There’s no place like Brown home

By Mary Alice Blackwell

Published: June 22, 2008

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Get Outta Here, a joint effort by the News & Advance in Lynchburg and The Daily Progress, in which we take readers to getaways in their own back yards. The idea is to explore a sight or activity that might offer a real change of scenery without having to travel far to get there. We hope you enjoy.

Some hike for exercise; others enjoy the scenic discoveries waiting at the end of an arduous climb. I prefer the latter. But I knew two things as I descended nearly two miles from Big Meadows on the Skyline Drive, that A.) it was going to be a steep climb back to the car, and B.) I

wasn’t heading to a mountaintop overlook.

Instead, history was waiting.

Camp Rapidan.

It may not be well known to most as a presidential getaway, but it could have been. President Herbert Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, bought the Madison County property with that in mind, but apparently Hoover’s successor wasn’t smitten with the rustic retreat.

A park ranger explained that Franklin Delano Roosevelt

visited the site, but stayed only for about a half-hour. Perhaps it was because the two politicians weren’t the best of friends. Most likely it was because Camp Rapidan was not wheelchair accessible, so FDR established his own Shangri-la in the Catoctin Mountains. It was Dwight D. Eisenhower who later changed the name of the Maryland estate to Camp David.

Still, when Hoover left office in 1932 he donated the 165-acre site to what soon was to become the Shenandoah National Park, with the stipulation that the cabins still could be used by political insiders.

Over the years, they were. Cabinet members, congressmen, a Supreme Court justice, even President Jimmy Carter and his family vacationed at the Virginia camp. Carter and his daughter Amy are reported to have gotten off a helicopter at Big Meadows and jogged down the six-mile fire road that leads to the camp. (They didn’t jog back up.) Vice President Al Gore was among the last of the notable bigwigs to have stayed at Camp Rapidan, better known as Camp Hoover to the locals.

The Boy Scouts had a lease there for 10 years in the 1940s and ’50s, but today what remains of Camp Rapidan is a little-known museum to the 31st president and his first lady.

Hoover, the first president to give away his salary, had declined other offers for a weekend retreat, including one for a $100,000 presidential lodge. Congress even had offered $48,000 toward a weekend getaway.

Instead, the Hoovers used their own funds and purchased the land for $5 an acre and spent another $15,000 on materials. Some people still grumbled that he used the Marines, at taxpayers’ expense, to construct the camp as a training exercise.

Today, three of their original 13 cabins remain. The Creel is used by park personnel; the Prime Minster’s Cabin — Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald stayed in this guest cabin in 1929 — houses historical exhibits; and then there is the Brown House. The Hoovers named the brown building “Brown” because their Washington house was called “White.”

It is decorated much the way it was when Charles and Anne Lindbergh visited the Hoovers. Several pieces, including a cabinet made in Madison County and a long bench in the women’s parlor, were there when the Hoovers moved in. They had decorated their two-bedroom, two-bathroom getaway with handmade furniture, some created by Madison’s E.A. Clore, and other items taken from a decommissioned presidential yacht.

Lou Henry Hoover, the first woman in America to earn a geology degree — from Stanford no less — had a major hand in the construction of Camp Rapidan. An avid supporter of the Girl Scouts, she hired an architect who had built Girl Scout camps to design the Brown House. She showed up with more plans as the work began on the buildings and landscaping. It is her “office” that over looks the huge rear deck and scenic flowing stream.

If she had had her way, she would have preferred that their cabin be little more than a wooden floor covered by a canvas tent, as it had started out, but the Secret Service was not fond of that idea. So for security purposes, the wooden structure was completed … as it still stands today.

Despite the fact that Hoover was in office during the Great Depression, he and Lou Henry were good Madison County neighbors. They gave a loan to a furniture maker when his business was destroyed by fire. They bought a bell for a nearby church. And, when they found out that the local children had no school, they built a school and an apartment for a teacher. Even after they left the White House, Mrs. Hoover followed the children’s progress.

Today, there are still only three ways to get to Camp Rapidan — by foot, by horse (Mrs. Hoover’s favorite) or by a special tour van. The vans are hard to book, so call early if you have any hopes of reserving a spot. Otherwise, wear some sturdy hiking shoes and take some water. You never know what you will discover in the woods.

If You Go:

Hiking: The shortest route is the 4.2-mile Mill Prong Trail. It is steep, with an 870-foot elevation change, and. several creek crossings. Park at Milan Gap Parking Area at Milepost 52.8 on Skyline Drive.

You also can take the fire road from Big Meadows at Milepost 51. It is six miles, but it follows a gravel path all the way to the camp. For a mixture of road and trail, you can follow the horse trail terminus for two miles along this route.

Van Tour: Visit the Byrd Visitor Center or call (540) 999-3283 for reservations. Each van ride is limited to 12 people. The vans run 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; 9 a.m. on Wednesday; and 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.

Admission is free, but you will need to pay to get onto Skyline Drive.

The camp is open through May 24 through Sept. 1.

13 original structures at Camp Rapidan

l The Brown House, the Hoovers’ residence

l The Prime Minister, guest cabin

l Ishbel, guest cabin

l Trail’s End, guest cabin

l Five Tents, first structure built

l The Creel, guest cabin

l The Owl, guest cabin

l The Slums, usually occupied by Mrs. Hoover’s secretaries

l Mess Hall, where most meals were served

l Town Hall, the social hall

l Duty Office, used by Secret Service and Marines

l Mess Servants Quarters

l Quarters occupied by chief commissary officer