The Williamstown Boys’ Club: A Brief History

Charles R. Keller, Brown Professor of History, Emeritus, Williams College

CLUBS IN THE EARLY YEARS, 1901-1928

What is now the Williamstown Boys’ Club had its origins in the Progressive movement in the early years of the twentieth century. It was part of the reawakening of the spirit that led people to think about groups that needed special attention and were not getting it.

As early as 1901, Judge Tenney here in Williamstown suggested that something be done for the young men of the town who had “no clubhouse, no YM.C.A., no decent library.” Under the leadership of Professor Lewis Perry weekly meetings of a group of boys were held in 1902. Later Dr. Perry stated in a letter that “he felt that we ought to do something for the small boys of the town.”

In a paper written for a Williams course, History 9, Thomas Belshe, Class of 1952, said that the first mention of a club in the records of the Mills Young Men’s Christian Association, the predecessor of the Williams Christian Association, was in 1905. By 1910-1911, 215 boys belonged to seven clubs in which the emphasis was on athletics, hikes, and occasional debates. Williams students ran these clubs and also led Boy Scout troops and taught Sunday school classes.

During World War I all such activity was suspended. Soon after the war ended the Boys’ Work Committee of the Williams Christian Association, with Charles Noble ‘21 and Hiram Lyon ‘22 among the leaders, resumed student work in the community. Undergraduates conducted religious services in small churches and chapels that had no ministers.

Frank Balke entered Williams in 1920 as a member of the Class of 1924. Almost immediately Hiram Lyon asked him to help at the Methodists’ Chapel on Henderson Road, not far from North Hoosac Road. Here Mr. Balke began to teach a Sunday school class in which were a dozen boys, eight to fourteen years old.

When they asked him to help them form a Boy Scout troop, he had a problem, for some of the boys were too young to be scouts. So – Mr. Balke decided to set up in the Clark Chapel Boys’ Club (CCBC). Before coming to college he had served in the Navy during World War I and had met young men from all walks of life. After the war he was a counselor at the summer camp at the Hotchkiss School – his school – for Jacob A. Riis Settlement House boys from New York City. On several occasions he visited the Settlement House and saw a good boys’ club in action. He also knew about the pre-war clubs at Williams.

CCBC began with about a dozen boys in less than a year increased its membership to forty. Lack of space prevented adding new members. Mr. Balke has written, “Several people have given me undeserved credit for ‘founding’ the Williamstown Boys’ Club.  I wish that I could have that credit but I can’t honestly do so.” He is correct; clubs existed in pre-World War I days, and the Club appeared after he left Williamstown. But – Frank Balke made an important contribution in time, money, and ideas to the boys’ clubs that shortly became the Williamstown Boys’ Club. In many ways, CCBC set the pattern for the later club. Mr. Balke had a great influence on the lives of a number of Williamstown youth and was a part of what was – and still is – an example of town-gown relations at their best.

Other neighborhood clubs appeared. The Junior Outing Club was joined by the St. John’s Club, sponsored by the Episcopal Church. A third club was set up in Blackington with some North Adams boys as members. The fourth club was in South Williamstown. An attempt to organize a club in Pownal was unsuccessful. Membership in the four clubs never exceeded 100 in the early 1920’s – according to Mr. Balke.

Quite a few students were involved in the clubs – as directors, athletic coaches, officials at the athletic contests, entertainers, and camp counselors. In a letter Mr. Balke mentions three townspeople who did much to help the clubs. James Ferguson, proprietor of an electrical store on Spring Street, started radio clubs. Willard Moody, who had “great musical talent and dedication,” organized a bugle and drum corps, with the help of William Scribner, an accomplished musician and manager of the New England Telephone Company.

What were other club activities? Athletics of course, intra- and inter-club baseball, football, boxing, wrestling, volleyball, ping-pong, tugs-of-war. Unique at CCBC were “about -fifteen minutes of military drill (after the business session) to kick off each meeting.” Mr. Balke also writes proudly – and he should – that CCBC “organized a 4-boy color guard, a crack outfit that would have been able to hold its own against most American Legion posts.” Men like George Lindley and George Franz remember and praise the military discipline that was part of CCBC. “It taught us self-discipline,” they say.

The program included occasional hikes on Saturdays, trips, hay rides, and sleigh rides. Swimming took place at Sand Springs during the winter, in a brook in South Williamstown – “Sucker Hole” – in warmer weather. Instruction in such Boy Scout basics as first aid, hygiene, signaling, knots and splices, and woodcraft was available. The Boy Scouts of America manual was used as a text.

