Camp Mary Elizabeth’s History

For those of you who are not familiar with it, Camp Mary Elizabeth is a Girl Scout camp located in Spartanburg, South Carolina.  It’s a neat little camp, and it has its own sweet charm.  It’s one out of only two urban Girl Scout camps in the United States.  I had my outdoor training there, and it’s where I took our troop camping for the first time. Our troop has participated in a few events there as well.  It’s got a lot of potential.  There’s also some drama in its past.  Maybe we could even consider it a soap opera!  But not one of those Telemundo novelas.  We wouldn’t know what was being said anyway.  ¡Qué terrible!

In January of 1947, Dr. W.S. Zimmerman left 28 acres in his will to the (then) Spartanburg Girl Scout council provided that the land always be called Camp Mary Elizabeth as a memorial to Dr. Zimmerman’s mother, Elizabeth Simpson Zimmerman, and her daughter, Mary Zimmerman Ward (Dr. Zimmerman’s sister).  A memorial marker would always have to remain on the property as well.  More acreage was added in 1952 and 1953. 

Here’s the announcement from the September 29th, 1946 issue of The Herald-Journal detailing the property and plans (click on the article to see full size):

There was a short blurb the next day summarizing the memorial:

CME got off to a quick start and refurbishments such as a playground and fields were added soon afterwards (from the June 26th, 1947 issue of the Herald-Journal):

In 1951, seven more acres were purchased for a swimming pool according to an October 18th, 1951 article from the Herald-Journal:

In 1952, a crafts building was slated to be built.  Sleeping cabins were also supposedly in the works in 1952, but I didn’t find any kind of follow up to show that those ever came to fruition.  Currently CME has no kind of overnight sleeping arrangements other than camping sites or the large room of the lodge.  There’s a historical log cabin on the premises, but I don’t know its history.  If I find out more about it, I’ll add it to this blog post.  Addendum 8/11/16:  I wrote about it here.

I didn’t find any other major articles about CME between the early 1950’s and this one from 1978 (see below).   It seems in the interim, no improvements were made and CME fell into disrepair.  The swimming pool from the early 50s was condemned and the nature trails no longer existed.  In 1978, a major push was made to give CME a facelift. Other than the initial plans, many of these ideas never made it off the drawing board.  (If you know otherwise, please let me know via an email or by the comments section below).

One thing CME does have are wildflowers – and lots of them!  I’ll post a list of them in another blog post (including the threatened dwarf-flowered heartleaf!) along with an accompanying article from 1978.

And then in 1999, the drama started.  Well, it might have started before that.  I’m just a third-party with no connections, and I’m just going by what I found in the media.  Additionally, let me preface by saying that I hope I’m not stirring up old emotions and feelings.  I’m just reporting what I’m reading in newspaper articles.  I’m sure there are many sides to this story depending on the person.

In 1999, the executive director and the board of the then Piedmont Area Council considered selling CME  in 1999 (among others that were sold eventually later on down the road).  Thankfully, the camp was spared after a shakeup in board leadership.  (Herald-Journal – July 14, 1999)  The aforementioned restrictions regarding the property being sold for non-Girl Scout business would have prevented the camp from being sold, but they were lifted when the Spartanburg County Foundation took over the title in 1952.   This restriction was added again in 2005 when the Foundation gave the title back to the Piedmont Area Council.  Or maybe not.  I’m not sure.

A new century began, and once again, hope sprang eternal that CME got a makeover.  Here’s an article from May 7th, 2000 of the Herald-Journal about what was done:

Since then, I am unsure as to what has been done for improvements.  The camp has so much potential, but after this look back, I feel like CME was always the bridesmaid but never the bride compared to other camps in the state.   Maybe one of these days it’ll get the TLC it deserves.  As has been the case in previous years, CME currently hosts summer day camps along with swim programs, so we know it can hold its own!

Stay tuned for a look at CME’s wildflowers at some point in the future!