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Region 3

This will be the first in what I hope will be a long series of entries covering the conferences of the old Region 3, following on John’s coverage of conferences and conclaves from North Carolina.

The old Region 3 consisted of the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, along with Washington DC and the tip of the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

While most of the twelve pre-1972 regions are more or less intact within the current BSA regional boundaries, the 1973 move to six regions saw the old Region 3 split between the Northeast and Southeast Regions.   (From 1973 through 1983, Pennsylvania was in the Northeast and Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington DC were in the Southeast; in 1983, Maryland, Delaware, Washington DC, and the Virginia counties surrounding DC were moved into the Northeast Region.) Today, the Region 3 lodges and their successors are split between the Northeast Region and the Southern Region.

In the original 1938 assignment of numbered areas, Region 3 was split in two parts: eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were Area 4 and western Pennsylvania was Area 5. (Washington DC and Delaware were assigned to Area 4 but did not have OA lodges until 1952 and 1957, respectively)

When lettered areas were created in 1940, the same division was made: Area D consisted of twelve lodges in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; Area E consisted of seven lodges in western Pennsylvania. By December 1942, a split in Area C (New York and New Jersey) had caused the letters to be bumped up, so the Region 3 groupings became Area E (eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia) and Area F (western Pennsylvania).

There is no record of any Area Meetings having been held in Region 3 prior to 1948, when both Area E and Area F met. My next two postings will look at the pre-1950 meetings in these areas.

UPDATE: the preceding paragraph is incorrect. A Unami Lodge history indicates that Unami Lodge hosted an Area Conference in honor of the lodge’s 30th anniversary in 1945 at Breyer Training Area. An incomplete scan of an Anicus Lodge letter indicates that an Area Conference was hosted by Kuwewanik Lodge in 1947 at Camp Hubbard  and the tone of the letter indicates that previous such conference had been held.

In addition, an Octoraro Lodge history indicates that a Regional Conference was held in 1929 at Camp Horseshoe.

(Historical area alignment information is taken from the appendices of Dingworth and Jensen’s Order of the Arrow Conclave Handbook, Volume 1 and from Rob Higgins’ OA Section List website. I also consulted the 1983 edition of The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service, published by Unami Lodge, and a 1976 edition of 50 Years of Cheerful Service, published by Octoraro Lodge. Many thanks.)

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