Camp Budd: In Westerville or Elsewhere?

Sometimes Westerville is not what it seems.  Or in this case, where.

The old postcard (see below) identified a YMCA camp, as Camp Budd, with a mailing address of Rural Route 5, Westerville.  Like many of us, summer camp, whether with the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the YMCA, or church camps, was a formative experience.  With the shared experience of bug bites, varied cooking, and camaraderie, they established friendships, and instilled an interest in nature, or some cases, taught avoidance of it.

I grew up in northern Ohio, so the name of Camp Budd was not familiar to me.  When I came to Westerville, I thought surely everyone would know of or remember Camp Budd.  But the name drew blank looks.  The Internet was not much help.  So I looked again at the postcard.  The card itself showed a picture of tents crammed with YMCA campers, some of whom look rather cynical on the question of whether this was fun.

The YMCA movement began in England, but quickly developed American branches, starting in Boston in 1851.  A YMCA in Columbus was founded January 15, 1855, but was at first, an urban organization and an urban idea.  To reach urban youth with nothing to do, early Columbus benefactors set up lecture halls, boarding rooms, and indoor play areas.  The Y in downtown Columbus even played indoor baseball games.  However, a movement to include outdoor activities began around the start of the twentieth century.  YMCA leaders followed national trends such as the creation of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in creating suburban and rural camps to invigorate children with fresh air and outdoor activities simply not available in urban communities.[i]

            Camp Budd was named for Rev. George S. Budd, Ohio state YMCA secretary, and husband of Myra Budd, postmaster of Worthington.[ii]  The YMCA purchased Camp Budd in 1910.  At the time of purchase, plans were made to “erect a large pavilion and auditorium.”[iii]  The camp reported 58 acres, owned two cows, and could accommodate 78 boys.

            Another part of Camp Budd was a large vegetable garden, presumably maintained by the campers.  “The services of a professional chef have been secured, and the boys will have plenty of plain, substantial food, well prepared.  There will be plenty of good, cold drinking water at the camp”[iv]  Flat-bottom boats were another feature of the camp,  Large tents, 12 x 14 feet with double deck cots were provided for the campers.[v]

Campers blew off steam by making up songs about their leaders.  “What’s the Matter with Bailey?” was a favorite, a good natured lampoon of Camp Manager M. G. Bailey.  The camp had an African American cook, George Kennedy.  In an elaborate ceremony, the campers swore allegiance to the cook, while Kennedy swore he would not burn the oatmeal.  “The cook was then presented with the emblems of his office – a frying pan and a spoon.”  For a time, a pet fox was loaned to the campers by a neighboring farmer, an object of interest to the city boys.[vi]

While the camp was owned and operated by a boy’s club, the girls also enjoyed the facilities.  In 1913, the YWCA was invited to use the camp.  “About thirty-five” young ladies participated in the first trial of Camp Budd as a girl’s camp.  “Tennis, boating, fishing, walking and quiet little corners where one may read” were the ladylike activities advertised.”[vii]

It sounds like a nice place, but where was Camp Budd?  Although we know it was on Rural Route five that is only a clue.  It took some digging through old post office maps to determine that there were several rural routes that wound a tortuous path all the way past Worthington and into Delaware County’s Orange Township.  The camp itself was located about a mile west of “stop 43” on the Columbus, Delaware, and Marion interurban railroad, according to a clipping held by the Worthington Historical Society.  But even that information is not helpful if one cannot locate a map of the C. D. & M. stops.

            Finally, I turned the whole problem over to the Delaware County Historical Society.  Member Susan Logan, who did the work of hunting through deeds and other old records, finally giving me what I needed:

The location of Camp Budd was on the East side of the Olentangy between Orange Road and Powell Road. . .

            In the same email, Ms. Logan identified the date, if not the reason for the demise of Camp Budd:

 The YMCA sold the property in 1913 to Alfred G. Bookwalter who resold the property to the Glen Olen Club. in 1915. It appears in the index that the The Glen Olen Club subdivided the property and sold 4 parcels in 1953.[viii] 

            So that was the location of Camp Budd.  The camp seems rather a long way into Delaware County to have a Westerville address.  Possibly it had a Westerville mailing address because the staff worked off the premises of the camp?  If anyone has any ideas, contact the Society.

            Camp Budd, as a YMCA camp did not last long.  The name lingered on as a neighborhood moniker into the decades following.  Two moonshine stills were found there in 1921, which could not have pleased Prohibition-minded Westerville.[ix]  The site of the camp, as viewed from  Ohio 315 (looking east) is still countrified but  looking west, a litter of sprawl anchored by a Home Depot, has ruined any hope of seeing the setting of Camp Budd.  The camp, however was closer to the Olentangy River, and while developments are creeping closer, one can still get a glimpse of the setting of Camp Budd, and its Westerville address.

- Alan Borer

Camp Budd Postcard

[i]
YMCA of Central Ohio : a history in pictures / Tina M. Badurina, et al. ( Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing, 2005.), pp. 15, 21.

[ii] Worthington News, July 28, 1955.

[iii] Dispatch, September 6, 1910.

[iv] Dispatch, June 29, 1910.

[v] Dispatch July 17, 1910.

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Dispatch, July 5, 1913.

[viii] Personal communication, November 17, 2023..

[ix] Ibid.