same old view from the enormous porch

The other day I found myself waiting for a program to begin - in a building I'd known for a long, long time. It was built in 1965 or '66 (which?) and was known then as "the Girls' Dining Hall" or "McClain Hall" or sometimes "Conover English Hall." The latter designation was for the downstairs of the building which at various times housed Arts & Crafts and a theater (complete with a stage). In the winter of 1982-83 it was expanded to permit us to use it (for three years) as the only dining hall (after the main dining hall burned). A few years ago it was renovated as part of the campaign to create a conference center area on that side of camp. Ricciardi Cabin was knocked down, Lakeview Lodge was built above Hirdstock Field and CIT Point, and the old dining hall became Geyer Hall, with expanded basement/first floor rooms (including a work-out room for staff), and indoor floor hockey/archery room, and several meeting/seminar rooms on the top floor. And it was renamed Geyer Hall in honor of the major donor to the project, Helen Geyer of Montclair.

A few things about the building remain exactly the same as they were when it was first built for Girls' Camp in the mid-1960s. One of these is the huge deck/porch just off the main dining room. Because the building was built on a fairly steep slope coming up off the lake, one gets a fabulous view from the porch - quite high up. The trees there are very tall, so one looks through the tall trunks of the birches and beeches growing there, and can see the lake.

During the summers of '83, '84, and '85 I spent a lot of time out there, during meals especially. It was where I held "meetings" with campers and staff. It was where the VCs and I had our morning breakfast-time meetings.

Feeling very nostalgic about all the days and evenings I spent looking out from that enormous porch, I decided to take photos of all views. Several of these will be exactly as they were 40 years ago. But off to the right, now, you see Lakeview Lodge. That view is obviously different.

A fabulous footnote comes by way of Kate Schonmeyer, whose last summer at Wawayanda/Frost Valley was 1965. And that was indeed the year the building was built. But - and I didn't know this or didn't remember it - that first summer it was NOT used as a dining hall for the girls. They continued to eat in the "boys" dining hall for one more summer (1962-65), presumably in the "back" room of that building - called (then I suppose - but certainly later) "Hemlock Lounge." Anywhere, here is Kate's rather remarkable version of the story:

It was built in '65, the last year I came to Wawayanda. We didn't use it as a dining hall, though, we still ate in the old hall with the boys. I was the girls' program director that year and it was my home, along with the waterfront director, Joyce Slater, the camp director (I think Carol DaVita) and a few other folks. We used the big room as an activity center. I remember we practiced our dances for Olympics' opening ceremonies in there. We had some sewing machines and sewed our costumes there. Since we were so far away from everyone else we could play Cousin Brucie pretty loud and no one could hear the radio unless we put it up to the loudspeaker system - which we occasionally did after reveille, to get the girls in a good mood.