Story-reading and story telling hours were enjoyed. And Mr. Balke writes:

At most clubs the last half hour or so usually would be devoted to some kind of group game, such as, for example, tug-of-war, circle tag, rough house, duels with rolled newspapers, between legs relays, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, grip contests, horse and rider fights, etc., etc.

Each year a Big Brother Banquet was held, at first in the college gymnasium and then in Currier Hall. Williams students bought tickets for themselves and for boys as their guests – and sat with them. Quite a crowd was present at each banquet.

Summer camps were important. The first Camp Lyon, named for Hiram Lyon, Class of 1922, president of the Williams Christian Association, was held in 1921 at Barber’s Pond in Pownal, Vermont. It lasted for five days, with twenty-five to thirty boys in attendance. The next year the camp was moved to a lake near Berlin, New York. Thirty-five boys attended for ten days. In 1923, 1924, and 1925 the camp was located on the west shore of the Stockbridge Bowl in Lenox, with as many as eighty boys each summer.

Camp Lyon was a great success. Activities included swimming, boating, calisthenics and military drill, hiking, camp fires, and team sports. The program was modeled on that of a camp in West Virginia that Frank Balke had enjoyed as a boy. The grounds were policed carefully; there was close supervision and real discipline – with college and older high school students in charge. The boys were enthusiastic about the experience and came back year after year. Requests for admission to the camps from boys in several towns in the area had to be turned down.

The Annual Report of the Williamstown Boys’ Clubs for 1926 – 1927 and letters from several Williams alumni tell more about the clubs. Kenneth Kepner, class of 1928, was president of the Boys’ Work Committee of the Williams Christian Association. The Report shows that a new set of by-laws have been adopted at the beginning of the year which stated that the object of the Committee was:

… to organize boys’ clubs in Williamstown and vicinity under the leadership of competent college men of good character, the purpose of which shall be to teach friendship among boys and those things not taught in schools which tend to develop manliness, self-reliance, good sportsmanship, a sense of responsibility and all around clean living and high ideals among men and boys.

This statement fits boys’ work in Williamstown – from the beginning and in later years.

The four clubs still existed: CCBC on Henderson Road, the Junior Outing Club that used the high school gymnasium, the Mohawk Club headquartered in the basement of the Greylock School in Blackinton, and the South Williamstown Club. This last club, which had been housed in what is now the Little Red Schoolhouse and for a while in the recreation hall built for Mt. Hope Farm employees – this by special permission of the Prentices – now met in the South Williamstown Congregational Church. Francis Nichols ‘26 writes about the Model-T Ford pick-up that he used to transport boys to and from meetings in South Williamstown.

Something new had been added. The Boys’ Club Committee had secured the use of the Spring Street School as a central headquarters and a clubhouse. This building was available because the Mitchell School was operating on School Street. Only a few of the needed repairs were made.

Club programs were much the same as they had been, but some new features had been introduced. Joint meetings for athletic activities and speakers were more frequent. The Committee had fixed up a reading room in the clubhouse. Sponsored by the Williams Christian Association, a Christmas party was enjoyed by 120 boys. The big Brother Banquet was continued, and a Father and Son Weekend, a great success, was added, with the clubs cooperating with the Hi-Y Club of the Williamstown High School. Activities took place at Broad Brook School on Saturday and in the high school auditorium on Sunday. A banquet in the high school cafeteria on Monday evening, with 185 people present, climaxed the weekend.

Through kindness of the college, members of the clubs were able to use the college swimming pool on Friday evenings. A track meet was held on Weston Field; many boys played basketball; “Sucker Hole” out near Mt. Hope Farm was deepened and enlarged. The Williamstown Board of Trade helped the athletic program by giving a cup “to be presented to the club winning the highest percentage in athletic events and joint meetings.” Fred Connors was the “Champion” of the year 1926-27.

Under the direction of William M. Kirby, a Williamstown resident, another bugle and drum corps was formed. The corps played at the last joint meeting and marched in the Memorial Day parade. Hikes and trips were continued. Students organized a rifle club which had twice-a-week practices in the basement of Jesup Hall, and they set up an employment agency to help boys get jobs. In addition, they created an Older Boys’ Association which met in the Spring Street clubhouse and also made use of the Y.M.C.A. in North Adams. Before this time boys had to leave the clubs when they reached the age of fifteen. Also, for the first time, activities were carried on during the summer in the new clubhouse.

Camp Lyon was again a success, this year at the north end of Stockbridge Bowl. Seventy-one boys had two weeks of camp in late June and early July with college students in charge. The camp was on property owned by Miss Mary Tappan of Boston who was present on the final evening when prizes were awarded. The boys thanked her for her kindness, and she in return “told them how pleased she was that they were able to enjoy her lake front.”

