The 72-acre horse track that once drew thousands of spectators to what is now Merion Park has been gone for a century. But its legacy runs on Saturday, Aug. 1, at the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey, where the Hambletonian Stakes is scheduled to celebrate its 100th anniversary with a $1 million purse.
The Belmont Driving Park, built in 1876 along Meeting House Lane just north of Narberth, helped inspire the race that became harness racing's premier event. According to Harness Racing Update, a sweepstake race at the Belmont track inspired a salesman who later helped organize the first Hambletonian Stake, held Aug. 30, 1926, in Syracuse, N.Y.
The Hambletonian Society, the nonprofit formed in 1924 to sponsor the race, announced the centennial celebration at the Meadowlands on its website.
A Main Line showplace
The track's story begins with William L. McDowell, president of the Leibrandt & McDowell Stove Company and a Wynnewood mansion owner whom the Lower Merion Historical Society's "The First 300" calls "the moving force behind establishing and operating Belmont Driving Park."
The Belmont Driving Park Association purchased the land on July 5, 1876, for $67,573, according to Main Line Media News. The site sat on Price's Field, where George Washington's troops had camped in September 1777 after crossing the Schuylkill River.
At its peak, the club boasted 300 members, a one-mile oval, a half-mile inner track added in 1890 and an elaborate clubhouse with a second-floor veranda reserved for elite members.
Wealthy Philadelphians rode the train to the Main Line, then took one of four horse-drawn omnibuses to the track for 25 cents a fare.
The end of the line
The Grand Circuit of 1917 was the track's last major event, which Main Line Media News described as "then as prestigious as the Kentucky Derby." Horses arrived by train from stables in New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio and Massachusetts, pulling into the Cynwyd rail station.
By 1924, the operation was losing money. Joshua Evans, a former club president, made the case bluntly to a Main Line Times reporter: "Horse racing has not proven profitable here. The property of the Belmont Driving Club, therefore, is a burden. The club is not making any money now, so why continue a losing venture when $300,000 is knocking at the door?"
Shareholders voted 1,579 to 205 in favor of selling the 72-acre property to developer Martin Maloney for $300,000. Maloney carved it into 374 single-family home lots, creating the Merion Park neighborhood. The former clubhouse still stands, split into two private residences.
