northport history • bob little
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26 • village connection • june 2012
In the years between 1924 and 1938 Eaton’s Neck provided campsites for boys and young men from New York City sponsored by the Lennox Hill Settlement, the YMCA, and the Boy Scouts of America. Camp Marshall Field was established in 1924 on land owned by Evelyn Field, the wife of Marshall Field III, to provide underprivileged boys with a taste of country life. The camp was run by the Lennox Hill Settlement and funded by the New York Herald Tribune. In addition to a dormitory for 96 boys and a mess hall, the camp had cottages for the staff, the director, and a year-round caretaker. Although the athletic coaches who led the camp emphasized outdoor sports and activities, there was also a social hall large enough for handball and ping pong that also housed a barber shop and a candy store. Athletic competition was the keynote however, and the boys vied for the Davis Cup, a commercial size can of Davis Baking Powder with ear-shaped handles attached to the sides, awarded to the winners of fiercely contested events. In 1927 Camp Beacon was opened by the YMCA of Flushing, Queens on property donated by Dr. Frank Babbott, Jr. in the vicinity of the lighthouse. Each
summer about 75 young men would rotate through the camp. This group had a 35-foot sloop which took campers on excursions along the North Shore and smaller watercraft for individual use. In 1929, two young men paddled a canoe across the Sound to Connecticut and back, a feat that took six hours and was reported on the front pages of the local papers. On land leased from Rosalie Jones, the Boy Scouts organized the third camp in 1930 on the site of the abandoned Valley Grove recreation area. Since the camp was sponsored by Consolidated Edison of New York, it was named Camp Edison. Although some of the Valley Grove buildings were still standing, the scouts lived in tents as they learned about nature and acquired survival skills. Naturally, the campers also engaged in athletics, but the primary pursuits were swimming, hunting, and living off the land. The camps each had a different focus, but they all provided a summer respite from the heat and noise of the city. The camps frequently challenged each other to competition in baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, and even sailing. Unfortunately by the late 1930s, changes in ownership of the land and its use brought an end to these refuges from life in the city.
Bob Little is a long-time resident of the Northport area who greatly enjoys delving into the community’s fascinating history and writing his column for the Northport Historical Society.