Old Forge Pond’s familiar yellow lighthouse a beacon for Magda Kjellesvig Freeman

The camp that sits behind the bright yellow lighthouse and boathouse at the edge of the Old Forge Pond had a special visitor on Monday, October 24. It was Magda Kjellesvig Freeman, who was born in the camp 91 years ago on September 6, 1920.

Accompanied by her daughters, Tina Bryan and Luisa Freeman, and her son Belmont Freeman, she was given a tour of the house and grounds by current owner, Andy Mazloom. Magda Freeman’s Norwegian father, Magne Kjellesvig, a civil engineer, and her Cuban-born mother Trina, lived in Cuba where they raised their family.

His work in Cuba also took him to other locations in South America.

The couple, who had four children before Magda’s birth, spent their summers in North Carolina before returning to Havana each fall.

But after a doctor told them that their children needed a healthier climate and should spend their summers farther north, Kjellesvig responded to an ad in the New York Times about property being sold in the Adirondacks.

He bought the camp on the Old Forge Pond, sight unseen, from Henry and Elvira Mott of Manhattan in December 1918.

The following summer the Kjellesvig family spent their first summer there, naming it Camp Scandia. Continue reading →