By Dakota Antelman – [email protected]
If developers get approval to build a proposed 237-unit housing development on Forest Ridge Road, construction vehicles will roll straight through what’s now Camp Thoreau.
The day camp, which dates to 1951, has occupied four different properties over the years, according to an interview for the Concord Oral History Program.
As developers pitch a new vision for the current site, staff are preparing for yet another move — and nostalgic camp alumni are considering how Concord’s need for affordable housing shapes the situation.
One alumnus said he’s heartbroken and hopes the developers reverse course.
“That particular location has provided so much joy for people in life that it would just be a shame for it to be taken away like that,” Kadin Ali said in an interview with The Concord Bridge.
Keith Callahan, who helps manage Camp Thoreau and the adjoining Thoreau Club, said staff know how important the camp is to local families. “We want to continue that tradition,” he said.
2022 sale
Camp Thoreau and the Thoreau Club were part of a family business that, for decades, operated out of a site on Old Marlboro Road.
The Pulis family moved operations to Forest Ridge Road in 1998 and kept running the company until 2022, when they sold to Callahan and the Boston-based Pinebrook Group.
Callahan spent nearly six years as the Thoreau Club’s general manager and COO. He became CEO of Pinebrook’s athletic club division after the sale.
Callahan said the proposed housing development, known as The Residences at Thoreau, “wasn’t even on [the] radar” when the Pulis family agreed to sell.
Pinebrook started seeking approval for its project in late 2023, roughly 18 months after it bought the club.
Ali learned about the proposal in late 2024. In his interview, he remembered Camp Thoreau as “a home away from home.”
“You can’t put a dollar amount on the value of Camp Thoreau,” he said, referencing his belief that Pinebrook is pursuing a more lucrative land use with its housing plan. “I feel like that’s what’s being done here.”
Camp memories
The current Camp Thoreau features ropes courses, trails, an archery range, and two swimming pools around a cluster of cabins. Programs run in two-week cycles and can accommodate about 175 children per day.
Jay Bell worked as a counselor in the 1990s and said he has fond memories of his time at the old site. He said campers and counselors spent most of their time in nature and huddled in cabins only during summer downpours.
Bell helped run archery programs and recalled leading “super arrow hunts” to find arrows that missed their targets.
When Camp Thoreau moved to Forest Ridge Road he said, the Thoreau team preserved its magic.
“The geography can change,” he said, “but the underlying greatness of it doesn’t.”
Bell said he hopes Camp Thoreau finds another new home. At a time when other traditional camps have closed, though, he said the challenge of finding undeveloped land raises a question: “Is this just sort of a bygone thing?”
Michael Goodwin, who was a camper and a counselor at the Old Marlboro Road property, said he hopes the program will continue in a new spot, adding, “It’s hard to argue against [affordable housing].”
Affordability concerns
Pinebrook proposed The Residences at Thoreau under the state’s Chapter 40B affordable housing law. The legislation lets developers sidestep zoning regulations in some communities and has put the Thoreau proposal on an all but certain track toward approval.
If current plans proceed, developers would place affordable deed restrictions on 60 of their units.
Goodwin remembers Concord in the 1980s and 1990s as a “slightly more economically diverse place than it is now.” Over time, Goodwin said, Concord lost some of its diversity.
He said new projects like The Residences at Thoreau present an opportunity.
“There is a lot of value in creating affordable housing for families that can then access it,” he said.
Ali said he supports affordable housing. With The Residences at Thoreau, though, he said he thinks the developers are using it “as a guise to seem like it’s an altruistic sort of thing.”
Over his years as a camper and a counselor, Ali said he thought people who would want to raze the Forest Ridge Road site “wouldn’t ever end up owning the camp.”
“I guess I was wrong,” he said.
Site search
Callahan said staff are “actively looking” for a place in Concord or other nearby communities to relocate Camp Thoreau.
The current camp covers roughly six acres. Callahan said a new site could range from four to 10 acres.
Though Callahan said the move is “a couple years” away, he said, “it’s time to start that process.”
Underpinning all discussions, Callahan said, is a mission to preserve the program’s spirit.
“Our goal largely is to duplicate what we’re doing now,” he said. “We know it’s very successful and it’s the type of experience that we want to provide for the campers and for their families.”
Ali finds little comfort in the search and said he still wants to do whatever he can “to help preserve this beautiful place for future generations.”
‘The kind of noise I like’
Part of the archery range at the current Camp Thoreau runs close to the property line of neighboring homes on Black Birch Lane. While residents raise concerns about a new housing development, many agree the camp brings a welcome dimension to their summers.
Gary Clayton said he loves hearing the sounds of children playing in the woods. Even if Camp Thoreau finds a new home, he said he will be sad to see it go.
Neighbor Rob Kenna agreed, saying in a separate conversation with The Concord Bridge, “That’s the kind of noise I like.”
