Nestled at the southeastern edge of the White Mountain National Forest, directly east of Mount Chocorua off Route 16 in Albany, it currently comprises approximately 455 acres (184 ha), including a conference room and dining lodge, nature trails, soccer field, several cabins, campsites and additional lodging facilities, as well as boating and swimming access on a large pond.
Shortly thereafter, Charles embarked on a 15-day-long meditation and fast on nearby Mount Whiteface, during which he conceived the notion of creating a more permanent place for the World Fellowship of Faiths.
Uphaus had previously been fired from Hastings College in Nebraska in 1930 for advocating radical viewpoints, and he remained committed to a pacifist philosophy during World War II.
In September of that year, a series of articles published by Greg Abbott in the Manchester Union Leader (New Hampshire's only statewide newspaper) maligned Uphaus by branding him as a Communist.
Subsequently, in early 1954, with the Red Scare and McCarthyism in full swing, Governor Hugh Gregg, invoking the New Hampshire Subversive Activities Act of 1951, directed Attorney General Louis Wyman to issue a summons for Uphaus mandating that he surrender a list of all attendees and all employees of the World Fellowship Center, out of suspicion that World Fellowship may have had connections to the Communist Party, or was itself a Communist organization.
Kit, a teacher, was from Columbus, Ohio; Christoph was a Lutheran minister from Breslau, East Germany, who had immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s.
In the over 30 years that they were involved with World Fellowship, they successfully transformed it from a small-scale and relatively obscure conference center to a moderate-sized and internationally known counter-cultural haven by making numerous expansions, additions, capital and social improvements and liaisons with other politically inspired networks and organizations, both throughout both the U.S. and Europe.
They instituted a stipend for employees (prior to that, all wages were based on tips left by guests); purchased laundry facilities; upgraded and expanded the kitchen (prior to their arrival the galley kitchen, which is currently the guest kitchen, was where all meals except breakfast were prepared); installed commercial-scale refrigerators; drilled an artesian well on site; arranged for weekly trash collection; constructed a wide variety of recreational facilities such as a basketball court, volleyball court, and soccer field; and added numerous rowboats, canoes and an additional raft to the swimming area of the pond.
They expanded the program to include a children's fellowship, and for each week of the summer to have a different theme with several guest lecturers invited to speak about various issues pertaining to peace and social justice.
In 2007, they established a recreation coordinator position to arrange daily cycling excursions in the surrounding area in the morning as well as hiking expeditions in the nearby mountains in the afternoon.
2021 - Present: Times of Transition and Uncertainty In spring 2020, amidst the COVID-19 global pandemic, the World Fellowship board of trustees made the decision not to open for the summer.
In early 2021, the board decided to open facilities with limited programming and follow state and federally mandated social distancing guidelines.
Additionally, in spring of 2021, Octavia Driscoll (born 1986), living and working in New York City at the time, was hired as the director, succeeding the Davis-Walsh couple.
Also on site are a gazebo, picnic tables, a firepit, outdoor grill, basketball and volleyball courts, a chalet, a cistern, a playground, two dormitories, a rope swing, a private cabin, and chicken coop adjacent to an enclosure that housed Saanens used for cheesemaking between 2008 and 2015.
The other trail, approximately .6 miles in length, leads directly to the swimming and boating areas of Whitton Pond, crossing two footbridges and is relatively even terrain.
Whitton Pond, which covers approximately 164 acres (66 ha) and has a maximum of depth of 57 feet (17 m)[11] extends over the town border of Madison, has several islands and abuts numerous neighboring properties.
As the pond has remained under-developed with very few settlements, coupled with the fact that it is free of motor boats, it is a prime location for swimming, canoeing, kayaking, rowing, fishing, berry-picking and bird-watching for both guests, townsfolk, and other nearby residents.
During the winter of 2007–2008, the farmhouse building incurred numerous damages necessitating a variety of costly electrical and other repairs; subsequently the board of trustees voted to discontinue it as a lodging facility in 2008.
During Uphaus's period of directorship, the sign included the phrase, "All Races Welcome",[12] thereby occasionally attracting people of color who happened to be passing through in an otherwise overwhelmingly white region.
In decades subsequent, particularly the 1960s and 1970s, World Fellowship was seen both externally and internally as a safe-haven for radicals who expressed socialist, Marxist, and/or other revolutionary viewpoints - this stood in stark contrast to the rest of Carroll County, which was overwhelmingly conservative.
At an elevation of approximately 900 feet (270 m) above sea level (with the highest point on site being just under 1,000 feet (300 m)), the forest ecosystem on site is typical of the northern New England/Acadian forests biome with conifers such as the eastern white pine (Pinus strobus) and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) interspersed with hardwoods such as American beech (Fagus grandifolia), a few species of birch (mostly paper/Betula papyrifera and yellow/gray/Betula alleghaniensis), several species of maple (such as sugar/Acer saccharum, red/Acer rubrum and striped/Acer pensylvanicum), oak (almost entirely the northern red oak/Quercus rubra), and ash (mostly white ash/Fraxinus americana).
Less common hardwoods include quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) as well as pin (Prunus pensylvanica) and choke (Prunus virginiana) cherry; less common conifers include balsam fir (Abies balsamea), black (Picea mariana) and red (Picea rubens) spruce, northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and red pine (Pinus resinosa).
Amphibians such as the toad (genus Bufo), spring peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) and bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), and reptiles such as a few species of snake have been observed.
In August 2019, 400 of World Fellowship's 455 acres were officially put into a conservation easement through the local Upper Saco Valley Land Trust (named after Kit Schmauch, who originally had the vision to do so) to ensure that they will remain undeveloped indefinitely.
The Larry Katz and Jacobs family cabins, completed in the summer of 2018, were named in honor of long time guests who made substantial charitable contributions.
Over the course of World Fellowship's existence, a variety of academics, activists, artists, authors, journalists, musicians, organizers, politicians, and story-tellers have attended.
These have included Noam Chomsky, Aviva Chomsky (his daughter), Peter Marcuse (son of Herbert Marcuse), Robert Meeropol (son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), Scott and Helen Nearing, David Dellinger, Congressman John Lewis (when he was involved with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, well before his term in Congress), Bernie Sanders (when he was mayor of Burlington - long before he gained national and international recognition), Vermont lieutenant governor David Zuckerman, Mindi Messmer, Mab Segrest, Lynne Stewart, Medea Benjamin, Chuck Collins, Steve Schwerner (brother of slain civil rights activist Michael Schwerner), Steve Ellner, Kathy Kelly, Frida Berrigan (daughter of Philip Berrigan and Elizabeth McAlister, niece of Daniel Berrigan), Robert Reynolds Cushing as well several other associates of the Clamshell Alliance - an anti-nuclear organization that opposed the construction of the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in the mid-1970s.
Painter and visual artist Robert Shetterly, who created a portrait series entitled, "Americans Who Tell the Truth" in 2002, exhibits some of his paintings throughout Lloyd Lodge annually.
Some notable entertainment venues have included David Rovics, Charlie King, Bev Grant and the Brooklyn Women's Chorus, Sol y Canto, Alisa Amador, the Adam Ezra group, Pamela Means, Tomás Rodriguez, Peter Blood and Annie Patterson (who compiled the Rise Up Singing songbook); as well as numerous other musicians and performers of various genres from throughout the U.S. and abroad.