Join us to celebrate the on-going restoration of the Historic Sycamore Mess Hall.  Music, light refreshments, and memories of life-changing experiences that took place at the Sycamore Group Camp will be shared.  

Learn about the restoration effort to bring the historic Sycamore Group Camp and Mess Hall back into life after 30 years of non-use. Built during the Depression by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Sycamore Mess Hall first opened to the Public in 1937.

We will have the Hillsborough-based Phillips Phamily Band https://www.facebook.com/PhillipsPhamilyBand playing blue grass music.  We will also have conversations with folks that have stayed at Sycamore in their youth. They will tell us what it was like and how it impacted their lives.

Schedule:

12:30-2:00pm    Open house of Sycamore Mess Hall and some cabins

12:45-1:50pm     Music by Phillips Phamily Band

2:00- 3:00pm      Program in the Sycamore Mess Hall.  Welcome and restoration update from The Umstead Coalition. 

Hear first-hand accounts of what it was like to stay at the Sycamore Group Camp in the 1940's and 1950's. Our guests will include:

Tommy Hunt of Durham was a camper in the 1940s with the Durham YMCA.  Later he worked as a counselor.

Rex Jarrell, of Raleigh was a camper in the 1940s with the Durham YMCA.  Later he worked as a counselor.

Barbara Parramore, a longtime educator, camped with her fifth grade class for a week in 1954.  She will also share reflections from others who camped in the Park in it's early days.

3:00-4:00pm       Open House and music continues.  Optionally join Rex Jarrell or Tommy Hunt for a short walk and talk around the Sycamore Group Camp.  Umstead 100 and Umstead Coalition representatives will be available to share restoration progress and plans.

Also during event:

Light refreshments, including birthday cakes to celebrate William B. Umstead State Park's 80th anniversary (Our Park since 1934).

Video camera station available for folks to have their stories about Sycamore and Umstead State Park area recorded.

Informal conversations with folks that stayed at the group camps.

Items for sale:  Stories in Stone (Park history book), t-shirts, calendars, and more. 

 

Also, please consider helping with restoration work days on  May 23 and May 27 (see our event calendar for future work days as well)