Background The
Rand School of Social Science was a
Socialist institution in
New York City, founded in 1906 and governed by the American Socialist Society. The school enrolled five thousand students annually between 1910 and 1920 but often did not have enough capital to cover operating costs. The
Lusk Committee, led by
New York state senator
Clayton Lusk, was investigating what it regarded as "subversive activities" and attempted to close the Rand School by injunction.
Establishment and development Camp Tamiment opened on June 21, 1921, and its first visitors were 65 members of Local Allentown, a Socialist party. The camp was designed "to diffuse a general knowledge of literature, art and science through the medium of lectures, publications, and dramatic performances." It earned an operating profit in its first year and became self-sustaining after 1923. Between 1937 and 1956, Camp Tamiment funded between half and three-quarters of the Rand School's annual operating budget. In December 1922, Mailly referred to the camp as a "great aid and inspiration" for the Rand School. She said, "It enabled us to give the young men and women the thing they need, the joy of living to which they are entitled. They study with us. We teach them how to think in the right direction and in their leisure hours, we prove to them that we know how to play." The PECS board had envisioned Camp Tamiment as a country summer school, but Mailly and manager Ben Josephson chose to turn the facility into a regular resort. Political subjects were progressively downplayed while swimming, tennis, and calisthenics became the most popular activities. and would be referred to as "a progressive version of the
Catskills..." The facility included a 90-acre lake The golf course has been ranked among the top 200 U. S. courses by
Golf Digest magazine
Later years and dissolution The government took notice of Tamiment's tax exemption and would later characterize it as "one of the largest, most modern, and most profitable resorts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." The camp decided to acquire the title to the Rand School's library, the Meyer London Memorial Library and Reading Room, in order to continue its tax exemption. (The PECS dissolved the Rand School while its library, renamed the
Tamiment Institute Library, moved into the
Bobst Library at
New York University in 1973.) After multiple court appeals, the PECS lost its case for tax-exemption, and in 1963 Tamiment's parent corporation had a tax bill of almost ninety thousand dollars. He sold Tamiment in 1987. Lawrence Squeri wrote in 2002 that the facility "no longer has the New York liberal Jewish flavor that made it unique." In March 2005 Tamiment owner Suong Hong sold the resort for $64 million to developers Greystone Capital Partners of
Paoli, Pennsylvania. The firm started auctioning off Tamiment's contents on May 14 with the intention of demolishing the resort buildings. As of 2011, Greystone was planning to build over 200 residential condominiums on the 2,200 acre property. At the time of its sale, Tamiment was considered "...a pillar of the Poconos tourist industry." ==Tamiment Playhouse==