During the year 1925-27 a little over $3,200 was spent for general maintenance, the club building, Camp Lyon and summer work. The money came from the Welfare Association, club dues, a dance, Father and Son Banquet tickets, and gifts – with the largest amount $2,100 from the Williams Christian Association. Kenneth Kepner, present of the Boys’ Work Committee as has been mentioned, writes that Karl Sutherland, a printer on. Spring Street, L.G. Treadway, owner of the Williams Inn, and Brainerd Mears, professor of chemistry at Williams, were much interested in the clubs.

In the “Foreword” to this 1927-27 Report President Garfield of the college wrote:

There have been times when the influence of the Williams Students has been, at least in some instances, harmful rather than helpful to the boys of Williamstown. The establishment of the Boys’ Work Committee overcame the harmful influence.

Student involvement in the clubs makes it clear that the 1920’s were more than a “jazz age”, at least in Williamstown.

THE CLUB APPEARS, 1927-1941

In March 1927, affiliation with what is now the Boys’ Clubs of America took place. Soon afterward, sometime in 1927-28, John Comellier, a resident of Williamstown who had been associate director of Camp Lyon, became the first non-student, paid superintendent of The Williamstown Boys’ club in which the neighborhood clubs were merged. The headquarters were on Spring Street.

In September 1928 Raleigh Hobson entered Williams, and almost immediately he was involved in Boys’ Club activities. He became superintendent in 1931, unpaid while he was a student. Then for two years after graduation, 1932-34, he was the paid superintendent – with a modest salary. After the school building was torn down in 1932 to make the site available for the Post Office, the Club operated out of a nearby building.

Mr. Hobson reports a membership of about 400 boys – a figure that seems high. Activities were many and varied. At the clubhouse were the pool and billiard tables; numerous clubs organized; hikes were frequent. Most popular were athletics. Football- usually three teams of different age groups up to high school varsity age. Basketball – eighteen to twenty teams in three or four leagues, all ages including a senior team for young men out of high school. Baseball- one or two teams. Swimming in the college pool. The coaches were Williams students.

“I have always felt,” Mr. Hobson writes, “that participation in these sports was a great benefit to the boys. We stressed good sportsmanship, teamwork, and the development of skills.” He believes that the Boys’ Club experience was in part responsible for the remarkable success of Williamstown High School teams during the 1930’s. Coach Theodore ”Ted” Sylvester agrees.

The summer camps at the Stockbridge Bowl were enjoyed by many boys – and by Mr. Hobson. He comments on the way in which the Boys’ Club brought together the town and college communities.

In October 1934 the Club moved to its present headquarters in what had been the Cole Avenue School, and Edgar (“Ned”) Walden became the Executive Director. The age of Club members was from eight to twenty-one. The Club had its usual athletic program and made good use of its new clubhouse. Rummage sales were held to raise money. Big Brother Banquets in the college’s Currier Hall and Father and Son Banquets in the Mitchell School cafeteria were continued. The boys enjoyed especially Christmas parties at the fraternity houses – with gifts.

Beginning in 1934 summer camps also had a new location on Northwest Hill in Williamstown which became the permanent site for many years. Activities included swimming, softball, track, archery, touch football, horseshoes, campfires, a treasure hunt, and a watermelon hunt. There were four one-week sessions; the cost was $2.00 a week.

Professor Elbert C. Cole of the Williams College Biology Department was active in Club affairs. He and others hoped for more assistance from Williams students. One student who responded was Francis B. Sayre, Jr., a sophomore in 1934. He helped in the clubhouse – in a building badly in need of repair – one or two afternoons a week, “promoting basketball games and any other going activity.” He got to know many boys; he visited some in their homes; he took them on hikes. Father and Son Banquets he remembers well. In a letter he pays tribute to Ned Walden as a man who took on “a far from easy job and did it with humanity and persistence.”

In this same letter Mr. Sayre, now dean emeritus of the National Cathedral in Washington, D. c., writes:

By the time I was graduated from college, my association with the Boys’ Club had become one of the most rewarding experiences of my four years in Williamstown. My horizon had been immeasurably enlarged. I had many friends in the town and with them had come to know the countryside and their place – and mine – in it. I was touched when some of these friends actually stood by to see me at graduation.

Another student who responded a little later was Oz Tower, Class of 1941. For two winters he spent ten hours a week at the Club, and he has many pleasant memories of his experiences. Now back in Williamstown, Mr. Tower is vice president in 1979 of the Club’s Board of Directors.

