When the U. S. Lawn Tennis Association was founded in May of 1881, its members agreed to hold a national championship tournament at the Newport, Rhode Island, Casino in August.
Twenty-six players entered the men's singles tournament. Richard Sears won without losing a set, while Clarence Clark and W. F. Taylor teamed to win the first doubles title. Sears went on to win the next six singles championships and was also a member of the winning doubles team in each of the next six years.
The Newport Casino hosted the men's singles tournament until 1915. However, the men's doubles championship moved to other sites beginning in 1887. The women's singles championships was also established in 1887, at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, which also hosted the women's doubles, beginning in 1889, and the mixed doubles, beginning in 1892.
The men's singles championship moved from Newport to the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, New York, in 1915. It was played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia from 1921 though 1923, then returned to Forest Hills in 1924.
Only with the advent of the professional era in 1968 were all five national tournaments consolidated at Forest Hills. In that year and in 1969, there were two championship classes, the national, which was closed to contract pros, and the open.
Since 1970, the tournament has been the U. S. Open, with no distinction between amateurs and professionals.
The Open moved to the USLTA's National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, New York, in 1978.
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