HISTORY
The tennis club’s court is Norway’s oldest tennis court and is laid out according to the “Lawn Tennis” standard (in the picture below you can see that the court is divided into “zones” with lines). The track was most likely a beaten track and not a grass track, and was built around 1874 by industrialist Halvor Schou who bought the farm with over 1,000 acres in 1873 from the estate of Christian Motzfeldt (d. 19/07/1873). Most likely, it was Schou’s wife Anna Cecilie Crowe (daughter of the well-known Consul General Sir John Rice Crowe) who was the driving force behind the construction of the court after she had spent some time in London and frequented the society there (tennis had a big upswing among the society in 1870 -years much due to the English major Wingfield’s portable tennis court in a box). Her father had also had a tennis court built (court measurements from before the “Lawn Tennis” standard was introduced in 1877 for the 1877 Wimbledon tournament) at the director’s residence “The House” (built in the 1840s) when Crowe was director of the copper works in Kåfjord/ Finnmark from 1826; Anna Cecilie probably played tennis on that court. Schou had the large storehouse (1874) which stands at the end of the tennis court, boys’ room and barn (1878), the tenant’s house (1885) and the recently restored summer house Esviken built.
The picture has been downloaded from http://digitaltmuseum.no. The motif shows court chief Fredrik (Fritz) Frantz Michael Wilhelm Rustad (with “boater” straw hat on the left) and three unknown men on the tennis court at Løkenes gård with spectators (daughters Benedicte Rustad with a racket and Maia Rustad – lady with a hat sitting in the shade) and is taken approx. 1890 by unknown photographer (probably Marie “Lillemor” Rustad).

Barna på Løkenes gård ca 1916.

Carl Rustad’s wife Bergliot (she stands with her husband on the left side of the picture above Crown Prince Olav) daughter Bergliot “Bi” Rustad was very good at tennis and won several championships in the 1930s, including the Norwegian championship.
