Missionaries buy 1,800 acres in Dover Plains
An evangelical Christian group has purchased a former summer camp for the poor in Dutchess County to serve as its world headquarters and to support mission work.
World Olivet Assembly Inc. paid $30.8 million for 1,800 acres in Dover Plains.
“Basically, it’s a missionary group that wants to spread the gospel,” said spokesman Terence Michos.
The property was once owned by New York City Mission Society, an organization that was founded in 1812 to inspire hope to the masses of immigrants arriving in the city. The society began sponsoring camping trips for African-American children in 1929 and eventually established camps in Dutchess County.
By the 1950s, the society operated Camp Minisink, Camp Sharparoon and Camp Green Acres. In 2005, it sold the campgrounds.
For now, the property will be used for offices. Eventually missionaries will be housed and trained there.
“We are bringing it back to its original religious purposes,” Michos said., “What was decisive for us is the fact that New York Mission Society used to reside on the property, serving and raising social workers.”
The grounds have a conference center, dining facility, lodging and recreational facilities. After the missionary society sold it, it was used as a private hunting and fishing reserve.
World Olivet Assembly bought three separate properties, from Chippawalla Properties in Wingdale, Douglas and Kristin Londal of Bronxville, and Fraser Conservation LLC, also based at the Londal’s Bronxville address.
The $30.8 million came from the organization’s own funds and from a fundraising campaign, Michos said.
The site is one mile away from Olivet University in Wingdale. The bible college was founded in 2000 in Seoul, Korea by an evangelical pastor, the Rev. David J. Jang. The Wingdale campus is an extension of the main campus in San Francisco.
Michos described World Olivet Assembly and Olivet University as partners but distinct legal entities with separate boards of directors. Anthony Chiu is general secretary of the Assembly.
The Wingdale bible school also has a storied past. It is on the grounds of the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center. The hospital operated for 70 years and housed as many as 5,000 patients during its peak in the mid-1950s. The 800-acre campus had 80 buildings and its own bakery, bowling alley, ice cream parlor, dairy farm and power plant. The site has a Metro-North train station next to the campus, enabling local residents to travel to Manhattan in 90 minutes.
The hospital closed in 1974 and was abandoned for 20 years. Olivet Management LLC bought 508 acres in 2013.
Overgrown grounds have been cleared and building exteriors fixed up. The university submitted a site plan in September to restore most of the buildings. The first phase will include creation of offices, dormitories, staff housing and a primary school for children of the administration and staff.
The organization wants to build an IT and research center and retail space eventually.
