Raquette Lake Camps

Raquette Lake Camps is a group of summer camps located in the center of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, west of Lake George and south of Lake Placid. Campers can canoe for a radius of 100 miles (160 km) in all directions. The majority of the adjacent land is owned by the state and is utilized as a state park.

In 1916 Ray K. Phillips established the Cedar Island Camp for girls on Fourth Lake, near Inlet, NY. In 1920 the Cedar Island Corporation, of which she was a member, purchased the Antlers Hotel on Raquette Lake and she moved the girls' camp to the Antlers property, changing the name to Raquette Lake Girls Camp. Construction on the present girls' camp site began in 1922. At that time she formed a partnership with Max Berg to build a boys' camp across the lake on Woods Point (Timm, 1989).

In 1951 Philips and Berg sold their camps on Raquette Lake. The hotel was acquired by S. & I. Hotels, the girls' camp by Lee Krinsky, and the boys' camp by Phil Drucker and Gordon Liebowitz (Timm, 1989). The boys' and girls' camps then operated as separately owned "brother and sister" camps. Drucker and Liebowitz sold the boys' camp to Dave Gold in 1967 and Krinsky sold the girls' camp in 1973 to Jerry Halsband, who also purchased the boys' camp from Gold, returning the two camps to unified ownership after 22 years. He owned both camps until 2000. From 1981 through 1995 Helene (Falk) Leibowitz was head counselor. The "Helene Leibowitz" camper spirit awards named for her are given at the final campfire.

At times through their history the camps have alternately been named Raquette Lake Girls Club, Raquette Lake Boys Club, but have always been private, tuition-based summer camps.

Campers in the 1950s and 1960s travelled overnight by train in sleeping cars from Grand Central Station in New York City to the Thendara station, then transferred to the Town of Webb school buses to reach Raquette Lake. Girls were dropped off at their camp site but boys needed to walk down to the Antlers dock to ride the barge across to Woods Point.

Raquette Lake has tennis courts, sailboats, wind-surfers, kayaks, canoes, power boats (including Ski Nautique water ski and wake-board boats), plus hardball diamonds, a batting cage, soccer and lax fields, basketball courts, and volleyball courts. It has a gymnastics gymnasium with balance beams, mini-tramps, spring boards, sets of uneven parallel bars, vaulting horses, mats, a Tumble Trak and a springboard floor. Indoor recreational facilities include a social hall, theater, Arts and Crafts center, a jewelry-making studio, a separate ceramics facility, and a gymnasium. A ropes challenge course provides different high and low elements, including zip lines, and a three-sided climbing wall.

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