Camp David renamed

Camp David renamed
05/1953 AD visited

From the Dwight D Eisenhower Presidential Library:

The presidential retreat on Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain may have been established by President Franklin Roosevelt, but it was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who made it a household name.

Eisenhower planned to close the Catoctin compound and divest the government of other "needless luxuries" when he took office in 1953. However, a Justice Department inspection trip to the site led by Attorney General Herbert Brownell so enthralled the AG that he filed a mock "Petition for Executive Clemency" on its behalf. In defense of his "client," Brownell wrote "Petitioner states that she was convicted without a hearing in the White House... and was sentenced to embarrassment, ignominy, and possible transfer or obliteration."

Brownell’s petition and a trip by Ike to the camp in May 1953 changed the hideaway’s fate. The mountaintop retreat would survive with one significant change. While FDR and President Truman called the compound "Shangri-La," Ike re-named it "Camp David" in honor of his grandson David Eisenhower.

The name change rankled Democrats. Representative Michael J. Kirwan of Ohio derisively noted that renaming the camp was the only thing the "Eisenhower Administration accomplished without Democratic help" during the new president’s first year in office. There was talk of the name reverting to "Shangri-La" after Eisenhower’s presidency, but President Kennedy vetoed the idea and Camp David it remained.

Hauvers, MD

Lattitude: 39.6607° N
Longitude: 77.4817° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 1953 MORE