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A Look back
in time ...
Our beginnings...
THE
HISTORY OF LAUREL RIDGE AND SOLAIR
Taken from SOLAIRAMA, published by Pat in 1957
The promotion of the Solair Recreation League
began on June 14, 1934, with three individuals in active
participation and ten or twelve prospects who had been contacted
through the I.N.C.A small, but beautiful campsite was located
within a week and it was on this where the few outings of the
first season were held. This place could have been purchased
for only $150, but before sufficient enthusiasm could be raised
to produce this amount of cash, the property was purchased by
another party, so the group was left to search elsewhere for a
playground. The first season, there were only three paid
members, but in all, twelve adults and one child attended the
outings. The receipts for the first season were $30.00 with
expenditures of $20.92.
The following spring, 1935, the group set out
early and on July 20, after driving hundreds of miles in search
of a camp, they secured a small farm of thirty-five acres. This
they leased for the remainder of the season, only as temporary
quarters, for it had no satisfactory facilities for bathing. At
this camp, the first organization was formed with the election
of officers: President, Vice-President, Secretary, and
Treasurer. However, the President lasted but three weeks and
then resigned the office and disappeared. The managerial work
of the club then fell onto the Secretary and Treasurer. During
the 1935 season, the paid membership mounted to twenty-one, but
in all the season fifty-five adults visited the camp. The
receipts for the season were one hundred eighty-five dollars
with expenditures of eighty-seven dollars and nineteen cents.
Again, in the spring of 1936, the search for a
camp-site was on and many miles were covered before a place was
secured which seemed suited for the purpose. This was a
forty-acre corner of a large farm which included a beautiful
lake. In some respects, this place was ideal, but in other ways
not so desirable, especially in its lack of privacy. It was not
a place which could be continued with any degree of certainty.
At this camp, the paid membership was raised to twenty-four, but
there was a total of sixty-four adults and three children who
visited camp that season. The visitors were mostly prospects,
but due to unsettled condition as to the camp, the members did
not succeed in enlisting many. The receipts for 1936 were one
hundred ninety dollars and expenditures were one hundred seventy
two dollars and fifty-nine cents.
As spring of 1937 rolled around, the group found
itself again without a playground and so decided to make an
effort to purchase a permanent camp, if a suitable place could
be found. Their efforts were soon rewarded in finding the
present camp site. This finding was reported to the group at a
meeting in Worcester on April 10, 1937. So impressed were those
present with the description given by Mr. Charles Alexander,
Treasurer, that a committee was created to proceed with
negotiations for the purchase. A survey of the property was
made on May 2, 1937, from which a map was drawn and sent to all
members of the club and to desirable prospects, along with a
circular letter giving full description of the property and its
possibilities. The response seemed to warrant going ahead with
the purchase. By May 11, when the deed was drawn up, there were
sufficient funds in the hands of the treasurer to meet all
requirements. Each member and prospect had also received the
proposed financing plan and all its details.
At the onset, it was planned to finance the new
camp by selling shares and paying dividends. A co-op camp was
intended and Solair members were asked to contribute. (On the
first land payment of $1,000, $500 was raised and $500 was
borrowed.) The place was to be called Laurel Ridge. The people
who paid into these early beginnings were called Laurel Ridge
Associates, as well as Class A members of Solair. They
automatically became owners of Laurel Ridge. Those who did not
contribute became tenants of Laurel Ridge and Class B members of
Solair.
All newcomers were received as Class B members
of Solair Recreation League and were not considered for Class A
membership, or Laurel Ridge Associate membership until they had
been in camp long enough to be judged congenial and truly
interested in the camp. The Laurel Ridge Associates worked long
and hard through the years to clear and build up the camp. They
gave of their time and money, over and above their annual dues.
Laurel Ridge Associates landlords made no personal gains. They
loved the place, believed in the movement and wished for other
congenial persons to join with them and, in time, to help make a
truly co-op camp whereby the tenant and the landlord basis could
be dropped as speedily as possible.
In October of 1952, the subscribers certified,
“that we do hereby associate ourselves as a body politic and
corporate under the statute laws of the State of Connecticut;
and that the name of the corporation is LAUREL RIDGE INC.” and
with these words, the management of Solair as we know it today,
five years later, was born. Who were these people who saw the
advancement of Solair under this new arrangement? The
incorporators were three men, tried and true – Irvin, Bill (our
present director) and Stephan.
The amount of capital stock, authorized, and
subscribed for at the outset was thirty shares of Common Stock
having a value of fifty dollars each and for all of which there
was paid the full amount of sixteen hundred dollars – six
hundred in cash and one thousand in property.
The first corps of officers included Al as
President; Archie, Vice-President; Lydia, Secretary; Bill S.,
Treasurer; Jud, Assistant Treasurer; and the members of the
first Board to serve the corporation were Al, Bill and Jud.
It is significant to look back on these humble
beginnings and to realize that at this year’s (1957) annual
meeting, there were one hundred and two shares of capital stock
outstanding. In five years, the investment of the eleven
original subscribers has more than tripled.
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