Under United States management The United States
48th Infantry Unit under Captain Robert Rudd established Hill Station in the current site of Camp John Hay in 1900 during the
Philippine-American war. The site is referred to the locals, the
Ibalois, as "Kafagway" and is owned by Ibaloi leader
Mateo Cariño. of the land was then designated as "Camp John Hay", a military reservation for American soldiers, in October 1903 when US President
Theodore Roosevelt signed a presidential order. American military personnel were given a place to refuge from the relative hotter temperature of the lowlands. The
15th Infantry Regiment had a small detachment at Camp John Hay in the 1910s prior to the Great War. The field staff and the bulk of the regiment were near
Tientsin, China during this time.
World War II In December 1941, Japanese warplanes dropped 72 bombs over the main gate of the camp during the onset of
World War II in the Philippines. Camp John Hay served as an internment camp of the Imperial Japanese forces as well as the headquarters of General
Tomoyuki Yamashita during the
Japanese occupation period. When the Japanese forces in the archipelago capitulated, Yamashita surrendered to the Allied forces at Camp John Hay, specifically at the
High Commissioner's residence which was later renamed as the Ambassador's Residence.
Under the Philippine government and redevelopment It was officially turned over the Philippine government in July 1, 1991 with Tourism Secretary
Rafael Alunan III in attendance. The plan was to convert Camp John Hay into a resort. In 1995, the Baguio City Council endorsed a potential commercialization of Camp John Hay setting conditions for its support of a master plan for the former American installation. In 1996, the
Bases Conversion and Development Authority entered into a deal with Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevco) of Robert Sobrepeña to convert the Camp John Hay into a commercial development. Among the first additions was the 187-unit, four-storey Manor Hotel which had a soft opening on December 1, 2001. In 2015, the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center nullified the 1996 lease between BCDA and CJHDevCo due to mutual breaches and ordered the latter to return control of the complex and its facilities to the BCDA. Following protracted appeals, the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2024, with the BCDA reassuming the property in January 2025. ==Features==