Life in early 1900s labor camps was grueling, marked by harsh conditions, makeshift housing, and a rough social landscape. But Arthur Morgan, Chief Engineer of the Miami Conservancy District, envisioned something radically different. While others saw laborers as transient workers, Morgan saw an opportunity to reshape lives and communities. His progressive vision turned ordinary labor camps into thriving communities, offering not just shelter but dignity, education, and a sense of belonging.
Typical construction camps largely consisted of tarpaper bunkhouses, shacks, or construction cars. An increase in gambling, drinking, and prostitution houses often soon followed. Laborers of the day became a sort of migrant construction worker, often homeless and wandering from job to job. Workers with families had an even harder time adjusting to harsh camp life.
Englewood camp, a general view looking south from spillway bridge,1922.
In contrast, the Chief Engineer of the Miami Conservancy District, Arthur Morgan wanted to offer the workers who built the dams and levees of the Miami Conservancy District a better life. He believed that with the right environment and opportunities, a person’s character could be improved. Considered progressive for his time, he believed in supporting localized cooperative ventures, community building, and cooperation over competition between community members. With these ideals in mind, he required the flood control plan of the Miami Conservancy District provide decent living conditions for the workers: good housing, good meals, opportunities for wholesome social life, and educational advantages. Morgan believed that upscale labor camps, known as the Conservancy Camps, were not only good for the development of the laborers, but that it was best business practice, keeping the “best men on the job”.
To accommodate the workers that were to build the five large earthen dams of the Miami Conservancy District, five full-scale camps were constructed at each site. Each Conservancy Camp housed approximately 150 to 300 people including workers and their families.
Morgan hired renowned city planner John Nolen to design the camp layouts. His wife, Lucy Morgan, designed a series of four sizes of houses with different floor plans, using standard lengths of lumber built efficiently and economically. Nicely wooded locations were chosen and streets were built so they curved among the trees. Houses were painted different colors and set at varying angles to the streets. Aesthetics were not forgotten, and there was a sense of cohesion without bland uniformity. Homes were equipped with indoor plumbing, shower baths, water heaters, kitchen ranges, and electric lights.
Fresh meat and bread were delivered daily to each camp, and large communal gardening tracts were made available for the eager green thumb. General stores were built to offer groceries, work clothes, candy, and tobacco products for purchase.
For socializing, large community centers could accommodate over 120 people at a time. Camps held weekend dances, and the community centers were open nightly featuring game rooms with pool tables. During the summer, each camp even organized a baseball team and participated in inter-camp competitions. Of note that during the 1919 season, the Englewood camp was the league champion, winning seven games and losing only one.
Schoolhouses were built at each camp (except for Lockington, where a village school was already close-by), offering education for both children and adults. The school provided high quality elementary education, and the Montgomery and Greene County school systems recognized the curriculum by granting high school certificates to Conservancy Camp students. Four of the camps offered free night classes to adult employees, with subjects like advanced math, industrial arithmetic, penmanship, English for foreigners, and first aid.
Cottage style number 5 at Taylorsville camp with residents on porch, 1919.
Taylorsville camp supervisor A. F. McCarthy and family in their flower garden, 1920. They lived in a number 4 style cottage.
By 1919, each Conservancy Camp had developed its own community government. Morgan did not believe that the employee’s social lives should be controlled by those in charge of construction. The Taylorsville Association came about first, developing a constitution and bylaws, approved by the residents. The other four camps followed suit, and very quickly the five associations had committees on schools, libraries, entertainment, religious activities, fire prevention, law and order, health and sanitation, transportation, and gardens.
Finally, four of the Conservancy Camps even had a fully equipped first aid hospital where a district physician treated minor injuries and ailments.
Interior view of first aid hospital at Huffman camp, 1918.
Of course, for all the progressive thinking and planning, the camps were not without their share of problems. Within the communities, employees were able to determine their neighbors and neighborhoods; social and cultural patterns of the day were reflected in these choices, and self-segregation occurred and was common between races and ethnic backgrounds. Some reports and correspondence imply the existence of separate facilities for African American employees but it is not well-documented.
In early 1923, after five years, the construction of all five dams was complete. The Miami Conservancy District sold most of the construction equipment and camp buildings at public auctions. Little is known of what became of the community members upon disbandment; Morgan’s hope that the camps would continue as settlements after the project’s completion never came to fruition. While some critics felt the camps were elaborate and unnecessary, Morgan firmly believed that they were a success and contributed to the early completion of the massive project. He also believed that the higher quality camp conditions led to an accident rate that was nearly 85% less than expected for such projects of the time.
One of the only remaining structures still used by the Miami Conservancy District and left in its original location is the Germantown camp mess hall. Today, it is used as a maintenance facility.
Morgan's impact extended far beyond the Miami Conservancy District. He became a pioneer in the movement to create intentional communities around the world, advocating for collaborative living and sustainable development. His belief in the power of community inspired similar initiatives in various regions, where people came together not just to work, but to build a shared future. By championing the idea that everyone deserves a place to call home, Arthur Morgan’s vision continues to resonate, reminding us that the act of building is not just about structures, but about nurturing the human spirit within a collective framework.
References
Morgan, E. (1991). Arthur Morgan Remembered. Community Service, Inc., p. 27.
Purcell, A. D. (2002). Reclaiming lost ground: Arthur Morgan and the Miami Conservancy District labor camps. The Historian, 64(2), pp. 367-390.
