History

Many years ago, (circa 1900’s), it was customary for many of the elite golf clubs to have caddies available for their golfers. Since many of these courses were in some remote areas, there were not enough available local people to fill all the open caddy positions. One of the golf clubs and elite hotels, “The Maplewood”, in Bethlehem NH found itself in this same situation. Discussions ensued between the North Bennett Street School and Norman Franzeim and soon the Maplewood Caddy Camp was founded. The original camp was very crude, to say the least. Once an old slaughterhouse and now it housed young men, mostly from the North End area of Boston, who had been given a chance to become self-reliant and had the opportunity to learn the value of hard work and self-discipline. In the 1950’s, now under the directorship of John T. Dexter, Mr. “D”, a new camp was built at Maplewood and the difference between the old and new was extraordinary. The list of applicants each year grew greater and greater and in 1956 a second camp, Lake Tarleton, was opened and many more of these young men were able to get that “caddy camp experience”. Lake Tarleton was followed by Clausons in 1963, Oyster Harbours in 1970, and Wianno in 1973. Unfortunately, due to many changes in the economy and golf course management, the last remaining caddy camp, Oyster Harbours, closed in 1983 and ended the caddy camp era of the North Bennett Street School.
Through this website, our Caddy Camp Alumni Group, “The Lady Of The Fairways Shrine”, and the help of many, we are hoping to keep alive the memory of those days gone by and what the camp experience meant to each of us.