The History of Northover Camp: Part 1
Before there was the Manice Education Center in the Berkshires, there was Northover Camp in New Jersey - where generations of Christodora youth experienced the great outdoors every summer. Local historian Ross Rapoport has been researching the history and geography of the old camp and has this dispatch to share.
The year is 1908, and the train from New York City rolls into the Bound Brook, NJ station. With trepidation, riders peered out the windows, wondering what lay in store, for they were the first of many. A horse-drawn cart met them to begin their journey with the luxury of automotive travel still 5 years into the future. The cart ambled the 3 miles North over (hence the name Northover - Source 1) the second Watchung Mountain Range on Vosseler Road. The dirt path, once protected by George Washington’s troops and where the British dared not pursue, was daunting, steep, and twisty. The cart passed the 2nd Middlebrook Encampment of 1788/89, where multitudes of barracks once stood. The road is so steep that flat areas called “Thank You Mames” were carved into the roadbed so the horses could have a brief respite.
The land morphed from the meadow-like Bound Brook edge of town to a deep dark forest with large outcroppings of igneous rock with steep walls scaling to the top. The cart then turned right onto a narrow dirt path and disappeared, for the site was still quite secluded, and there were few people to bear witness. The town of Martinsville was sparsely populated, offering the desired seclusion but still accommodating for supplies. Most of the natives, with ancestors who farmed the land for over 100 hundred years, were unaware that the property had recently been donated to Christodora House by politician and land speculator George LaMonte, who had acquired it late the previous year (Source 2).
Horse drawn cart, campers and tent at Northover 1908.
The 72-acre plot had a long history dating back to colonial times. On the Brookside Drive side, past the initial entrance, once stood a small cabin occupied until the 1880s. The past few years had seen many absentee owners, most of whom had never lived on the site as they were land speculators with visions of quick riches. Several went broke holding the land, which then forced a Sheriff's sale. Then, the land was procured by yet another dreamer. The land was typical of the area born of volcanic trap rock with precious little soil. It was unsuitable for farming as it was forested with dense growth, and sunlight was challenged to meet the earth. Several active creeks ran south to north through the site, fed by a myriad of small springs. There were numerous walnut trees, large oaks, dogwoods, sycamores, and scrubby juniper, as well as meadow-like and relatively flat areas. It was ideal for a campground, and the price was right.
The Settlement Houses of New York City offered opportunities for the less fortunate. These groups began to flourish near the turn of the century, aided by the wealthy who were beginning to delve into charitable activities and elected to donate property, money, and time to help the less privileged. One of the groups was the Young Women’s Settlement founded in 1897, and later renamed Christodora House — founded by Christina McColl and Sara Carson. Christodora House served poor immigrant children, teens, and families from the Lower East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan. They were expanding and acquiring space in the city when a large donation was received in the Spring of 1908, allowing for expansion in a more rural environment. There were immediate calls for funds to build on the site, which thankfully were answered. Arthur Curtiss James (one of the wealthiest men in America, Source #3) and his wife Harriet were major benefactors with Harriet also serving as President for many years. The James family donated the funds for the construction of the Christodora House located at 143 Avenue B in the East Village, which is on the US National Register of Historic Places.
As the first cart of campers arrived, there was little to see. The workers had just occupied the site in mid-June and 6 weeks later there were six sleeping tents, a laundry, kitchen and a dining tent (Source 5). The site was quite primitive, with no main buildings yet, few paths, not much in the way of sanitary facilities, no running water, and no real structures. It was truly an adventure on how to live, learn, scale up, improve, and create the infrastructure required to continue the operations for years to come. The initial living quarters were “Tentalows (combination of tent and bungalow),” which offered shelter as construction/campers ramped up. Horace Silliman donated the bulk of the funds for the creation of the Lodge (later named for him), where Settlement Workers could spend two weeks recuperating for the bustle of the city. It was a four-season building complete with a steam heating plant. During the summer months, it served as the main cooking and dining facility, with the large room functioning as a meeting and performance venue. An open-sided pavilion was rapidly constructed adjacent to the lodge as an initial meeting spot, where it remains today.
