrew Barclay, who, like Les, had come to GSVH as a young man of 20. Andrew continued to hunt the hounds until 2001, and like Les Grimes, has been elected to the Huntsman’s Hall of Fame. In 2012 new kennels were dedicated and replaced the venerable structure for the hounds.
After 125 years, much has changed. Foxhunting runs of 23 miles, lasting until dark, are no more. Roads and housing developments have changed the look of some of the country. But much has stayed the same. Well-bred hounds, and well-mounted members enjoy many of the same thrills as their predecessors did. Many activities survive in virtually the same format as they did one hundred or fifty years ago: puppy shows, hunter paces, hunter trials, landowners’ suppers, and pony camp.