Bloomington Country Club

Bloomington Country Club traces its origins to a venture backed by Charles Sears, a superintendent at the Showers factory, together with a group of prominent Bloomington businessmen. The club has been tied to the city's growth since its earliest days.

The original site was the James Moore farm, roughly two miles east-southeast of Bloomington, a 72-acre property on a hillside intended for golf links, tennis courts and other country club grounds. The two-story farmhouse on the land was converted into the clubhouse. A three-acre tract across the road held a lake measuring about 560 feet by 400 feet and reaching depths of around 22 feet; dug in the late 1800s as an ice pond, it was later stocked with bass and other game fish and used for canoeing, swimming and fishing.