How it started.
Shut out of Boston’s clubs. So they built one of their own.
In 1893 a group of Black and Jewish men in Boston were shut out of the city’s hunting and fishing clubs. So they built one of their own. The Pullman porters among them scouted Lake Cobbosseecontee on the run between Boston and Maine. They got to know the Goodwin family, who owned land on the lake. The Goodwins leased it to them for one hundred years, for one dollar. They built a dining hall and a lodge, named it the Cambridge Gun and Rod Club, and opened it that August.
By the 1920s the camp drew lawyers, judges, ministers, and scholars. W.E.B. Du Bois was a member, not a founder. He came back summer after summer and treated the camp like his Walden Pond. The boxer Joe Louis came as a guest. The men’s chapter still takes the first full week of August. In 2026 a women’s chapter joins.
The grandson of the Goodwin who first leased the land is the caretaker of the camp today.
The beats.
A group of Black and Jewish men in Boston wanted a hunting and fishing camp of their own. They found Lake Cobbosseecontee, leased the land from the Goodwin family for a hundred years, and opened the Cambridge Gun and Rod Club that August.
Doctors, lawyers, ministers, scholars — W.E.B. Du Bois among them — come back summer after summer. By the 1950s the membership is almost exclusively Black.
From its earliest days, CGRC has been connected to the West Gardiner community, actively participating in and hosting a variety of local events. These activities, including fishing derbies, not only highlighted the club's commitment to local engagement but also reinforced the connection between the club and the surrounding community.
Individuals and families come back, year after year. Many split August between camp and the Vineyard. In 2013, as our century-long lease concluded, a small group of members stepped forward to purchase the club.
Members will be supporting rehab and restoration projects in the dining hall, kitchen, and lodge. Maintaining its foundational values of inclusivity and community engagement, this year the club opens to a women+ chapter
The club starts looking at a second property.
The papers, in one place.
W.E.B. Du Bois was a member of the Cambridge Gun and Rod Club for more than two decades. The W.E.B. Du Bois Papers at UMass Amherst hold thirteen documents that touch the camp, between 1920 and 1947. We have put them in one place.
Another century to put in.
Join the waitlist. Or follow along the 2026 season.