The Swordfish
This cabin was originally built as the camp's infirmary in the late 1930s. For many summers following in the 40s, this cabin housed those who needed solitude and rest from the daily schedule of BRC under the watchful eye of Nurse Elizabeth. Miss Elizabeth worked at BRC for a few decades. Those who attended Birch Rock then remember her Sunday dose of Milk of Magnesia (a dietary laxative) complimented with a Nabisco graham cracker.
As the years progressed, the official infirmary moved across the road to the building where Chief and Onie Brewster resided. Buck and Florence Hard and family took up residence in what we now refer to as The Swordfish and spent many summers there as Chief's primary Trip Leader while Florence raised her children and helped Onie with the daily camp preservation work.
In the early 70s, Fred and Midge took over the building. Fred was the camp's riflery instructor and camp's premier landscaper. Midge assisted Onie at the Library and maintained the Dewey Decimal System file catalog for the camp's ever growing book inventory.
After Chief's passing in the summer of 1973, Nurse Verna returned to BRC as the camp's nurse. She resided in the cabin with three high-spring hospital beds that were impeccably maintained with starched white linen. A gray army blanket adorned each bed footing. Of course, the beds were accentuated with meticulous hospital corners...a staple for Birch Rock's daily inspection process.
The cabin was left vacant a few summers until the Doug Dickey family arrived in 1980s...and more than a dozen other different senior counselors resided randomly each summer during the late 80s and 90s. It was during this time that cabin was named by its flag adorned with a Swordfish.
Returning to Birch Rock as the camp's first full-time and year-round administrator, Rich Deering took up official residence of the Swordfish in 1995 until the present day.
The cabin features a screened in porch/bedroom, main room with a Glenwood woodstove, a front door double wide stainless kitchen sink, a bathroom with a shower stall and a back bedroom facing North and East. The cabin was blessed with a new metal roof in 2001 and rejacked up on posts in 2002. The shower stall was added in 1990.
