Camp Uncas

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title: "Camp Uncas" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["adirondack-great-camps", "national-historic-landmarks-in-new-york-(state)", "buildings-and-structures-in-hamilton-county,-new-york", "national-register-of-historic-places-in-hamilton-county,-new-york", "residential-buildings-on-the-national-register-of-historic-places-in-new-york-(state)"] topic_path: "general/adirondack-great-camps" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Uncas" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox NRHP"]

Field	Value
name	Camp Uncas
nrhp_type	nhl
image	1899-Stoddard-Uncas-gate-L.jpg
caption	Camp Uncas gate in 1899
nearest_city	Raquette Lake, New York
coordinates
locmapin	New York#USA
built
architect	William West Durant
added	April 3, 1987
designated_nrhp_type	October 7, 2008
mpsub	Great Camps of the Adirondacks TR
refnum	86002937
::

Camp Uncas is an Adirondack Great Camp, the second built by William West Durant for his own use. It lies on the shore of 110 acre Lake Mohegan, near Great Camp Sagamore, and was completed in two years.

Previously Durant had built Camp Pine Knot, which he sold to industrialist Collis P. Huntington, due to financial difficulties

History

The camp was built of logs felled on the property, and all iron hardware was forged on site. In the main lodge and dining hall, the log construction was unusual in that the logs were not interlocked, as in conventional log buildings, but rather were pinned together at beveled corners. The scale is massive: the dining hall is 24 by, the walls 12 ft high at the eaves with a cathedral ceiling 20 ft high at the ridge, with a huge fireplace on one side. Floors, walls and ceilings were all of polished planks and peeled and polished natural logs.

In 1896, Durant sold Uncas to J. Pierpont Morgan with 1100 acre. After Morgan's death in 1913, the camp stayed in the Morgan family until 1947, when it was sold to the widow of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who also owned Sagamore. General and Mrs. George Marshall, as guests of Mrs. Vanderbilt, entertained Madame Chiang Kai-shek at Uncas in 1949. Mrs. Vanderbilt left Uncas to a foundation, which sold it; eventually it was bought by the Rockland County Boy Scouts who used it as a camp. In 1975, it was returned to private use.

The camp was included in a multiple property submission for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, and was listed there in 1987. The camp was designated a National Historic Landmark on October 7, 2008.

References

Sources

Gilborn, Craig. Durant: Fortunes and Woodland Camps of a Family in the Adirondacks. Utica, NY: North Country Books, 1981.
Gilborn, Craig. Adirondack Camps: Homes Away from Home, 1850-1950. Blue Mountain Lake, NY: Adirondack Museum; Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
Kaiser, Harvey. Great Camps of the Adirondacks. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982.

References

{{NRISref. 2007a
(5 September 1983). "VOTERS TO DECIDE BATTLE OVER UPSTATE CAMP". [[The New York Times]].
(20 July 1967). "OLD MORGAN CAMP BOUGHT FOR SCOUTS". [[The New York Times]].
(7 October 1975). "State Buys Vanderbilts' Adirondack Camp". [[The New York Times]].
Gobrecht, Larry E.. (July 1986). ["National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Great Camps of the Adirondacks"]({{NRHP url). National Park Service.
(October 14, 2008). "Interior Designates 16 New National Historic Landmarks". [[United States Department of the Interior]].

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