From
1912 until 1962, Camp Gallistella was the only university housing
available to students with families as well as the least expensive
summer housing in town. Camp Gallistella , the unofficial name
for the U.W. Tent Colony, provided summer school students with
rustic accommodations on the wooded lakeshore of Lake Mendota in
what is now the North Shore Woods in the Campus Natural Areas.
The name "Camp Gallistella," which is how the tent colonists
referred to their community, provides two clues to life at the
lakeshore colony. The softer, more affectionate name speaks to
the solid sense of community, a quality remembered by all of the
tent colonists I have spoken with as well as those who left written
records in The Breezes, the newsletter of the colony
which began in 1920. Most families cherished the mix of simple,
close to nature, communal life and sought to repeat as many summers
as they could. It was common for families to return to the tent
colony for four to ten years while one or both parents matriculated
towards an undergraduate, or more typically, a graduate degree.
Students found time for work as well as leisure at the UW. Source:
Tom Brock Archives
The
second clue in the name "Camp Gallistella" points us directly
to Eleanor Munn Gallistel, the wife of Albert Gallistel, UW Superintendent
of Buildings and Grounds. The Gallistels lived in the old cottage
on the east end of the tent colony, which was on the site when the
university purchased the land. Although Albert Gallistel was the
official supervisor of the tent colony from 1919 until his retirement in 1959,
Eleanor voluntarily admininstered its affairs. Once each summer Eleanor Gallistel
hosted an annual tea party on the porch of the cottage. She provided the lace
tablecloth set with wildflowers in vases while the women, donned in skirts
for the only “formal” event of the summer, brought homemade cookies and brownies.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Gallistel were honored at various cook-outs by the ever-grateful
campers for making their summer accommodations healthful, affordable, and congenial.
The tent colonists made the most of their surroundings. While
the men donned ironed shirts and ties to attend summer school classes,
their wives managed their children, their small budgets, and their
improvised households by sharing their limited resources. The children
enjoyed fishing, swimming, and collecting mulberries in the old
daisy field. Singing around a campfire was a regular Sunday night
event, and each summer colonists held a variety of picnics, skits,
and the annual Water Carnival.
Several factors led to the closing of the tent colony despite
protests from loyal tent colonists. Additional apartments were
built for married students at Eagle Heights Apartments in the nearby
pasture. Noise from construction of the Cove, a large apartment
building at the west end of the tent colony, began to disrupt the
sense of peace and quiet. The Gallistels retired in 1959, and with
that the tent colonists lost their strongest sponsors. The colony's
tent platforms and study halls were in need of repairs at the same
time the number of students who attended the University only in
the summer began to dwindle. Camp Gallistella closed at the end
of the summer in 1962. The feelings of harmony and goodwill that
were nurtured there continue to live on in the hearts and minds
of the tent colonists and their children.
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