The year 2006 marks the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of our being a Christian camping community at this location in Spencerville, Maryland. Beginning as the Spencerville Free Methodist Campground, then later known as the Maryland-Virginia Conference Headquarters, we are now widely known as “Peach Orchard Christian Retreat Center and Campground.” Formerly used only in the summer, we are now winterized and host visitors year-round. Our earliest known records tell us that Free Methodists in the Washington metropolitan area held a camp meeting in Falls Church, Virginia, in 1889, ten years after the first churches were founded in Washington and Virginia. Christian family camping was a popular social activity, becoming for a time a national phenomenon, often drawing enormous crowds as people came from far and near to be with friends and family, receive spiritual renewal, and escape the summer heat. Through the years as crowds increased and situations changed, new locations had to be found. By the end of the 1920’s, the Washington Free Methodist Church sought to establish a permanent campground, where they could have cottages instead of having to pitch tents. New city fire regulations called for masonry structures. Finding this too costly, Free Methodists went to the countryside of Maryland renting farmland and continuing to camp in tents for some years. In 1931, they were able to purchase land in Spencerville, and, as they say, the rest is history.

The Calvin Butts Memorial Tabernacle

Our grandparents and great grandparents built a campground typical of the day; with a horseshoe type layout of cottages and Quaker style Tabernacle for worship in the center. The Tabernacle had a straw-covered dirt floor and wooden slat benches. But before any building took place, they first had to hack their way through a thick forest. Portable sawmills were brought onto the land, trees were felled, and cottages were built. It was a very exciting time with construction going on for most of the next two years.

Part of our Dining Hall was once a portable, World War I era schoolhouse from Washington, D. C. It was transported by truck to our campsite. All this happened right on the heels of the Great Depression, yet they somehow were able to pull it off. Everybody helped. While the men labored, women cooked over campfires, carried lemonade, and helped with painting. Children assisted where they could. Much of the furniture was quite primitive, and a lot of it was handmade. Not everyone had a car. Many still kept horses. Getting materials to the site was a challenging task. Keeping children clean was another. Wells were dug and people used buckets to haul water. Mosquitoes, skunks, snakes, field mice, ants, and poison ivy were nuisances. A community outhouse was built near where our present retreat center is currently located. (Taking a late night trip by kerosene lamp could be intimidating, so most people kept “chamber pots” or what some families referred to as “slop jars” for such emergencies. In any event, now you know why the grass is so green by the retreat center!) In the 1950’s, it was not at all unusual to have two and sometimes three sittings for the family style Sunday meals in the Dining Hall because of the large crowds. All the churches in the conference closed on the weekends of camp meeting and it was understood that all were invited to attend the camp services. It didn’t matter because mostly everyone was staying over on the campground anyway. Every cottage was occupied. Until about 1978, we had a two-story dormitory next to the dining pavilion, and its rooms were always full. For the first fifty years we had three separate camp meetings, one for family camp, which included the annual conference, one for youth camp, and one for children. Many people’s lives were changed forever. Even today, it is not hard to find someone who will point to this camp as the place where they first came to know and love Christ and his word. Many consider it as “Holy Ground.”

The pulpit

Out of four such campgrounds in Montgomery County, we are the only one remaining. Our property has been up for sale, been in the path of a proposed highway, and sought after by developers. We have had a formal historical context report written about us, and Governor Erlich, himself, has walked our grounds. God’s hand has protected us. We are working very hard to rehabilitate our historic buildings, and it continues to be our vision to provide an appealing retreat environment for all who desire rest and spiritual renewal. Being strategically located between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, some see this as the perfect place for a Convention Center.

The Camp Board has committed to embrace imaginative ways to praise and worship God, strive to be an authentic Christian community that will attract all generations, diligently safeguard our Free Methodist history, yet be bold in seeking God’s will for our future. We have a new camp museum, completed just in time for our Diamond Jubilee Anniversary this year. It is Cabin 108, originally constructed by the Ira Cunningham family from Edgemere Free Methodist Church in Baltimore. My husband, Don Theune, was granted permission by the Camp Board to restore it as a museum. It had been neglected and was on a list to be torn down. Don had a different vision. His extensive renovation project took four months of nearly constant effort. Arn Critzer helped significantly. I then furnished it with period camp artifacts from the past 75 years, plus other items relative to the era of our beginning in 1931. Our initial plan was to set it up as a typical cabin would have appeared in the first years, but the project began to grow as people came forward with historical items for display. We hope you will take time for a tour this week, and we invite you to attend a formal dedication service next Sunday, July 16th, at 2:30, as part of our daylong celebration. We have word that former campers will be coming from around the country. We will have a professional photographer on hand to take a group photo. The noon meal is free to all as the Camp Board’s gift for our Jubilee Sunday. I will speak more about our museum and garden in a later History Highlight.

Update 5/30/2007