Then and now: Camp Rich always popular

Camp Richardson in the 1950s. Photo/CampRichardson.com

Into the 1950s, a large two-story frame building stood center on the Camp Richardson beach.

Upstairs featured a hardwood dance floor and bandstand stage. Downstairs was storage for rental kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, small boats, and bicycles. The single-story wing (at right) was a snack bar, fronting Camp Rich’s original pier and rental shack (just right of photo).

Camp Richardson today. Photo/Bill Kingman

Remnants of that building’s concrete foundation remain today. The pier is gone. The structure visible at far left was a wood frame summertime rental cabin named Austin. (Al Richardson named his rental cabins after historic cars). I stayed there in 1950. Here’s the same beachfront today.

The snack shack, far left, and what it looks like today.

After that old two-story beachfront structure was razed, a new brick snack bar and storage barn combination was built in the mid-1950s on the Austin cabin site. In summertime, its roomy storage area became the dance floor replacement for the old demolished building. It was especially popular with teens, complete with a jukebox. Do you remember “seven plays for 25 cents”?

Camp Rich, above left, before, and above is now.

South Tahoe High School class of 1959 had its graduation party there.

This 1950s snack bar and storage building evolved into today’s Beacon restaurant in the mid-1980s.

— Bill Kingman