Camp Kiwanee: A 'rustic retreat' for a prominent Boston family

Newport has its mansions, but the South Shore has its own grand historical homes where the public can marvel at the lives of the upper class. Most of these “cottages” were stately homes designed by notable architects. This is part of The Patriot Ledger's summer series "Summer Houses with History."

HANSON – In stark contrast to flamboyance of the Burrage family's Back Bay mansion sits Camp Kiwanee, a summer destination for generations of South Shore children that started out as the summer home of Albert C. Burrage.

Burrage, a Harvard-educated copper baron from Boston, purchased the land on Maquan Pond in 1899, and built a home that was destroyed in a fire in 1907. A large, cabin-style rustic home known as "The Needles" was rebuilt in 1908, along with a stone firehouse and cottage building.

According to historian Timothy Orwig, who drafted the site's application for the National Register of Historic Properties in 2005, Burrage owned "one of the grandest houses" in the Back Bay. The Gothic French chateau-style mansion at 314 Commonwealth Ave. has since been converted into condos, one of which former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady owned until 2008.

Orwig said Burrage acquired a number of homes over the years, but The Needles was truly a summer retreat, complete with the large, shingle, Adirondack-style home that still exists as the main lodge.

"It was an escape for the family and a rustic retreat," he said. "They did their entertaining in Boston, so this was more a place for family birthdays and having a couple of friends over."

Orwig said the name "The Needles" came about because the site had a "great stand of pines and lots of needles that gathered at the bottom of it."

"It's not what people most think about as a place for the rich to go , but it has unique charm that very few other summer places have," he said.

As a man of many talents and interests, Burrage was fascinated with science, Orwig said. He eventually served as president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and was known for raising orchids. The Hanson property was the perfect escape into the woods.

"It was an era when the whole allure of camping became very important. There was a camping movement and the Boy Scout movement that put a lot of value on the rustic retreat," Orwig said. "The family had its fancy home. They didn't need another overly fancy home, which made for a nice transition into Camp Kiwanee."

Burrage sold “The Needles” property to the nonprofit Camp Fire Girls of Greater Boston in 1922. Some of the money for the down payment was raised by the Kiwanis Club of Boston, so the camp became known as the Kiwanis Club of Boston Camp for Campfire Girls. In 1957, it was renamed Kiwanee, which means “spirit of joy and youth.”

Hanson purchased the property in 1979 and turned it into the town’s recreation headquarters.

Today, Camp Kiwanee is a multiuse facility rented for weddings, birthday parties and clambakes. The Needles Lodge remains the centerpiece of Camp Kiwanee, and has an auditorium-style function hall with a capacity of 200 people. A wide wraparound porch overlooks Maquan Pond, which is a popular spot for fishing, swimming and canoeing.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Camp Kiwanee in Hanson was a summer getaway for Boston tycoon