History
A small lodge, an infirmary, nine cabins, and an outdoor chapel. That was Camp Marymount when we first opened our screened doors in 1946.
Through the decades that have followed, summer upon summer, hundreds of young campers have descended upon this rolling, wooded expanse of pristine Middle Tennessee soil to experience and appreciate God’s natural gifts.
And thousands have returned home with shared memories that have shaped their lives. Of toothpaste-covered cabins and trunk inspections. Of songs at dawn and songs at dusk. Of friendships and firelight. Of crosses and canoes.
Camp Marymount was established in 1939 originally under the name of Camp Happy Hollow and located in Joelton, Tennessee as a Catholic residential camp owned by the Diocese of Nashville. In 1945 Monsignor George Rohling purchased 147 acres in Fairview, TN, which would provide more space and a better environment for campers. The new camp was named in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and has been the home of Marymount ever since. Camp Marymount saw its first campers in the summer of 1946. In 1948, Senior Camp was added. 1951 brought the dedication of St. Anthony’s Chapel. In 1959 Marymount had 138 campers and 22 counselors.
Today, Camp Marymount has a total of 340 beautiful acres and continues to use many of the original buildings, providing the Marymount camping experience to over 600 campers each summer with the help of 70 counselors and support staff. Marymount is open to girls and boys of all faiths between the ages of six and sixteen. Camp Marymount is now accredited by the American Camping Association and is financially independent of the Nashville Diocese. Marymount campers hail from 18 different states, Mexico and Canada and many of today’s campers are third generation.
Our Camping Creed
WE BELIEVE:
1. That Marymount camping develops sound, healthy bodies.
2. That Marymount camping, through its activities, gives directed expression to a liberty and exuberance of spirit that is wholesome for its youth.
3. That Marymount camping develops a balanced personality and qualities of leadership.
4. That Marymount camping fosters a deep and lasting comradeship between campers.
5. That Marymount camping teaches self-control and self-discipline that makes for strength of character.
6. That Marymount camping uses the beauty, power and solemn wonder of the outdoors in fostering deep spiritual qualities.
That Marymount camping gives a total experience in true living, forceful, inspirational and lasting in its impression on the body and soul of our campers. So complete and appealing a lesson can be taught only in a camping environment where campers are their basic selves, on their own, and where the presence of God can be seen, heard and felt in the forms of nature and in the Sacramental Forms in the chapel.
THIS WE DO BELIEVE. TO THIS WE DO PLEDGE OURSELVES.
