Green Lake Conference Center 2014 Special Edition Volume 46 | Page 45

Winnebago Indians ~ Farm ~ Country Club Christian Conference Center Stone Development Company The Stone Company spent another $3 million developing a luxury gated resort in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They constructed what is now Roger Williams Inn (1930) with 81 guest rooms, a dining room, bar, casino, an outdoor swimming pool, and the Links golf course – in magnificent Scottish links style. Walter Hagen was in the first foursome to play the new course. Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Vince Lombardi have also played the Links. Twenty-five fine homes were built as well. As a result of the stock market crash in 1929 and the Great Depression which followed, buyers for more lots failed to materialize and Lawsonia went into receivership in 1931. The bank holding the mortgage operated it for about 10 years, but gas rationing during World War II and the continued stringencies of the depression forced it to close the gates and seek a buyer who would take it off their hands. Temporary WWII German POW Camp From June until October 1944, the U.S. Government rented William Carey Barn by the front gates and some cottages as a temporary camp for German prisoners of war. Approximately 400 POWs were housed here and worked at nearby canning factories. Baptist Assembly Jessie’s dream of 1888 was matched by the dream of Dr. Luther Wesley Smith. In the summer of 1943 Dr. Smith, Executive Secretary of the American Baptist Board of Education and Publication, asked David Witte, of the Wisconsin Baptist State Convention staff, about finding a place where his dream for a national conference center could come true. Witte mentioned a “fabulous former estate” at Green Lake. With typical fervor Dr. Smith persuaded the caretaker to let him take a look. By the end of the year he had enlisted the aid of James L. Kraft of Kraft Foods, Inc., as well as leaders of the denomination. Lawsonia, valued at $11 million, was purchased for $300,000 in December, 1943. Baptist youth held the first conference in June 1944. A dozen other conferences followed in the first season and the slogan “For a Closer Walk with God” was adopted. The conference center became a key meeting place for great Baptist leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at Green Lake July 23, 1956. His subject was “Nonaggression procedures to inter-racial harmony” as he began to articulate this new way to resist racial injustice in the midst of the Montgomery bus boycott. Visit our Web site, www.glcc.org, to read his speech. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. spoke at Green Lake July 23, 1956. Green Lake Conference Center has been busy the last 20 years investing in improvements to provide first-class facilities for guests in this beautiful location. This includes the construction of Kern and Bauer Lodges, Carroll Youth Center, four cottages, the renovation of most pre-existing accommodations and the construction of a new dining room and welcome center equipping us to provide a great experience and A Closer Walk with God for our 21st century guests. * * * Photos used with permission from the Dartford Historical Society and Green Lake Conference Center archival collections. 43