PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release

March 9, 2009

“Southold Historical Society announces Spring Exhibit on the Historic Camp Pinecrest Dunes."

SOUTHOLD, NY.  The Southold Historical Society is pleased to announce this year’s spring exhibition “Camp Pinecrest Dunes in Photographs:  1931-1970” will open to the public on April 4th, 2009.  It will be on display in the Ann Currie-Bell House's Mayne Gallery on Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4pm, through on view through June 7th, 2009. 

Pinecrest Dunes was one of Southold’s most successful summer camps almost from its inception.  This humble institution had its beginnings in New Jersey, where its founder was born and raised.  It was unlike the other camps that were located on the North Fork – these included Camp Annunziata (Catholic girls), Camp Molloy (Catholic boys), Camp Mineola, and St. Thomas’s Beach Camp (for the less fortunate parishioner’s of St. Thomas’s Church in Manhattan on east 60th Street) in East Marion – because so many had been founded by religious, and not secular forces.  Pinecrest Dunes would be the place where anyone could attend, regardless of religion or social class.

"Everyone who ever attended the camp has fond memories of their time there," stated Geoffrey Fleming, the Historical Society's Director.  "The founders, Mr. & Mrs. Tom Ward, created an atmosphere that was fun while also being educational for the many children who attended," he continued.

The exhibit, which includes images from all four decades of the camps history, will also include memorabilia form the camp as well.  Badges, pins, flyers, records, and promotional catalogs, some dating back to the 1930's, will also be displayed in the gallery.  A number of items from the former camp office, including a toy model of the old jeep that ferried Tom around, shall be included in the display.

After the camp closed in 1970, the site was purchased by Suffolk County and is now occupied by Peconic Dunes County Park which continues the tradition of Tom Ward’s camp with an environmental education center and annual summer camp.  But for those who remember the great summers spent in Peconic, there will never be anything like Pinecrest Dunes, one of the premier camps ever created on eastern Long Island.

The exhibition will be on display in the Ann Currie-Bell House's Mayne Gallery on Saturdays and Sundays, 1-4pm, through on view through June 7th, 2009.  The house is located at the Society's Museum Complex, located at the corner of Maple Lane and Main Road in Southold, NY, 11971.

For further information, or if you have questions, please call (631) 765-5500.