STRUGGLE AND SURVIVAL, 1941-1968

World War II threatened to halt Club activities, but a determined effort to keep things going was successful. The leaders were: Executive Director Ned Walden, who resigned in 1942, and Ted Sylvester, who began an eleven year executive directorship in 1943 – and George M. Harper, professor of classics at Williams and president of the Board of Directors. In the summer of 1942 a Williams student, Richard King, Class of 1944, ran the camp on Northwest Hill. During 1943- 44 the Club was helped by the Navy V-12 unit at the college and by a few civilian students. Money was raised for the Club by Navy “happy hours” at the Adams Memorial Theatre.

With the ending of the war the Boys’ Club was ready to go ahead at full speed. Ted Sylvester, universally liked and respected, had been executive director for two years and would continue in that capacity for nine more years. The Club was firmly established on Cole Avenue in a building badly in need of the complete renovation that it was not to get until 1968-69. In a fine building bee a new camp headquarters was constructed on Northwest Hill.

Ted Sylvester spent many hours a week – afternoons and evenings – at the Club. He needed more help than he received. Post-war students had different interests from those of pre-war students. The Club had about 200 members; dues were $l.00 per year; activities were much the same as they had been earlier. Swimming once a week at the college pool was enjoyed by about ‘100 boys. Banquets were continued as were Christmas parties at fraternity houses.

Summer camps at Northwest Hill, with Ted Sylvester in charge, were well attended. The charge went up from $2 to $4 to $6 a week, but financial help was available for boys whose parents could not afford to pay. The Williamstown Rotary Club and Lions Club helped.

Talk of discontinuing affiliation with the Boys’ Club of America occurred in 1948. Mr. Sylvester recalls very little contact with – or help from – this group. In 1953 the Club was incorporated, and the following year it was reorganized as an associate member of the national body. In this same year William (“Bill”) McCormick succeeded Ted Sylvester as executive director and served in that capacity until 1959.

In that year John Chandler, then a young member of the Williams faculty, now president of the college, was president of the Club’s Board of Directors. Much time and effort were devoted to enlarging and improving the camp up on Northwest Hill, and considerable labor went into improving the clubhouse. Mr. Chandler members picking up things for the rummage sale, and he recalls the annual Boys’ Club dances. He writes:

My experience enabled me to know and appreciate many fine citizens of the community who had no connection with the college. And it also brought me into closer association with some Williams students who were much devoted to the Boys’ Club.

In a Report written in 1961 by William Clark, John Chandler’s successor as president of the Board of Directors, a look is taken at the Club during the preceding seven years – and during its entire history. Current activities not previously mentioned were: movies, shuffleboard, model airplanes, weight lifting, soccer, photography, and a Halloween party. Summer camp was for six weeks – four of overnight camping at $10 a week and two of day camping at $1 a day. Scholarship funds were available for campers. The clubhouse was open five nights a week from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., not afternoons and evenings as in previous years.

From 1921 to 1959 membership in the Club had averaged more than 170 a year, over one-third of the boys in town aged seven to seventeen. In 1954 the Club had 257 members, more than half of the boys in the age group just mentioned. An average of thirty-five boys a night used the Club facilities. Dues were $2 a year.

Expenditures for a year were about $6,500. Dues and donations accounted for small amounts; $2,500 came from the United Fund, $2,000 to $2,200 was contributed by the Williams College Chapel, directors raised $1,400. In 1958 and again in 1959, the Town appropriated $1,200 for the Boys’ Club building, most of which had not been received. Both the exterior and the interior of the clubhouse were described as “below standard”. Some repairs had been made, but many more were needed.

In this 1961 Report the Directors replied to criticisms and made a strong case for the Club. They believed, they said, that it had played an important role in serving the recreational needs of the boys of the community. They added:

The Board feels that if the Town will do its share in keeping up the Club building, we will be at liberty to ask the different service clubs to assist in equipping the building properly.

What the Directors said was true. The Club – and the clubs – had done much for the boys of Williamstown.

Despite the fact that very little was done to the Cole Avenue headquarters, the club functioned well in the 1960’s. Membership went as high as 500. Activities were similar to those in the 1950’s, with the emphasis on athletics outside the clubhouse. Summer camps on Northwest Hill continued to be well attended.

John (“Jack”) Lesure, full-time executive director 1961-66 and 1969-71, mentions the Williams, North Adams State, and high school students who ran or helped with Club programs, and lie pays a special tribute to the townspeople – including parents – who were involved. Big Brother Banquets were discontinued, as were Christmas parties at the fraternity houses. (Williams fraternities were abolished in the early 1960’s.) Young men who were in the Club in this decade speak highly of Jack Lesure. Moore Dodge, executive director 1966-68, has been described as “strict but a good leader who commanded respect and was very athletic.”

