Unity House: A Bit of Personal History

In the middle to late 1950s, my family spent two weeks every summer for a few years at Unity House in the Poconos (which was included in the term The Catskills). My late father was then a floor manager for a ladies' sports and swimwear factory and belonged to the ILGWU.

I stumbled across this site where I found this picture



and this one



and here is some explantion:

Name: Unity House
Region: Poconos
Location: Bushkill Falls Road, Pike, PA

A vacation and labor education retreat was operated here, 1919-1989, by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU). Each year it hosted several thousand visitors — including union members, retirees, and public officials — and offered cultural events significant to the labor movement. The only workers’ resort of its size in the U.S., it closed due to declining employment in the domestic apparel industry.

Unity House featured bungalows for families or small groups, an on-site doctor, a chef, and a dietician. The union built an amphitheatre for talks and seminars and brought in professors and other speakers. Members could attend lectures on current events, economics, art and literature, and social psychology. The mostly-New Yorker staff grew to several dozen people over time, including dining room servers, musicians, and a lifeguard. The ILGWU’s decision to rent the facility out to other unions made Unity House a getaway spot for the larger labor movement.

The 1950s and 1960s in many ways saw Unity House at its best. The union began bringing speakers such as Eleanor Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy and labor leader George Meany. In 1956, Unity House opened a new theatre, which enabled ILGWU members to see Broadway shows. In 1962, the AFL-CIO held an executive council meeting at Unity House that again attracted a host of famous politicians and activists. In February 1969, a devastating fire gutted much of the main building.

I will search at home for photographs from that period (so, come back here in a day or two).

There were great memories from this place.

Into the lake (was it Lake Minisink? * ) I was tossed from the off-shore raft by my father as my first experience in learning how to swim.

The raft is center-right in this picture



I recall Jackie Mason as a 'tummler'. It was a great time and I really think that of the many things we did as a family at that time, this was the best, the very best. Sports, outdoors, woods, hikes, visits.



Just great.

More info here and here and more pics here.

An academic article is Wolensky, Kenneth C. 2000. “A Working Class Haven in the Pocono Mountains: Unity House -- ILGWU” [International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union]. In Canal History and Technology Proceedings 19: 69-90. Easton, Pa.: Canal History and Technology Press.

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No, it seems it was Second Pond. Here