Driving by, you’d only know it as a horse ranch, offering boarding services, hay, and horse trailers.
But go up a dirt road in the back, and you’ll find a magical secret…
An entire children’s sleepaway camp, dating to 1950, that has been abandoned for more than 15 years.
Camp Wishe had everything you could want in a classic American sleepaway camp: a beautiful mess hall building (above) flanked by two towering pines, numerous cabins for the kids…
…An enormous pool, basketball courts, a lake, streams, and plenty of forest, covering over 100 acres.
And yet sadly, for the past 15 years, this incredible property has been left to rot.
I recently received an e-mail inviting me to take a tour of the former Camp Wishe by its new owners. They’re interested in leasing the property for film and photo shoots during renovations, and I jumped at the opportunity to explore a forgotten children’s camp. Abandoned places always have a certain level of mystery and romance about them, but a children’s camp?
That’s something special.
Camp Wishe was founded in 1950 as a girls riding camp (later, it would be come a co-ed day camp). A sleepaway camp for much of its existence, it thrived from 1950 until its closing in 1995. The property was then divided – the equine portion is still in operation as a horse farm, but for 15 years, the camp was left to rot.
Amazingly, a tremendous amount of beauty and charm has somehow managed to survive. Our first stop was the old mess hall…
Below, a picture of the mess hall in its glory days, courtesy of the wonderful Camp Wishe history website. Definitely check it out for many more historical pictures, a full history of the camp, and memories from former campers.
Just walking onto the mess hall porch, I immediately started feeling like a little kid heading off to camp. The log-cabinish feel, the canopied porch, mosquito netting on the windows, an old ping pong table: the air is heavy with decades of memories.
Even that shelving unit on the wall – I have no idea what that would even be used for, but it just feels like camp to me:
Inside, the mess hall is in beautiful shape…
…with 30-foot high cathedral-beamed ceilings and a balcony area. I love the timber banisters, which are as in good condition today…
…as when the camp was active:
In addition to dining, the mess hall served as a camp meeting hall and was used for such events as the weekly skit night, in which each bunk house had to put on a play.
The balcony area:
On the chalkboard, a name written on November 2, 1995, shortly before the closing of the camp:
We went on to the kitchen in the rear of the mess hall…
Yes, these are the very same plates and cups used by the campers for decades…
And these things are HEAVY – you could probably kill someone with one of these mugs!
The old kitchen stove…
Through a door off the kitchen, the old refrigerator room…
Can anyone date this?
Ha, I remember at camp how anything frozen (popsicles, fudgesicles, ice pops, ice cream sandwiches) was the equivalent of gold. I wonder if the same was true at Camp Wishe…
An additional stove:
A soccer ball that hasn’t been kicked since at least 15 years (I gave it a little tap for good measure).
Little did I know, we’d barely scratched the surface. From the mess hall, we made our way up the dirt path to the cabins…
The new owners are very open to filming/leasing inquiries. For info, just shoot me an e-mail at nycscout@gmail.com. Be sure to include your budget!
-SCOUT
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