Many people have founded institutions upon their dreams and philosophies only to find that time and the invasion of others tempered and changed those institutions. The Rockywold-Deephaven Camps are unique in that they have resisted change in the basic philosophies of their founders. To be sure, we are not the same as we were in 1897, when Miss Alice Mable Bacon founded Deephaven, nor as in 1901 when Mrs. Mary Alice Armstrong founded Rockywold. Both of these pioneering women adapted and changed as time went on but held strongly to their basic principles. 

It is an interesting turn of fate that brought these two strong women together to found and develop this haven of simple life. In their generation there were many women of determined will and purpose, who made their mark, but few who affected the lives of so many generations as have these two.

Deephaven is the inspiration of Miss Alice Mable Bacon, teacher, author, philanthropist, patriot, and Christian. She was the daughter of Dr. Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the First Church, New Haven, Connecticut, writer, and a leader in the antislavery movement. Her family also had a deep interest in the Japanese people and one of Miss Bacon's early companions was a Japanese girl who lived with them while being educated. This interest lasted throughout Miss Bacon's life and resulted in her writing several books on Japanese women. Evidence of the Japanese influence may be seen in Deephaven cottages in the many sliding doors and the bell tower. A large Japanese gong announced the serving of meals and is still in camp.

As a child Miss Bacon had spent a year with her family at Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. This was one of the first colleges for blacks and American Indians. It was founded by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong in 1867 while he was working for the Freedman's Bureau after the Civil War. He had been commander of a regiment of black troops in the war and was the son of missionaries in Hawaii. In 1883 Miss Bacon returned to Hampton as a teacher, not only in economics and civics but also in Theology, for which she was the entire department. Her originality and sense of humor made her classes a constant delight. Her realization of a need for black nurses resulted in the establishment of a nursing school and hospital at Hampton.

Miss Bacon was introduced to Asquam Lake by General Armstrong. The General had visited Boston while fund raising for Hampton in the 80's and through friends had come to the lake to rest and fish. He had a keen interest in the work of Henry Balch, who started the first boys camp in America on Chocorua Island (now Church Island) in 1881 and stayed there when he came to the lake. Miss Bacon spent the summer of 1896 at the pioneer Pinehurst Camp just east of the present Deephaven land. This was owned by Rev. H.B. Frissell, Chaplain and later President of Hampton Institute. This experience suggested another project to Miss Bacon, a place where people who lived intensely during the winter could come for a summer vacation in an atmosphere of the simplest and most basic nature. The story goes that one day as she was canoeing, a stiff wind came up, and she sought the protection of a deep cove. "Here," she said, "is where I want my camp," and before she left that summer, she had purchased the land for Deephaven.

With her that summer was the widow of General Armstrong, Mary Alice, who was also a teacher at Hampton.

In June of 1897 Deephaven Camps was opened on a business basis, but it was expected that it would only pay expenses. The original Longhouse, destroyed by fire in 1907, and the kitchen and dining room with tent roof were the only buildings ready for use. The living room of "Brown Betty" was built that summer as a cottage. The dining room was between the Longhouse and where Point of View now stands. It later burned and was rebuilt on its present site.

From the beginning the camp was filled, and among the guests there were, as ever since, men and women well known in university and literary circles and in public life.

Miss Bacon had a special faculty for interesting everybody in work for the common good. Campers dug up rocks to make better paths and cut underbrush and wood for the fires. Whatever was to be done, there were always ready hands, hearts, and brains to do it.

"Housing" in these early days was in tents along the easterly Deephaven shore. Platforms were built to erect them on, and since there was no plumbing, outhouses were stationed at convenient locations. These hardy folks thrived on this new environment and turned their efforts from brain power to manual labor. The hammer and saw were put to good use as refinements and additions to tents and cottages were undertaken. As families gathered they asked Miss Bacon if they could build their own cottages, and many did. We see today cottages named for these families: Rusch, Birdsall, Porter's Lodge, Maurer, Park, Ewing and Buffum.

An architect at Yale developed the "Fisher Hut', which was an improvement on the tent. It had a shingled roof, one room with sliding paneled walls of unbleached muslin, and a porch. With kerosene lamps on at night, the thin muslin presented an interesting shadow display for passers by.

These structures form the foundation for many of the cottages today. According to the taste and desires of the occupant, they were added to in every direction, sometimes several times. In either camp you will not find two cottages alike.

Miss Bacon brought with her several of the black students from Hampton to help in the kitchen and dining room. In this way they earned their tuition. As the camp grew, more help was needed, and there were plenty of students and professors eager to come north to help Miss Bacon. At one point it was said there were as many degrees in the kitchen as there were amongst the guests. This situation held true for both camps until the early '60's.

