Glen Echo Family Nudist Park

Toronto Gymnosophical Society (TGS)

 

1955 - 2009

Glen Echo, also known as Toronto Gymnosophical Society, emerged from the residue of Sunglades members left after their president absconded with the assets in 1953. Old magazine listings continued to bring in new applicants, mostly British and German immigrants, who joined with the remaining Sungladers on 28 February 1954 to form the Toronto Gymnosophical Society as a new beginning. Eight couples and two singles attended the first TGS meeting, which elected the first executive board.

Mary and Eddie Todorowsky (c.1965)

Then a small miracle happened. While the TGS executive was negotiating futilely with a variety of farmers and real estate agents, another member couple, Eddy and Mary Todorowsky, was quietly and systematically conducting their own search for land. Although both came from Saskatchewan, they had met in Toronto and had visited local beaches for clandestine skinny-dips. They married in 1949, and while they were on honeymoon at Wasaga Beach, Eddy spotted Sunbathing for Health on a newsstand (it was still not available in Toronto) and this introduced him to organized nudism. They later joined the Toronto club.

On 11 September 1955, fifteen families and five single members gathered at Glen Echo to hold the first General Meeting in their new home. Everyone could see the potential of the abandoned lumber camp, with its central valley and weed-infested creek gurgling somewhere under the brush, all surrounded by wooded hills. The club secretary, Bill, recognized the site after his own explorations. “Eddy, by devoted labor, had brush cleared and grass mowed, so that we were able to drive right in, to a lovely parkland rolling down to the creek” (which had been uncovered at last). At the meeting, owners and members agreed on the “plan of operation” and the “scheme for progressive development.” Briefly, it was understood that Eddy and Mary owned the land and were responsible for all development there. In return for making this land available as “a beautiful and permanent place for nudism,” TGS agreed to remit all membership and ground fees, other than modest office expenses, to the landowners, who were also entitled to all cabin and campsite rents. Because of the demands on all members to help develop the club, this “understanding” was not formalized in a written agreement until 1962.

The centerpiece of the camp was a large pool created by bull- dozing the river bed and damming the water to create a pond 200 feet long and 4 feet deep. The first pool was ready by 1956, then enlarged in 1958 and again two years later on a grander scale, becoming the two-acre Lake Echo, complete with its own little island. By this time the club also had a children’s wading pool. Further amenities included volleyball courts, washrooms and showers, and motel units. TGS maintained members’ interest during the long winter months by hosting social events such as pot luck dinners, parties, and dances in members’ homes or in rented halls, and by arranging indoor recreation activities like swimming in a rooftop pool in downtown Toronto and volleyball at the Oakville-Trafalgar High School. By 1960 the effort to improve the grounds had largely succeeded. Glen Echo was well established as a campground, but TGS board members lacked the determination to push for further development at a time when a new generation of full-service resort clubs made its appearance in the United States and Canada. “While there is still much to be done, the general appearance and amenities are now thoroughly satisfactory and this drive has been lost.” The reluctance of TGS to increase fees or membership num- bers meant that efforts by the owner-manager to undertake developments and improvements werefinanced on a hand-to-mouth basis. At the annual general meeting on 17 July 1967, Eddy informed members that “Glen Echo is not paying its way,” and asked for full control over club operations: in other words, a straightforward proprietary operation, without the awkward intermediary of a “society” whose executive lacked a stake in the camp. The written agreement between the owner and TGS, signed only five years earlier, could be terminated at any time by mutual consent (Article 12), and members “agreed to this in a free vote.”

This decision and the subsequent fee increase allowed Todorowsky to begin a new phase of construction, starting with the all-year clubhouse in 1973. The central feature was a 25-by-50 foot heated indoor swimming pool, accompanied by sauna, whirlpool, and indoor washrooms. Upstairs he installed a large lounge with pool and ping-pong tables, snackbar, and office space. In 1979 a visiting ASA officer wrote that “TGS was a beautiful club and a real nudist atmosphere,” and so it has remained, as a Toronto Sun reporter found in 1995, on the fortieth anniversary of Glen Echo.