Happy New Year everyone! We are now starting a series of blog entries about the 100 year history of YMCA Camp Greenville. Our first historical blog chronicles Camp from its creation to its current location (1912-1924).
Camp Greenville had its beginning in 1912 at a site near Cedar Mountain, North Carolina. About 25 boys attended August 1-15, under the direction of Charles J. Kilbourne, first physical director of the Greenville YMCA. In 1913 the campsite was moved to Glen Echo, near Brevard, NC, on the property of D. M. Hoke. The third location was “on the bend of the West Saluda River just about Blythe Shoals,” owned by H.P. McGee and W.C. Hagood, where three 2-week seasons were held 1914-1916. This more permanent camp was established under the direction of Kilbourne, Charles Dushan (who succeeded Kilbourne as Y Physical Director) and John M. “Uncle Johnny” Holmes (General Secretary of the “Y” from 1914 to 1942). Uncle Johnny directed the camp in this location in 1915 and 1916.
Due to complicating factors brought about by World War I, the Greenville Y had no summer camp for boys in 1917, but Camp Greenville was reborn in 1918 and continued at Blythe Shoals through 1924. One frame building served as kitchen, dining hall, infirmary, camp office, and recreation hall in inclement weather. Floorless army pyramidal tents provided shelter for 60 to 150 campers for as long as seven weeks in the later seasons. An active program of baseball, field hockey, hiking, river hiking, swimming, sliding on the shoals, campfire programs and initiations provided summer fun, instruction, and inspiration for several hundred boys.
In 1920, Uncle Johnny and his Camp Committee began thinking about obtaining a campsite "higher up." Mr. J. Harvey Cleveland persuaded the doubtful group to look at a site on top of the mountain beyond Caesar's Head where, he assured them, there was ample water supply, enough level space for a large athletic field, a commanding view of the valley, and a waterfall 150 feet high. One look was all the visitors needed to convince them that this was the site they wanted. The original survey "for the Greenville YMCA Camp" is dated September 1, 1921. Mr. Cleveland donated 29 acres, including the site of Symmes Chapel or Pretty Place (also named Cleveland Cliff). Mr. T. C. Gower made several trips to Chicago to persuade the Saluda Land & Lumber Company to give 446 acres atop Standing Stone Mountain. The land was "given" to the camp as a perpetual trust with the stipulation that the land would revert to the company should it not be used as a resident camp. So YMCA Camp Greenville has now spent 88 years high atop the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Next month… 1925-1939! Please feel free to add any anecdotes, memories, remarks, or questions to the comments area at the bottom of the blog.
