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Post by oldnewhartfordboy on Feb 20, 2013 21:50:16 GMT -5
I recently came across a vintage postcard of Utica. It was Pine Pt. Round Lake. I guess it must have someplace near the Masonic Home in East Utica. I have never heard of it and never came across it. I do know there was an amusement park near there, long before my time, but I have never heard of a lake in that area. I wonder if it might have been part of the amusement park and was filled in -maybe becasue of the polio scare? From the picture it looked fairly large. Any info?
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Post by Clipper on Feb 20, 2013 22:09:14 GMT -5
The Masons had or have a camp on Little Round Lake outside Woodgate NY. If you are going from Woodgate to White Lake, you turn left off of Rt 28 on the 90 degree curve above Woodgate corners and just before White Lake. There is a small lake over in there a few miles called Round Lake. It is not very big and I think that the Masonic Camp my be the only thing there.
I don't know of any lake that ever existed near the present day Masonic Home. My dad had spoken of the Amusement Park that used to be at the end of the trolley line in East Utica when he was a kid. He never mentioned any lake there. He DID speak of swimming at Power Dam. That was still in existence as a swimming hole when I was a teen.
It sounds like it may have been similar to the Summit Park in Oriskany on the Western end of the trolley line. When I was a kid, the amusement park was gone, but there was still a swimming pool there. We used to ride our bikes there from Whitesboro.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Feb 20, 2013 23:43:24 GMT -5
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Post by dave on Feb 21, 2013 0:14:02 GMT -5
 That's right. I was there for an Altar Boy Picnic from St. John's Church (Utica) in the summer of 1958. Beautiful place. I checked the old newspapers and each year (in the 1940's, at least) the Masons would have their annual trek up to the camp. It was their pride and joy, and according to some articles in the OD, they would bus visiting Masons in groups up from Utica. Here's a tease from the Saturday Evening OD of August24, 1946. Click to enlarge. Try as I might, I could not find the Sunday edition covering the camp promised in the photo caption. I'll keep trying.  Here's a rundown of activies in 1946. It's not very readable, but some details can be picked out. CLick to enlarge, twice for Firefox.  From the satellite, Camp Turk looks pretty nice today. CB, any idea where the name comes from? I lived in the same town with folks named Turk at one time, but I can't remember where. So I wonder if the name is a memorial.  |
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Post by clarencebunsen on Feb 21, 2013 6:13:03 GMT -5
There is still a "Grand Master's Day" each summer which is attended by Masons from around the state. Here is current info from it's web site. www.campturk.org/I don't know the origin of the name but I'll try to find it. |
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Post by dave on Feb 21, 2013 8:22:59 GMT -5
Here's the Sunday Observer Dispatch article on what is now called Camp Turk that appeared August 25, 1946. And I'm glad I kept looking for it, because a new method of navigation through the old newspapers occurred to me as I searched. The graphic is not of high quality. I don't know why some of the newspapers were encoded in greyscale and others in high contrast black and white. But it's readable if you enlarge. BTW, I don't remember the masonry tunnel. Write me if you want the pdf page file, but I think the jpg will download OK directly from this thread. NOTE: I have had a bit of trouble getting this jpg to display on FIrefox, but it showed fine on IExplorer and Chrome.  |
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Post by oldnewhartfordboy on Feb 21, 2013 19:34:52 GMT -5
So the bottom line is, the lake is near the big curve on Rt. 28 just past the Adirondack line? The post card is misleading because it says Utica, NY.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 21, 2013 20:09:38 GMT -5
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Post by clarencebunsen on Mar 3, 2013 7:18:53 GMT -5
Origin of the name: I spoke with one of the members of the Camp Turk Committee. The name honors Grand Master Turk who was instrumental in the 1950's in setting it up as a youth camp. I have not yet found much information about Grand Master Turk. I did run across this article giving historical information on the Masonic Home from its proposal in 1843 to its founding and a report on its condition in 1919. www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/mvgw/history/131.htmlThe source, SCHENECTADY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, also looks interesting. www.schenectadyhistory.org/index.htmlSo much to read, so little time. |
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Post by dave on Mar 3, 2013 11:25:10 GMT -5
That's an interesting resource. Very useful. Thanks. By the way, I don't see Pine Point on the current Camp Turk map at: www.campturk.org/map.html |
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Post by dave on Mar 3, 2013 11:52:35 GMT -5
BTW, here are more postcards of the camp, date unknown, but probably around the turn of the (last) century.   CB, have you seen this?www.scoutingny.com/?p=5199 Here's a bunch of Masonic Homes and Temples from all over:www.cardcow.com/viewall/66976/I wonder if this is a view of the Utica Home from Proctor Park? 
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 4, 2013 12:22:15 GMT -5
A followup to the link you posted above on the Masonic Home in Tappan. Photos in the link showed a building gone to ruin with beautiful stained glass windows in the chapel. According to something I read this morning the story continues with two lodges in Queens who had decided to merge because of dwindling membership. One of the lodges in its last act before merger donated money to save the windows. The windows were removed from Tappan and installed in a renovated lodge room in Whitestone, Queens.
Further linking the story lines in this thread, the old but functional furniture from the renovated lodge room was trucked to Camp Turk and installed in the theater there.
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