In 1962, the club was reorganized as a full member of the Boys’ Clubs of America. Four years later the Town sold the clubhouse to the Club for $1. With residents of Williamstown who were Sprague Electric Company employees active on the Board of Directors, frequent discussions of the need for expansion took place. Then came the remarkably successful fund drive of 1968 and the renovation of the clubhouse in 1968-69.

ADJUSTMENT AND PROGRESS 1968-

To Winthrop Wassenar, Albert Scherr, Richard Hunter, George Morehouse, Howard Coulter, Wendy I Reis, William Hart, Guilford Spencer, Walter England, and others goes the credit for a fund drive in which, with a goal of $125,000, more than $13 2,000 was raised. The response was a testimonial on the part of the community to the value it placed on the work done by the Boys’ Club over the years. It showed that the people of the town realized the Club needed and deserved a renovated clubhouse. William M. Kirby, Jr., whose father had formed a bugle and drum corps many years before and who as a boy had been a member of the Club, was the architect for the renovation.

The building was opened for full use on April 14, 1969. People who knew the clubhouse before the changes were amazed and delighted. Ten years later it remains an excellent center for youth activities.

During the 1970’s the Club has been in the capable hands of Peter Roissing, executive director 1971-75 and since August 1976, Peter Hopkins, program director 1974-75 and executive director 1975-76, and Caroline Burch, program director since January 1976. With dues of $7.00 a year and age limits six to seventeen, the membership totals 640 in 1979, 360 boys and 280 girls, approximately one-half of the young people in town in the age group just mentioned.

As early as the summer of 1969 the Club introduced a program for girls. Soon after Mr. Roissing became executive director, he brought girls into the swimming program and organized a co-ed swimming team. Next a soccer program for girls was set up. Since January 1975 girls have been members of the Club on the same basis as boys. In 1979 Mrs. Jane Allen is present of the Board of directors and other women are on the Board. Bringing girls into the Club gradually was a good idea. A Club that had its origins in the Progressive movement early in the twentieth century was part of the Equal Rights movement in the 1970’s.

About 150 boys and girls are involved in Club activities every day. Renovating the clubhouse made a real difference. In pleasant surroundings the program includes story hours, dance classes, boxing, wrestling, skating, some basketball, chess, ping-pong, cards, pocket pool, jet hockey, and kick soccer. Members and their parents enjoy a form of the College Bowl quiz program. Recently introduced is “Homework Helper” which aims to provide help for students who are having trouble with their schoolwork or to give them a quiet place to complete school assignments. Proposed are two new programs: “Alcohol Education” and “Youth and the Law”: the clubhouse is open from 2:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, for longer hours during school vacations, and from 9:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The athletic program is rich and varied from girls and boys. Instruction in sports is available as well as opportunities to play on teams. Soccer and flag football are played on the Mitchell School field, tennis on the town court, volleyball and basketball at the new Flagg-Sylvester Gymnasium. Swimming takes place at the college’s Muir Pool, hockey at the Williams Chapman Rink, skiing at Jiminy Peak. In the spring the Little League takes over baseball, but the Club offers softball and lacrosse.

No longer are their Father and Son Banquets, but a Williamstown Boys’ Club Awards Banquet is held each spring in Baxter Hall. Many youngsters enjoy Halloween parties at Broad Brook School and Mitchell School and a Christmas party at the Clubhouse.

Numerous problems have forced the abandonment of the Northwest Hill site for summer camps. The Clubhouse is now the starting place for four two-week sessions of camp experience in state parks in the area and at Jiminy Peak, which has an alpine slide. Travel is by the Club-owned bus. Activities are planned for rainy days. The fee for each two-week session is $38.00 with scholarships available. Thirty boys and girls – ages six to twelve – are accepted for each session. A staff of eight adults goes on each trip.

A program for adults – recently introduced -includes: tennis lessons, a women’s fitness program, women’s volleyball, and a chess club. The town tennis court, the Flagg-Sylvester Gymnasium, and the Clubhouse are used.

In 1979 the Club is operating on a budget of $14,700, of which two-thirds comes from the Williamstown Community Chest and the town’s Recreation Committee. Sources for most of the rest of this amount are the SnowBall dance, program fees, and membership dues.

The Williamstown Boys’ Club began a Williams College student venture. It has become a community project in which townspeople – many of them parents, students, and an active Board of directors work with the executive director and the program director. They can be proud of what the Club has done and is doing.