Camp was held in Dempseytown, PA through the summer of 1957.

Girl campers stayed in the house; the boys toughed it out in the barn!

The Dempseytown property was sold, and our present location was purchased.

When the camp was initially purchased, the existing buildings were a large 8-room house, an old barn, three dorms, a small building used for a canteen, and two out-houses.

The property had once been the Linhart Farm and then a recreation campsite for railroad workers.

The house – with a hidden room found behind a bookcase “door” and an adorable fieldstone fireplace – became the dining hall and housing for the kitchen staff. A favorite part was the beautiful bay window in the dining porch and the circular driveway with its stone pillars and with the flagpole centered in it.

The dorm closest to the road was used for a first aid station and called “the hospital building.” It had four bedrooms and a center “living room” complete with another darling fieldstone fireplace and a fascinating wagon wheel chandelier. It’s French doors opened toward the river where campers swam daily across the road.  The dorm near the woods was set aside for the girls and and one in the open field for the boys.   The girls’ dorm had four rooms, each filled with Army surplus, creaky bunk beds. The boys’ dorm was similar buy was divided into two large rooms instead of four small ones.  Each doom housed a center room where the dorm moms and dads stayed for the week.  There was no insulation in any of these buildings so the days were hot and nights were cold! And. although there were walls, there was no ceiling, so the flashlights flashed around and across the whole building, keeping campers awake and causing many a frustrated camp parent to yell, “Lights out!”

The beloved, old barn housed the recreation equipment and many classes and services.  The campfire was outside the barn, toward what would become the bathhouse which was built in 1969.

The 1970s were a time of dressing up for vespers which were held down by the river, swimming off the dock at the swimming area, weenie roast dates, and the construction of the current chapel building – often called the Comp building because it was erected in memory of Gerald Comp.  Now chapel sessions, vespers, evening programs, and other activities had a new home.  Many Bible dramas and sword drills took place in the new chapel.  Many, many fun songs and worship songs were also sung here!  It was an idyllic era in the camp history.  Much tetherball was played and many Christian leaders formed here.

The 1980s brought some major changes to the camp facilities.  It was in 1980 that the current dining hall was first used.  Thanks to a vigorous capital campaign, enough money was raised to create a bigger, better dining facility.  After being cramped in the old house for two decades, it was time to modernize and vacate the old house that was just not big enough and was requiring much too much upkeep.  The new hall housed an updated, more industrial kitchen, a new nursing station and infirmary, and housing and bathroom for the kitchen staff.

In 1986, several men cleared the woods and poison ivy behind the bathhouse and there built the new – and insulated – dorms that are used today.  One large room and large porch on each dorm were a welcome change.  The porches are often used for classes and as drying areas for wet clothes!

The campfire was situated between the chapel and bathhouse for part of the 80s and then moved to the area outside the back doors of the dining hall.

The pavilion beside the chapel was divided into two parts – a storage side and a seating area for classes Eventually, the seating area was enclosed and became the recreation equipment storage room and the former storage room became the canteen.

A new pavilion was built behind the chapel and the flagpole moved up by the dining hall where it is today.