Devereux Emmet was born in Pelham, New York on December 11, 1861, one of eight children of William Jenkins Emmet and Julia Colt Pierson. He was the great-grandson of Thomas Addis Emmet. Mission Smith, born in 1858, was the daughter of Judge J. Lawrence Smith and a niece of Alexander Turney Stewart.
Emmet graduated from Columbia University in 1883. In 1889 he married Ella B. Smith in an elaborate wedding at her home in New York City.
Ella"s sister Elizabeth "Bessie" Springs Smith was the wife of architect Stanford White. The couple had two children, Richard Smith Emmet (born October 1889) and Devereux Emmet, Junior. (born January 1897).
Emmet"s first design was Island Golf Links, a predecessor of Garden City Golf Club.
A friend of his remarked:
Emmet could not possibly conceive of any other use to which any given piece of real estate could be put except to lay out golf links on lieutenant
The Tull-Emmet partnership continued until Emmet"s death in 1934. Emmet was a talented amateur golfer.
Devereux Emmet died in Garden City, New York, on December 30, 1934. Emmet designed many of his courses in an era of wooden-shafted clubs.
Because the holes are often short by current standards many of his designs have since been reworked.
He made the quarter-finals of the 1904 British Amateur and won the Bahamas Amateur at the age of 66. In 1916, after he won the father-son tournament at Sleepy Hollow Country Club with Devereux Emmet, Junior., the United States Golf Association instituted the so-called architects rule that barred golf course architects from competing as amateurs in tournaments.