On Saturday and Sunday nights the Hampton people sang spirituals on the Longhouse steps. Saturday there were frivolous songs, but Sunday they were strictly spiritual. Porcia, the cook, was their leader, and her voice could be heard soaring above the others. Campers used to drift out front in their canoes to listen to the music. The group gave concerts for the general public in the surrounding towns and were much appreciated. Many of the key staff members for Miss Bacon and Mrs. Armstrong returned for 25 to 40 years.

In 1900 Miss Bacon wanted to return to Japan to teach for two years. She asked Mrs. Mary Alice Armstrong to run the camp in her absence. Miss Bacon saw in this young widow with two children many of her qualities and dreams. How right she was, for in 1901 Mrs. Armstrong bought the adjacent land to start her own camp, Rockywold. The two camps existed side by side but under separate management for sixteen years.

We might think of Holderness back at the turn of the century as an isolated farming community. It was, however, in addition to that a bustling summer community with Lake Asquam and the mountains as the attraction from the heat of the cities to the south. The Asquam House atop Shepards Hill and the Mount Livermore on the lake shore at Livermore Cove were two flourishing hotels. Both of these succumbed to that ever present danger, fire.

Train service to Ashland on the Boston and Maine was excellent, and connections could be made for Boston and New York. You arrived amid cinders met by a horse drawn carriage that took you to the docks of the Asquam Transportation Company on the river just outside of Ashland. There you made your way up the lakes to Deephaven in one of the two passenger steamboats which plied the lake daily between Ashland and Sandwich Landing. These coal burning ships moved on a regular schedule of four trips a day. The S.S. Holcyon had a hinged smokestack that lowered to get under the Holderness bridge. The S.S. Chocorua was the other passenger vessel.

On the way the boats would stop at various docks to deliver mail and supplies, and more than a few pleasantries were exchanged in the process. The Deephaven dock was at the present site, and the mail was distributed from the "Studio". The arrival of the steamer was a big event, and many congregated on the dock to await it.

In 1904 the camp supplied horse drawn transportation to town. The records show "Surry to Ashland, $3.00, Buckboard to Holderness, $1.50". Miss Bacon went to Holderness in her buggy shopping each week, and it took all day. Everyone put in their orders, said farewell when she left and were there to greet her on her return. The "Nellie J" was a floating store and stopped at the Deephaven dock twice a week. Aboard were fruit, cookies, soda, candy, etc. to keep these active people going.

Tennis courts were installed at the Playhouse around 1908 but until then the lake and mountains supplied most of the recreation. Motorboats were almost unknown, and so it was with paddle, oar and sail that people made their way about.

Every Saturday night a picnic supper was served across the Bight on Needle Point followed by Miss Bacon's reading of contributions to the camp paper, The Barque and Bight.

There was prose and poetry, good and bad, from the literary worthy and unworthy. A bag hung on the office door into which contributors put their offerings, and after the feast Miss Bacon would bring forth the literary harvest of the week. She must have made an impressive sight standing by the fire reading from its light. To end the evening, campers joined the Hampton boys and girls to sing: "The shadows deepen, quiet reigns, Camp calls us o're the Bight; The flicker of the campfire wanes, it's time to say goodnight. Rest safe in old Deephaven's arms, goodnight ye campers all."

First of all as a fundamental ideal, Miss Bacon's mind dwelt on the great beauty of the wonderful country in which Deephaven found itself; a beauty of lake and mountain and forest which is rarely surpassed. She wanted everyone to find in nature their summer's pleasure and benefit; she would rather have her campers steep themselves in the out-of-door life than depend upon indoor activities. Yet there was no control imposed, no hard and fast rules, only an ideal, a wish that it might be.

A second fundamental was the ideal of great simplicity of camp dress and everyday living. The question was once asked, "What would you say if I appeared in my summer silk?" Her answer, "I should not say anything, but I might tell you next year with regret that there was no room for you"

Closely allied to Miss Bacon's thought of the satisfying beauty of Deephaven and the simplicity of dress and life, was her wish that friendliness should be an outstanding feature of the camp; that camaraderie should be linked with her other ideals. So she encouraged the gatherings in the Longhouse living room, where charades, talent shows, and talks helped in her get-together plan. Church on Church Island and evening Vespers on Flagstaff Point were always well attended.

Another, and perhaps the deepest thought of all, led Miss Bacon far from the give and take of business. Sitting before the open fire of one of her campers in 1917, she talked over with great interest the approaching summer, that summer she never reached, and said, "My camp is me, and I think of it with its beauty and rational life as one of the most worthwhile things I have ever done; as something beautiful and helpful which I hold out in my hand to those who would care to take it"

The summer of 1918 Mrs. Mary Alice Armstrong bought Deephaven to carry on the ideals and dreams of its founder and her friend, Miss Alice Mabel Bacon.