The Rochester YMCA began boys' camping programs in 1892. Camp Cory wasn't dedicated until 1921, although campers began attending camp at the Keuka site in 1920. For those thirty years in the interim, camping took place at a roaming camp named Camp Iola.

Iola was originally on Lake Ontario and consisted of two tents, 14 boys, 2 men, a mess tent, and a rowboat. The camp, at this time, had only a 2-week program and no permanent location, instead moving to Eagle Island in Sodus Bay in 1907, to Canadice Lake in 1908, and to Tichenor Point on Canandaigua Lake in 1910. A 1914 picture states that Iola was located on Canandaigua Lake at "Foster Point."

In 1920, Camp Iola moved to a more permanent 13-acre location on Keuka Lake. It would only take on the name of Cory the following summer; most of the Iola staff and campers (including Frank Gugelman, the camp director from 1906-1925) carried over through the beginning of the Cory Era. In those days, all that existed was what we would now call Senior Village. Campers slept in a semi-circle of tents, and the older staff stayed in a few staff tents near present-day S-13.

Among the first campers were Henry T. "Mike" Maijgren and Schuyler Wells. In 1929 the now 27-acre camp was split into Senior and Junior sections, with the Junior Camp campers sleeping in cabins rather than in tents. All throughout this time, senior tents were, one by one, being converted to cabins. In 1930 Senior Camp was split into 4 "villages": Cabins 1-5 were "Mercury," 5-8 were "Erewon" (named after the book by Samuel Butler, spelled backwards it is "now[h]ere"), 9-12 were "Bedlam," and 13-16 were "Utopia." It should be noted that all of these tents were up on the hill, as there were no camper buildings or tents down on the water yet. It would also seem that these village distinctions only lasted for one summer, and at most two.

In 1935 the camp, satisfied with the use that its rented sailboats had seen over the previous summer, purchased four new 16-foot-long K-class sailboats. By the latter part of the decade, sailing eliminations were held every two weeks for the Tom Sharpe Cup, named after the Rochester Yacht Club commodore who had won the Canada Cup. By 1941 the camp would own eleven sailboats and campers could attain the rank of Cabin Boy, Midshipman, or Seaman for their sailing skills. The rank of Skipper would be added the following summer.

In the winter between 1937 and 1938, eleven new permanent cabins were erected in senior village. Until that time, some of the buildings there were cabins, but most were tents. The waterfront area was filled in with heavy-duty construction equipment so that three cabins could be built down there for the 15, 16, and 17 year old campers. This, of course, is what would later become Waterfront Village.

In 1938, Senior Camp was divided into three "sections," with a sectional leader appointed for each one. At this time, these sections did not necessarily have names, although the one at the waterfront could be referred to as "waterfront." Waterfront Village wasn't a pure sailing village yet; it merely had the oldest teens in camp. For example, Cabin 17, on the waterfront, had all of the kitchen worker campers.

In 1939, there was a Senior Village Director, a Waterfront Village Director (George Kaiser) and a Walmsley Village Director (Orrin Van Dyke). There were 17 cabins overall (maybe only 16, since in those says they often skipped the number 13 for everything) with 13 or 14 up in senior village, but it is hard to tell where the Walmsley boundary line was. Van Dyke lived in Cabin 10. Waterfront Village had 3 cabins. Walmsley Village was named after J. Milnor Walmsley and his wife, who had both been involved in boys' work in Rochester for some time.

In 1945 the culminary (yearbook) was dedicated to Schuyler C. Wells, and in 1947 the first references to a "Wells Village" appear. Schuyler was an active chairman of the camp Committee of Management for many years. Wells, Walmsley, and Waterfront campers all competed in sailing, and for a time the sailing master even lived in Wells, further evidence that Camp Cory did not yet have a specialized sailing village. Junior Village had always had an Iroquois-esque theme to it, but it was not until 1952 that the culminary listed the name for that village as "Iroquois Village."

In 1953 the camp began an official Counselor-in-Training program. CITs attended camp for two consecutive nine-week summers in order to aid the camp and receive leadership training. During their first year CITs would rotate into the dishroom, while second-year CITs were assigned dining hall supervision duty.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the name of the waterfront village was vacillating between "Windjammer" "Sailing Village" and "Maijgren." By this time, sailing was a specialized program for which a camper had to specifically sign up. The village was permanently re-named Maijgren Village after the former camper, staff member, and board president. The mid-1970s also saw the addition of a new demographic group to the camper population: females.Now a co-ed facility, Camp Cory is home to nearly a thousand campers every summer. The decade between the early 1990s and 2002 brought the re-modeling of nearly every cabin in camp. In more recent years the dining hall has been completely overhauled, the CITs have begun living in their beautiful new lodge, and the junior cabins have all been renovated in the newly-dedicated Craig Village. The quality and reputation of the staff, program, and facility are in no small part the result of 115 years of tradition and progress. Every camper, staff member, and alumnus " whether he or she knows it or not " has contributed to the camp's present-day excellence.