In 1923 philanthropists Horace and Mary Rackham acquired 150 acres from the Baker Land Company, donated twenty-two acres to the Detroit Zoo, and used the remaining land to build a golf course. In 1924 the Detroit couple gave the completed course and clubhouse to the City of Detroit on the condition that it be held exclusively as a public golf course for public use. Designed by Donald Ross, the course opened on May 19, 1925, and its Arts and Crafts clubhouse, designed by local architect Niels Chester Sorenson, featured earth-tone and turquoise tiles by Detroit's Pewabic Pottery and decorative brick panels inside and out. Among the first public 18-hole golf courses in the state, it was for many years one of the few integrated golf courses in the nation. In 1936 the course hired Erellon Ben Davis (1912-2013) to instruct African American patrons; his students included Motown artists and Joe Louis, who began holding an invitational there in 1941. Davis became head professional in 1968, the first African American in the nation to hold that position at a municipal golf course. The course also hosted the United States Golf Association's Public Course National Championships in 1940 and 1961, lost ten acres to the construction of Interstate 696 in the mid-1980s, and was renovated in 2007.