Shrine Mont
_A retreat on Spring Mountain
_
The real history of Shrine Mont Camps begins with the establishment of the Shrine Mont Conference Center as a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia's conferences program. This history is well documented elsewhere especially in the writings of George J. Cleaveland (The Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration and Shrine Mont). This narrative will deal with the Shrine Mont Conference Center primarily as it applies to camps.
The camps and their facilities are located in the town of Orkney Springs, established 1808. According to local tradition the area of the town has been inhabited for many centuries, first as a Native American settlement. A likely Native American burial site at Kelly springs a mile or so distant from Orkney Springs strengthens these claims.
For many years before the US Civil War a number of hotels and summer homes were built in Orkney Springs to take advantage of the magnificent and reputedly healthful water flowing from the local springs. The current Orkney Springs Hotel Virginia House building was planned around 1850 but not finished until 1873 because of the intervening years of war and reconstruction. It was under Bishop Robert Atkinson Gibson that Orkney Springs became a center of Episcopalian activity. Bishop Gibson had his summer home in what is now Tanglewood Cabin. He pushed for many years to have year round worship in the Orkney Springs area which the area sorely needed. Eventually year round services were held (first in the ladies parlor in the Orkney Springs Hotel). It was Bishop Gibson's son in law Rev. Edmund Lee Woodward who built the Shrine in memory of Bishop Gibson in 1925. Today the Shrine still stands as the spiritual center of Shrine Mont. Dr. Woodward and his wife Mrs. Frances Peyton Gibson Woodward worked tirelessly for nearly the next 25 years to make Shrine Mont what it is today. They slowly bought houses and cottages and making them part of the larger conference center. Also they established the infrastructure, such as food and hotel services, that still exist today.
In its years of development from 1925 to 1950 Shrine Mont was geared toward the main focus of the Episcopal Church at that time, families. Most of the programs engaged children but always in the context of their parents. In 1951 there was the first definite sign of a shift in focus when the athletics fields were first created. The express purpose of which was to provide a space for sports and other events meant primarily for young people.
The real history of Shrine Mont Camps begins with the establishment of the Shrine Mont Conference Center as a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia's conferences program. This history is well documented elsewhere especially in the writings of George J. Cleaveland (The Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration and Shrine Mont). This narrative will deal with the Shrine Mont Conference Center primarily as it applies to camps.
The camps and their facilities are located in the town of Orkney Springs, established 1808. According to local tradition the area of the town has been inhabited for many centuries, first as a Native American settlement. A likely Native American burial site at Kelly springs a mile or so distant from Orkney Springs strengthens these claims.
For many years before the US Civil War a number of hotels and summer homes were built in Orkney Springs to take advantage of the magnificent and reputedly healthful water flowing from the local springs. The current Orkney Springs Hotel Virginia House building was planned around 1850 but not finished until 1873 because of the intervening years of war and reconstruction. It was under Bishop Robert Atkinson Gibson that Orkney Springs became a center of Episcopalian activity. Bishop Gibson had his summer home in what is now Tanglewood Cabin. He pushed for many years to have year round worship in the Orkney Springs area which the area sorely needed. Eventually year round services were held (first in the ladies parlor in the Orkney Springs Hotel). It was Bishop Gibson's son in law Rev. Edmund Lee Woodward who built the Shrine in memory of Bishop Gibson in 1925. Today the Shrine still stands as the spiritual center of Shrine Mont. Dr. Woodward and his wife Mrs. Frances Peyton Gibson Woodward worked tirelessly for nearly the next 25 years to make Shrine Mont what it is today. They slowly bought houses and cottages and making them part of the larger conference center. Also they established the infrastructure, such as food and hotel services, that still exist today.
In its years of development from 1925 to 1950 Shrine Mont was geared toward the main focus of the Episcopal Church at that time, families. Most of the programs engaged children but always in the context of their parents. In 1951 there was the first definite sign of a shift in focus when the athletics fields were first created. The express purpose of which was to provide a space for sports and other events meant primarily for young people.
