Getting to Camp

As the school year came to an end, the children and mothers of Hull House and the neighborhood bordering the settlement houses were looking forward to spending part of their summer on 72 acres of green grass, trees, bushes and flowers and away from the asphalt streets and alleys filled with garbage, broken glass and graffiti.

Hull House staff and social workers chose which truly needy children could go to the country for two weeks. There was a fee to go to the Bowen Country Club, charged to remove the stigma of it being a charitable camp and to give the campers more of a sense of self-respect. Those that were truly needy could spend two weeks in the country for $20.00; in 1912, the fee was only $1.00 per week and over the years it rose to $20 for two weeks. (Although no child was ever turned away for lack of money.)

Before the children were allowed to leave Chicago, they had a physical examination, which included checking heads for head lice, feet for athlete’s foot or any possible contagious disease, and general health.Four groups of campers went for two weeks, starting at the end of June until late August. Mothers and children left for camp from the Northwestern Station (their fares were donated by the Northwestern Railroad). The BCC director and some of the staff members met them at the station. During an average summer, 550 campers used the campgrounds and facilities, so that each group consisted of approximately 135 to 140 campers.


Camp began on Tuesday, and the campers anticipation mounted from the time they boarded the train. As the train left the city behind, the campers looking out the windows of the train could see the green fields, trees and flowers -- such a contrast from the dirty streets and alleys they had grown accustomed to; they knew they wouldn’t see their relatives and friends until visitors Sunday, the second Sunday of the group. As the train came into view of the Waukegan Station, a group of counselors waved and greeted the campers.
Then, they helped them depart the train, put them in groups by age, and prepared the campers to make the two-mile walk from downtown Waukegan to the site of Bowen Country Club. Mothers and babies were driven in a station wagon -- or, in the very beginning, by a buggy pulled by a horse named "Lady Tom" which, in turn, was replaced by a model T. The luggage went by truck.Citizens of Waukegan watched this scene of children walking, singing and waving every two weeks of every summer for 50 years and seemed to become part of the ritual. The campers approached their destination, read the wooden sign "Joseph Tilton Bowen Country Club," and sang and cheered as they streamed on to the grounds.

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