Founding of Camp St. Christopher
A St. Christopher House Century
Chapter 3
The killing heat of 1913 and the founding of Camp St. Christopher
The summer following the opening of St. Christopher House was a scorcher. In 1913, a heat wave made its way east across the continent, heating up western Canada with record setting temperatures. Eventually settling over Toronto in time for the Dominion Day holiday, the thermometer climbed dangerously high. By the end of June, heat had already claimed seven lives. The mercury hovered in the high nineties. Intense humidity made life unbearable. The Toronto Daily Star was full of accounts of citizens literally dropping dead on sidewalks. In one case, a man walking home from work along University Avenue was discovered by a constable, unconscious and near death. Within the hour, the man perished. In another incident, a laborer with the Canadian Pacific Railroad collapsed dead while attending to track repair. In addition to deaths, the health department was overwhelmed with numerous cases of heat prostration.
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Before the comfort of air conditioning, individuals went to great lengths to find relief from the heat. During the heat wave of 1913, ice shortages were common. Sadly, drowning incidents spiked, particularly amongst children and the poor. Newspapers reported daily on drownings in Toronto’s harbour, in the rivers and creeks throughout the city, as well as at favourite watering holes.
As in other impoverished neighbourhoods, families living in the cramped quarters of Kensington Market sought refuge from the heat. When night came and the temperature hardly budged, overcrowded dwellings sleeping eight and nine became like blast furnaces. Under these conditions, sleep was impossible. Seeking relief, hundreds of families dragged their bedding outside to sleep in front yards, on sidewalks and in public parks like Bellevue Park. Some tried sleeping on roofs, while still others sought cool refuge on boards and planks underneath houses.
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When St. Christopher House, still a fledging settlement house located at 67 Bellevue Place opened a summer camp forty-five miles outside Toronto, it must have felt like a godsend to the residents of Kensington Market. Like St. Christopher House itself, the new camp operated under the auspices of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. The camp, known simply as Camp St. Christopher, was located on three hundred acres of land close to Nestleton, Ontario. With an oppressive heat hovering over the city, the founding of the camp could not have been better timed: Camp St. Christopher boasted a thousand feet of shoreline along the cool waters of Lake Scugog.
In those early days, camping was rudimentary. It would be years before permanent cabins would be constructed. That first summer, fifty campers stayed two weeks in large, white tents equipped with wooden floors. Besides the obvious benefit of escaping the sweltering city, those attending the camp relished the fact that each camper was assigned clean bedding and a cot of their own.
Unique to Camp St. Christopher was the railroad station the CPR constructed along a
pre-existing rail line. Imagine the excitement of dozens of children as they made the trek into the countryside aboard a steam locomotive. The station stop, known simply as St. Christopher, consisted of a single room, clapboard sided stationhouse. Supplies bound for camp were carried overland by wheelbarrow from the CPR stop to the campsite.
Located on camp premises was a farmhouse which once had been the residence of the former landowner, a farmer named John Ball. The farmhouse’s kitchen served as the camp’s kitchen. Rooms in the farmhouse were also used for staff accommodations. For those first campers, the experience of escaping their overcrowded neighbourhood would not have been complete without a few rain soaked afternoons: Rainy days were spent in an old mill on the property. With rain pelting the cedar shingled roof, children entertained themselves for hours with simple games like Conkers, Chinese Whisper, and Cat’s Cradle.Handcrafts such as curve stitching and creations made from decorative string were another popular pastime, as was the singing of hymns and scripture reading.
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The rest of the summer, those sunny days with cool breezes coming off the lake, campers competed in rowboat races and swam; there were games of baseball and wagon rides; hikes over fields on berry picking expeditions; twilight sing-alongs around a big fire pit. Mothers and children attending Camp St. Christopher consider themselves fortunate to be granted two weeks reprieve from the squalor of Kensington market. In fact, the lone complaint aired during their stay would inevitably be in regard to their return to the city and home.
In 1926, Camp St. Christopher became property of the United Church of Canada. During the period spanning the Second World War, camp enrollment dropped considerably. Following the war years, Kensington Market experienced an influx of new immigrants from southern European countries. Sending children to summer camp was not the norm in these households and many parents in the neighbourhood were reluctant to have their children attend. Eventually, Camp St. Christopher became a general church camp open to mothers and children from various United Church congregations throughout Toronto.
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It has been ninety-seven years since the sweltering heat wave of 1913 when Camp St. Christopher welcomed campers for the first time. The tracks that once carried trainloads of campers to the countryside have been torn up. The old St. Christopher station demolished long ago. The camp itself, however, carries on. The camp is known today as Lake Scugog Camp and continues to be a summer retreat for children, youth and families.
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This summer, busloads of campers will once again be arriving at Lake Scugog Camp. As yellow school buses exit Regional Road 57 at St. Christopher Beach Road, named in honour of the settlement house responsible for its founding, campers may not know it, but they are participating in a near century long tradition.
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The author would like to acknowledge the use of The Story of St. Christopher House, by Patricia J. O’Connor, as well as the assistance of Carol Rhynas, registrar; Lake Scugog Camp, in the writing of this article. An organizing committee consisting of volunteers, staff and board members has been formed to plan St. Chris’s centenary. The Century Committee meets every second month. Those interested in participating, passing along their ideas or sharing a memory, may contact Lidia Monaco at 416 532-4828 (234), or, lidiamo@stchrishouse.org
Ed Brown can be contacted at stchriscentury@hotmail.com
