Hilltop Camp & Summer School for Girls

Frank M. Hohenberger photos courtesy, The Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, (dates unkown).

~by Julia Pearson

The first camp in Brown County opened in 1924 on the ridge known as Town Hill just southeast of Nashville—and it was for girls. The summer camp movement, in its infancy in the United States at this time, provided an experience in natural surroundings for many youngsters to thrive and transform in body, mind, and soul.

Hilltop Camp was the vision of its founder and administrator, Kate Andrews. Spending her early years in Seymour, she returned to Indiana after graduating from Wellesley College, doing graduate work at Chicago and Columbia Universities, and traveling in Europe. An accomplished educational administrator, she taught at multiple Indiana high schools and seven years at Western College in Oxford, Ohio. She was the principal at Seymour High School for 15 years, followed by a nineyear tenure as Dean of Women at Hanover. Andrews visited Brown County and built the “Valley View” cabin for her own use in 1916.

With certified teachers on staff, the Hilltop Camp and Summer School for Girls was accredited by the state board of education, thus providing advanced and remedial academic offerings for its attenders. Seven girls attended that first year. The three Nashville girls went home at night, while the others stayed in log cabins.

Cabins were built by Brown County homesteaders in the 1800s from Weed Patch Hill and the Helmsburg area. They were dismantled and reassembled on the hilltop. Four cabins were eventually increased to ten cabins, each identified by name: Skyline, Bluebird, Wren, Lookout, Rush, Hoot Owl, Chipmunk, Pee Wee, Wood Thrush, and Whippoorwill. Seven were designated for the girls, with a dining room, and two cabins for the director and staff.

The number of campers increased to around 100 girls, ages 6–18 years, from Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Missouri, Florida, and all parts of Indiana. With the passage of years, the facilities expanded to include an outdoor theater, tennis courts, swings and see-saws, and trails.

There were two four-week sessions that lasted for two full months, going from mid-June to mid-August. Through 1941, fees were $135 for a full season and $75 for one term. Fees were later increased to $150 for two terms and $85 for one term. Days began at 6:30 a.m. and depending on age, bedtime was 8:00 or 9:00 pm. The program was comprehensive, with tutoring by licensed teachers in Latin, English, math, and history. There were classes in music, drama, art, and physical education. Morning art classes had girls learning to make hooked rugs, weaving, basketry, sketching, pottery, and leatherworking. Pottery was fired by Walter Griffiths of the Brown County Pottery.

At the close of each session, the public was invited along with family and friends of the campers to an exhibit of the girls’ creations. A celebratory tea was provided, with a dramatic presentation from Booth Tarkington, Louise May Alcott, and selections from Shakespeare.

With staging, costuming, props, and lighting for the productions, plays were offered on the last Saturday of each four weeks’ camp session in the amphitheater. Sometimes as many as 300-400 people attended when the plays were at the outdoor theater near the state park’s lodge.

The girls experienced trips to the Brown County State Park, Bear Wallow, and the T.C. Steele studio, plus pajama dances, skits, cabin parties, overnight campouts, horseback riding, and bridge parties at the Nashville House. The girls produced their own newspaper, Kamp Kapers.

In 1933, the camp was expanded by 80 acres of the Linke farm, so that boys could also enjoy the activities of Hilltop Camp. The recreation area, dining room, and kitchen made use of the farmhouse, with the cooks staying in the small “Pee Wee” cabin just across the road. Food was prepared with vegetables from the camp garden. It is reported that $2,000 worth of groceries were purchased from local sources each summer to feed the hungry campers. Boys and girls of Hilltop Camp walked to a nearby swimming hole on Salt Creek in the hot afternoons before the park lodge had a swimming pool.

After her marriage to Thomas J. Weaver in 1935, Kate Andrews wintered in Chicago, returning to Brown County to administer the camp. Illness and age compelled her to withdraw her involvement with the camp and it was permanently closed in 1947.

Eventually the buildings with the surrounding property were sold for private residences.

One of the cabin’s current residents, Kara Barnard, channels the spirit of creativity, strength, and talent that inspired the Hilltop Camp and Summer School for Girls a century ago. She is a musician and artist, sharing her music magic as a performer and teacher. She also collects and generously shared the historical tidbits contained in this story.