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Notes from Putnam Camp
The Farm House and another building
The camp where Bree works is called Putnam Camp. It was begun by some Boston doctors in 18-something who wanted to "rough it" in some way. The camp's claim to fame is that Freud once visited, and his portrait is sprinkled liberally throughout the place. Reportedly he did not enjoy his stay. Carl Jung also visited, simultaneously, but this receives much less attention. The motto of Putnam Camp is "Ille terrarum mihi praeter omnes angulus ridet," which I am told is a line from Horace translating into "This spot smiles at me more than any other."
Putnam Camp continues today as a "private family camp." Guests must be invited, though the accession process was not made clear. Many guests come from Massachusets and New York City. It costs $80 per night. There are special rates for kids, and for their nannies. Guests are advised that, though coats and ties are no longer required at dinner, some degree of formality is expected. The guests insist on tradition, ranging from Saturday roast beef dinner to "singing-off" departing guests to "papsy-wapsying" those late to dinner. I did not witness the latter two. The organization is controlled by thirteen Board Members. The Board Members I met brimmed with Putnam Camp enthusiasm. Reportedly, many are Unitarian.
The main building is the Farm House. The Farm House includes a huge kitchen, recently remodeled. There's a walk-in fridge (the "widge"), a vermin-proof pantry in attractive pine with a hidden wire-mesh enclosure. Food is plentiful. Though it appears impeccably maintained, I was told it couldn't possibly meet inspection. There is a dining room, which is not as big or as fancy as one might expect. It is modest and "rustic" in the Putnam Camp tradition, though guests do eat with authentic silver. In the Putnam Camp tradition it also contains a suit of armor, affectionately known as Sir Guy, who is trotted out annually for his birthday celebration. There are some guest rooms in the Farm House. There are staff rooms above. The staff involves three chore boys and a girl who supervises them. She will be attending MIT in the Fall. Tradition calls them "choreps," which may be an abbreviation of "chore persons." I am told they are all very well behaved.
View from the Stoop.
The second stop on my tour of Putnam Camp, after the kitchen, was the outdoor shower. It is surrounded on four sides, but you can look upwards into the trees and stars, and listen to Roaring Brook beside you. This is wonderful. Putnam Camp architecture effectively involves the outdoors. Each of the guest cabins includes a bedroom with screen walls, so that guests may enjoy the Adirondack airs. So that they may be outdoors, but isolated from biting insects. After dinner, tradition requires that Putnam Campers retire to the stoop, pictured above, a sort of parlor, partially open-air with sides that may be battened down in case of rain. In the stoop they drink coffee and tea, play board games, and talk. Tradition encourages the playing of music.
A guest room, of the not-screened-in variety.
The choreps keep the guest rooms impeccably tidy. I was able to visit the guest rooms in one building, which was unoccupied for the moment. All of the guest rooms in this building contained cast-iron wood burning stoves. Reportedly, and bafflingly, guests utilize these stoves during their stays. Guests are only present at the camp during a not-quite three-month summer season.
View over St. Huberts from Rooster's Comb. Typical Adirondack scenery.
Guests do not loiter at Putnam Camp during the day. They go hiking. Putnam Camp is in the "High Peaks" region of the Adirondacks, an appellation that causes California boys to snicker. Tradition holds that forty-six Adirondack crests breach 4000 feet in altitude, though four do not and another, excluded, does. Those who "bag" all forty-six become forty-sixers. Doing so is a local obsession. Summitting a particular twenty-three prominant mounts surrounding Putnam Camp will earn you in this camp the title of "23er."
Additional research will be conducted next weekend.
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This place sounds like a trip...no pun intended.
papsy-wapsying
I might have the vowells wrong.. It might have been something like "popsy-wopsying," not that that elucidates.
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http://www.japanlinks.ch/traditional_japanese_house/
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They probably use the stoves at night because it can get quite cold at night in the mountains even in the heart of summer. Over summer nights at my family's place in New Hampshire, I sometimes have used several wool blankets at night to stay warm and it's barely in the hills.
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