Camp Happy was a summer camp designed to provide healthy nutrition and fresh air for the underprivileged children of Philadelphia. It was located on a large tract of land near the Delaware River, in

Torresdale Torresdale, also formerly known as Torrisdale, is a neighborhood in the Far Northeast section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Torresdale is located along the Delaware River between Holmesburg and Bensalem Township in neighboring ...

Northeast Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Great Northeast, and known colloquially as simply "the Northeast", is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of betw ...

Origin of the idea

Conceived as an outgrowth of

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...

ideas about helping the poor, especially children, to receive food and healthcare. In the wake of the

Influenza epidemic of 1918 The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest document ...

, the city of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, authorized, in 1919, a Department of Recreation, with special provisions for establishing a children’s summer camp called Camp Happy.

Site and facilities

In 1920, a plot of land was located on a large tract of land near the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

, at the southwest corner of Linden and Torresdale Avenue, in

, this was to be the location of Camp Happy, a camp designed to provide healthy nutrition and fresh air for the underprivileged children of Philadelphia. The camp had an infirmary, a meeting hall, where movies were shown, a dining hall and separate swimming pools for girls and boys. The children's street clothes were taken on arrival and stored in the attic of a barn, subsequently, they were issued uniforms, boys were issued canvas shorts and shirts, girls were issued pajama type jumpsuits with back flaps. Separate communal showers for boys and girls, hands were washed and teeth brushed in a communal porcelain water trough on the outside of the shower house. The stay was originally three weeks.

Life in the camp

Initially, the population of the camp was multi-ethnic and multi-racial, by the time of its closing in 1951, it was homogeneous. The daily regimen was militarized, standing in formation saluting the flag. The children slept on canvas cots under wool blankets in barracks that were compared to Nazi Stormtrooper barracks. Each morning, the blankets were folded, the cots are taken outside and hosed down. The counselors and one was assigned to each barracks, were teens who exercised virtually unsupervised control and exercised discipline (often arbitrary and demeaning) over the children. The occupants of each cabin were marched single file to the communal bathhouse to brush their teeth, then marched to the parade ground to line up and salute the flag. Then marched to the dining hall, for breakfast. Saying grace collectively, they sat down to eat breakfast that most enjoyed as it was better than they had at home. The day followed with planned activities, which might include the swimming pool and movies. In the early years of the camp, in the 1920s, the interaction and care by the counselors were educational and nurturing, but that deteriorated over time until by the 1950s the children felt they were prisoners, a feeling reinforced by having to wear uniforms. There were even escape attempts. Many campers felt more like prisoners and called it Camp Sad

Post-war development and the end of Camp Happy

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

there was a spurt of economic growth, increased development in Torresdale, drove up demand for real estate, so in 1952 the camp was relocated to the

Pocono Mountains The Pocono Mountains, commonly referred to as the Poconos (), are a geographical, geological, and cultural region in Northeastern Pennsylvania. They overlook the Delaware River and Delaware Water Gap to the east, Lake Wallenpaupack to the nort ...

. When the land was bought from

Girard College Girard College is an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school located on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The school was founded and permanently endowed from the shipping and banking fortune of Stephen Girard upon ...

for $25,000 and the camp was renamed, Camp William Penn. Its demise was facilitated by both the demand for land by developers and the bad press afforded it by the ''Philadelphia Daily News''.

References

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Happy Happiness is a complex and multifaceted emotion that encompasses a range of positive feelings, from contentment to intense joy. It is often associated with positive life experiences, such as achieving goals, spending time with loved ones, ...

1920 establishments in Pennsylvania 1951 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Northeast Philadelphia Defunct summer camps in the United States