Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
When Mr. John Thomson founded the Longford Lumber Company he made his home at the farmhouse next to the shipping wharf on Lake Couchiching and called it the 'White House.'
Mr. Thomson died in 1881 and his son, William, later acquired Geneva Park next to the White House property. Geneva Park, with its 97 acres, was sold in 1908 to the national YMCA.
In the 1930s, a group of individuals from the Anglican Young Peoples Association rented property from the YMCA.
They camped out in tents and called it the “White House Camp”, named after the Thomson farmhouse on the property. In 1945 the site was purchased from the YMCA and the next year Camp Couchiching was founded with the construction of a dining hall and several cabins.
Today the “White House” is gone but despite the current restrictions, Camp Cooch continues to provide one of the finest children's camps in Canada offering traditional camping programs as well as leadership development.