A teaching, library, and arts building was constructed a hundred yards away that was eventually named the LaMonte Center, complete with stage and large floor expanses. The bulk of the initial construction work was performed by George Stryker, a local engineer who worked closely with George LaMonte and also constructed the LaMonte mansion in Bound Brook and the donated local library. A call for donations went out to fund the construction of the buildings for the vast infrastructure that was required. Initially, water had to be carted in via “Boy Power” since all the springs were insufficient as pure water sources. It wasn’t until after the camp closed in September, and after many dry holes were bored and drill bits shattered, a successful artesian well was tapped at a depth of 190’, producing 25 gallons per minute of pure, clear, cool water. Pumping facilities and a 4,000-gallon water tower were added to supply the site. By the end of that summer, there had been 312 visitors to Northover. The cost to attend was $3/week for club members and $4/week for non-members. It was not in the soul of Christodora to turn down those who could not afford to pay. They offered to let the campers work off the costs or just granted admission. The fees were also insufficient to run the camp, so donations were readily accepted.
Construction of the original swimming pool, circa 1910-11.
By 1910, buildings were going up at a feverish pace and the decentralized layout began to emerge. The Pines, the Aloha Lodge, the Loyalty bungalow, and the Sangster bungalow were completed. These were group sites with subgroups of Tentalows, washrooms, and perhaps a kitchen facility. A small hut for the Needlecrafters was constructed and within 2 years, a much larger facility was created for them as such strong contributors to the Camp society. Taking advantage of the northeastern corner of the site where water ran through, a quasi-natural pool was created by damming up the creek and adding cement walls. A diving board was affixed that can still be seen on the site today (pool was abandoned ~1960). A few years later, a dam was placed about 100 yards south, creating a large reservoir as a water supply, and a large pump house was added. Several supply buildings and a temporary residence for the pool lifeguards were constructed. To maintain an active area, a large camping cook site and chimney were added. By 1940, there were over 40 buildings on site, and thousands of children had sampled the rural life. Exercise was paramount, so tennis courts, croquet areas, playgrounds, fields and hiking paths were rapidly added.
The initial camping sites were Indian themed name of “Nashopa” meaning “a resting place for a night” and Yorka Yakni meaning “Happy Land” (Source 7). These sites were a distance from the Silliman Lodge, still walkable for meals, but sufficient for some level of independence. Nashopa was relatively close to Brookside Drive with a large creek adjacent. Yorka Yakni was located slightly to the south and west of Nashopa and just below where the colonial cabin had existed (see map). The cabin site was very small, around 75 x 100’ with the creek as the water supply. The soil in that small area was rich and of high quality unlike much of the site. A 1949 map of Northover Camp (Source 8), being an artist’s rendition, and probably drawn by a camper or counselor, indicated the locations of the early sites that are not on modern maps.
1949 rendition of Northover Camp by an unknown artist. Note the North arrow position.
A metal detection archeology project commenced in 2023 that uncovered many colonial-era artifacts from the cabin site, such as gold guilted buttons, square hand-forged nails, and colonial-era cutlery. At shallower depths, a completely different story emerged. Over 20 coins, many silver, from a very narrow date range of 1897 to 1915 were recovered (areas closer to Yorka Yakni produced coins from the 1920s on). It appears that this was the staging site for the construction of Nashopa and Yorka Yakni. The small area was quite flat with water access, very amenable to pitching tents. Construction workers and perhaps counselors were fortunate enough to carry (and lose) coins, while the typical camper didn’t have much money to lose. That site was too small to be used as a real campsite and it was then abandoned. Artifact recovery from the two campsite areas (primarily Nashopa) yielded very few coins (dated 1920 on), cutlery, toothpaste tubes, flashlight parts, drawer pulls, foot powder containers, medallions, aluminum Northover tokens, tent parts, and modern nails, all consistent with late teens forward time periods with nothing earlier found. In all, hundreds of artifacts were cataloged painting an unusual portrait of the areas. Some of the cutlery was very fine silver-plated utensils dating to the 1920s (donations?), the drawer pulls were fancy brass castings dating to the 1920s. Hygiene was very important given the huge number of aluminum toothpaste tubes recovered. Unusual items such as a 1939 NYC World’s Fair medallion, along with metal die-cast toy cars, rounded out the finds.
Christodora is grateful for the archival and metal detection processes independently researched by Ross Rapoport. Stay tuned for the next installment of The History of Camp Northover, Part II.
References
1: 1969 Northover Camp Manual
2: Somerset County Clerk’s Office Deed George and Anna LaMonte to the Young Women’s Settlement
3: Arthur Curtis James Wikipedia article
4: Photo of Tent and cart taken 1908 located at the Christodora Archives at Columbia University
5: Northover Camp History Jessie Reid Copy undated
6: Photo of original Pool taken 1910-1911 located at the Christodora Archives at Columbia University
7: Northover Camp Names and Places and How they Originated pamphlet found at Christodora archives at Columbia University
8: 1949 map of Northover Camp located at the Christodora Office in NYC (unknown artist)
9: Metal Detection permission by Bridgewater Township (current site owner)