It was reported that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had spent many summer vacations at the camp as a guest of the owner, Harlan Crow, a conservative billionaire, without ever disclosing the visits as a gift.

Camp Topridge has a long and colorful history. It is one of the Adirondack Great Camps, once owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress of General Foods fortune. She considered it as her “rustic retreat.” It consisted of 68 buildings, a main lodge, and several private, guest cabins, each staffed with its own butler.

The camp situated on 207 acres, on the shore of the Upper St. Regis Lake, is located less than 20 miles from Lake Placid, where my late wife and I had been residents for almost 60 years. We became close friends with Richard, a native of Scotland, the former butler of British Princes Margaret. At the time we met him, he was the personal butler of Post.

Richard, although very discreet about private conversations that took place at the camp, was generous with information about how the camp functioned.

The camp at that time could be reached only by water, (later a roadway was added.) Post’s guests, who were dignitaries, VIPs, high-ranking diplomats and celebrities, arrived on her private airplane to the Lake Clear airport and were driven to a launch on the Upper St. Regis Lake. From there, motorboats delivered them to the camp docks. Finally, a funicular lifted them to their cabins and to the main lodge.

Dinners, usually for 30 guests, were served exactly at 6 p.m. A guest who was tardy was never invited again. Robert, the chief butler, was posted at the end of the large table, watching for a signal from the hostess. She decided how much time was allotted consuming each course of the meal.

At 8 p.m., the group moved over to the Dasha, a replica of a Russian country cottage. Post built it as a gift to her third husband, who was a U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. After dinner, it was in the Dasha where entertainment, music and singing took place.

Camp Topridge had everything to keep Post’s guests happy and amused. A movie theater, tennis courts, a bowling alley, etc.

But all things come to an end.

In 1973, Post bequeathed Camp Topridge to the state of New York. It was first used as a retreat for the governor and for occasional conferences. It was also open to the public to visit. My wife and I did so several times. The rooms were furnished with original, hand-made Adirondack furniture, and there was an extensive collection of Native American artifacts.

The upkeep of the camp for the state turned out to be too pricey. It was sold to Roger Jakubowski, a Polish-immigrant who made a small fortune by having a chain of hot-dog stands, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He couldn’t bear the cost of the camp upkeep either. He went bankrupt.

In 1985, Camp Topridge was sold to Texas real estate magnate Harlan Crow. Since then, he invested millions of dollars to restore the camp to its old glory. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now Camp Topridge — just like Marjorie Merriweather Post’s former Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, now owned by former president Donald Trump (another bequest) — is more notorious than ever.

(Frank Shatz is a former resident of Lake Placid and a current resident of Williamsburg, Virginia. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” a compilation of his columns. This column is used with permission by the Virginia Gazette.)