Camp Catawba
Encyclopedia
Camp Catawba was a summer camp for boys near the town of Blowing Rock
in the Blue Ridge Mountains
of North Carolina
. It was established in 1944 by Vera Lachmann (1904–1985), a poet, classicist and educator who emigrated from Germany in 1939. In 1947 she was joined by the composer Tui St. George Tucker
(1924–2004), who was the camp's music director. Camp Catawba closed after the 1970 season. The camp's nearest neighbors and indispensable practical aids were Mr. and Mrs. Ira W. and Sally Lentz Bolick, a mountain farm couple who descended from 18th century German immigrants to America.
Camp Catawba was small in size—the property was about 20 acres (80,937.2 m²), about half in fields (one of them a hillside) and half in forest. The forest was characterized by red oak and black locust, white pine and hemlock, as well as rosebay and Catawba rhododendron. The camp was also small in numbers—a maximum of 35 campers with an age range from 5 to 12. The boys attended for a full eight-week session.
Cash poor but culturally rich, Camp Catawba was guided by Vera Lachmann's idealism, her upbringing in Weimar Germany, and her finding at Catawba a haven from the torment of the Nazi era.
The boys at Catawba participated in traditional summer camp activities—ball games (on a sloping field), swimming (in a spring-fed pond), horseback riding (at stables in Blowing Rock), and hiking throughout the 3000 acres (12.1 km²) Cone Estate (now the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park) which bordered the camp, and across Grandfather Mountain.
It was cultural programs that distinguished the camp. Vera Lachmann, who taught classics at Brooklyn College, told the campers the Iliad and the Odyssey in alternating summers, and directed a drama program that included plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes; Shakespeare, Molière, Schiller and Yeats; and Nelly Sachs, who was a friend of hers. The music program, under Tui St. George Tucker, consisted of a choir, an orchestra (with some parts adjusted according to the instrumentalists available), and private lessons, particularly on the recorder, her professional specialty. Baroque (especially Bach) and early nineteenth century classical music (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert) predominated. The boys also performed Gregorian chants and other medieval music, and Tucker's arrangements of Negro spirituals. Arts counselors remained on the staff for short periods only, but a number of them between 1948 and 1962 went on to become respected professionals: Eva Frankfurther, Thomas Locker
, Hannibal Alkhas, Mark di Suvero
, and Richard Pepitone.
Throughout Catawba's 27 summers, most of the campers and many of the staff came from New York City. In the beginning many of the boys were the sons of parents who, like Lachmann, had fled Nazi Germany. This also meant they were mostly Jewish - though Catawba was decidedly ecumenical and Lachmann read from both the Old and New Testaments at Sunday services. An article from 1951 in The Blowing Rocket, the local weekly newspaper, captures Lachmann's idealism, as well as the anomaly of Catawba in the southern mountains at the time: "There are in the camp today 29 boys from France, Germany, Norway, South American countries, New York and New Jersey, just as a sample of the various nationalities which the camp attracts. Absolutely no race or creed is turned away, and soon possibly color will be no bar to admission to the camp." Catawba integrated in 1964.
The physical heart of the camp was a chestnut lodge, constructed in 1913 before the blight decimated the American chestnut
forests of the southern Appalachians. In 1985 the National Park Service
purchased the camp grounds from Tui St. George Tucker, who inherited the site from Vera Lachmann, and on Tucker's death the Park Service took possession of the property. As of 2010, Park Service officials are deciding whether to preserve the chestnut lodge and how to interpret the camp to the public.
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
Blowing Rock is a town in North Carolina, USA, situated in both Caldwell and Watauga counties. The population was 1,418 at the 2000 census. However, during the summer the town's population increases to about 10,000.]]\\...
in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. It was established in 1944 by Vera Lachmann (1904–1985), a poet, classicist and educator who emigrated from Germany in 1939. In 1947 she was joined by the composer Tui St. George Tucker
Tui St. George Tucker
Tui St. George Tucker was an American composer and recorder player....
(1924–2004), who was the camp's music director. Camp Catawba closed after the 1970 season. The camp's nearest neighbors and indispensable practical aids were Mr. and Mrs. Ira W. and Sally Lentz Bolick, a mountain farm couple who descended from 18th century German immigrants to America.
