St. Anthony’s Camp
Students leafing through old yearbooks are always surprised to see pictures of a swimming pool. The story is another little-known chapter in the history of the school.
Each summer, from approximately 1950 until the opening of the day school, a unique camp was conducted at St. Anthony’s. Under the aegis of Brother David, elementary school boys who were encountering academic difficulties were provided with a combination of remedial schooling and camp activities.
They slept in the Juniorate dormitory and had classes each morning in one of the four classrooms then located on the second floor. In the afternoon, they swam in the pool, constructed especially for the camp, or enjoyed other typical camp activities.
With the advent of the day school, the camp had to be discontinued because the dormitories had been eliminated. Eventually, the pool fell into disrepair and was filled in. The boys were told that the Board of Health had ordered the pool filled in, and they immediately blamed Mr. Vilbig, a science teacher who was also an inspector for the Board of Health.