Impressed by the pristine beach and background of dunes, cliffs and wooded land found ideal for a combined vacation and recreational and religious activity, the Christian Endeavor Society settled the area of Sagamore Beach in 1905. Grounded by an Assembly Hall built in 1907, the Sagamore Beach Colony Club was founded in 1909, which gave birth to a variety of programs, speakers of national fame, and traditions indoctrinated then and thriving today.
Life by the beautiful Cape Cod Bay continues to thrive as a year-round community, remaining vital because of the many families who gather here to support and bond with the community focus of its residents. We have been “worthy of the challenge to perpetuate for our inheritors that which has been left to our tender loving care,” as hoped for by an ancestor, Dottie and Don Clark. While many of the houses of Sagamore Beach have weathered more than one hundred years, so also have the traditions of family and neighborhood support.
Colony Club members of Sagamore Beach feel it be both a place and a gift and perpetuate the conviction that mutual responsibility toward one another is both a heritage and a charge. The Introduction to the club’s first membership booklet in 1976 invites members “to accept and be part of a long tradition which has endured only because of the willingness of individual members to shoulder the yoke of responsibility again and again” and “convey to our children that these traditions must be in a constant state of repair; the flame must be kindled again and again…For the flame is fragile, however beautiful the light.”
The children and traditions continue to thrive at our Day Camp. The Day Camp, now over 100 years old and overseen by a volunteer camp committee, became a registered and licensed recreational camp in 2008. Member’s children and grandchildren of camping age separate into age-specific groups with professional directors in place, to begin their weekday at nine, bring their lunch and head for home at 1:00 PM. Swimming, tennis, field games, arts and crafts, and teamwork were, and continue to be, the essence of the 8 week program, culminating in a spectacular Camp Show, with Clark Hall filled to capacity. What began as a summer camp for summer residents has become a licensed, neighborhood Day Camp with up to 100 participants. To also engage the community teens not quite of working-permit age, a Tot to Teen Tennis Program was formed in 1977 and continues today with weekly matches against area tennis clubs.
Other activities which have carried us through the last three decades have been the annual Fourth of July parade and field games, a very successful family night with a DJ for parents and children, golf and tennis tournaments, Monday-night bridge, a Reading Circle and the more recently organized Arts on the Beach programming, to name a few. While the spirit of the Colony is alive and well, so also is the treasury that supports the varied lands and buildings necessary to the club’s activities. Please visit site page Club history for more information about our past. With your participation, our community spirit will continue to thrive.