Camp Catawba was small in size—the property was about 20 acres (80,937.2 m²), about half in fields (one of them a hillside) and half in forest. The forest was characterized by red oak and black locust, white pine and hemlock, as well as rosebay and Catawba rhododendron. The camp was also small in numbers—a maximum of 35 campers with an age range from 5 to 12. The boys attended for a full eight-week session.
Cash poor but culturally rich, Camp Catawba was guided by Vera Lachmann's idealism, her upbringing in Weimar Germany, and her finding at Catawba a haven from the torment of the Nazi era.
The boys at Catawba participated in traditional summer camp activities—ball games (on a sloping field), swimming (in a spring-fed pond), horseback riding (at stables in Blowing Rock), and hiking throughout the 3000 acres (12.1 km²) Cone Estate (now the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park) which bordered the camp, and across Grandfather Mountain.
It was cultural programs that distinguished the camp. Vera Lachmann, who taught classics at Brooklyn College, told the campers the Iliad and the Odyssey in alternating summers, and directed a drama program that included plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes; Shakespeare, Molière, Schiller and Yeats; and Nelly Sachs, who was a friend of hers. The music program, under Tui St. George Tucker, consisted of a choir, an orchestra (with some parts adjusted according to the instrumentalists available), and private lessons, particularly on the recorder, her professional specialty. Baroque (especially Bach) and early nineteenth century classical music (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert) predominated. The boys also performed Gregorian chants and other medieval music, and Tucker's arrangements of Negro spirituals. Arts counselors remained on the staff for short periods only, but a number of them between 1948 and 1962 went on to become respected professionals: Eva Frankfurther, Thomas Locker
Thomas Locker
Thomas Locker is an American author and painter. He was born in New York City in 1937.Thomas Locker has written many popular illustrated books for children & young adults. He has also illustrated books for other popular writers such as Jean Craighead George...
, Hannibal Alkhas, Mark di Suvero
Mark di Suvero
Marco Polo "Mark" di Suvero is an American abstract expressionist sculptor born Marco Polo Levi in Shanghai, China in 1933 to Italian expatriates. He immigrated to San Francisco, California in 1942 with his family. From 1953 to 1957, he attended the University of California, Berkeley to study...
, and Richard Pepitone.
Throughout Catawba's 27 summers, most of the campers and many of the staff came from New York City. In the beginning many of the boys were the sons of parents who, like Lachmann, had fled Nazi Germany. This also meant they were mostly Jewish - though Catawba was decidedly ecumenical and Lachmann read from both the Old and New Testaments at Sunday services. An article from 1951 in The Blowing Rocket, the local weekly newspaper, captures Lachmann's idealism, as well as the anomaly of Catawba in the southern mountains at the time: "There are in the camp today 29 boys from France, Germany, Norway, South American countries, New York and New Jersey, just as a sample of the various nationalities which the camp attracts. Absolutely no race or creed is turned away, and soon possibly color will be no bar to admission to the camp." Catawba integrated in 1964.
The physical heart of the camp was a chestnut lodge, constructed in 1913 before the blight decimated the American chestnut
Chestnut
Chestnut , some species called chinkapin or chinquapin, is a genus of eight or nine species of deciduous trees and shrubs in the beech family Fagaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.-Species:The chestnut belongs to the...
forests of the southern Appalachians. In 1985 the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
purchased the camp grounds from Tui St. George Tucker, who inherited the site from Vera Lachmann, and on Tucker's death the Park Service took possession of the property. As of 2010, Park Service officials are deciding whether to preserve the chestnut lodge and how to interpret the camp to the public.
External links
- Camp Catawba - Vera Lachmann Papers, Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University: http://www.library.appstate.edu (see under Special Collections, Appalachian Collection, list of manuscript collections, no. 214)
- Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Camp Catawba Fund: http://www.brpfoundation.org (see under "Projects")
- Tui St. George Tucker website: http://www.tuistgeorgetucker.com
- Tui St. George Tucker manuscript collection, Dept. of Music, Appalachian State University. The collection is housed with the Camp Catawba - Vera Lachmann Papers: http://www.library.appstate.edu/appcoll/ead2002/214camp.xml/ead2html#tui