Back to Bay View

After a marathon drive from Monteagle, I am back in Bay View. Just attended the very fun "Treasures in the Trees," an art fair/antique fair/whatever's in my cottage to sell fair sponsored by Morning Council, the younger women's club.

I'm really surprised at how many people tell me they're reading my blog. It's neat to hear that other people are learning along with me as I make this journey. While I'm here in Bay View, I'm also giving two talks. On Monday, the 20th, I'm speaking about the history of performance in Bay View, in Evelyn Hall at 7:30. The following Sunday, the 26th, I'm speaking about all of the chautauquas (more than posted on this blog) at 3pm in the Library (or if we're too big, in Vorhees). It's great to see so many Bay View people interested in their community's history.

Monteagle

It's so nice to be back in Monteagle, Tennessee! I visited the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly last year for the Chautauqua Network meeting, and am now reconnecting with some amazing people. Both the people and the architecture are very Southern ... the only real chautauqua south of the Mason-Dixon line. People came to Monteagle to get away from the heat further south, but it's still quite warm, leading to very ingenious forms of early "air conditioning" -- most have some sort of cupola to help the heat move up and out.


Monteagle also has some very good programming. The kids programming is active in the morning, but also some evenings and weekends. Most days, there are one or two lectures, plus something in the evening: movies, lectures, concerts. Each night (Monday through Saturday), folks gather for Evening Prayers. Below is their beautiful chapel, also used for most lectures.


Monteagle is at the top of a mountain, sharing the top with Sewanee (The University of the South). The terrain within the assembly is full of ravines, with expansive bridges going across for walkers and bike riders.


Tomorrow is the annual bazaar and Cottage Tour, sponsored by the Women's Club. I was reading bulletins from the 1910s and '20s today, and the bazaar was a highlight of the summer even then.

Mt. Gretna

Every first day I spend at a chautauqua, it becomes my new favorite. This one really surprised me. Mt. Gretna is a secluded town in the middle of the woods with so much going on. Half of the town is a camp meeting (started as a United Brethren meeting, now United Methodist) and the other half of the town is the Pennsylvania Chautauqua.

This chautauqua seems to me to be truer to the roots of chautauqua than any other. The chautauqua group plans all kinds of educational and recreational programming. They do some kinds of religious services in addition. They own and operate a Hall of Philosophy (below). Separate groups run a great (semi-) outdoor theatre and an arts show.


Cottages on the chautauqua side are larger; some have been more recently built; many are year-round homes. Cottages on the camp meeting side sit on tiny lots and almost touch each other.

Also in town are three other neighborhoods, all developed after WWII. All told, in Mt. Gretna, there are four municipalities and three different school districts. The chautauqua side is also the borough of Mt. Gretna, but the camp meeting and the other neighborhoods are other municipalities. It's messy, but it seems to work. More regarding the history of this fascinating place soon.

Inside an Ocean Grove Tent

One thing that makes Ocean Grove so unique is that the association still rents and leases 114 tents each season. They are actually canvas in the front and are wooden structures in the back that accommodate running water and plumbing (added in the '40s and '50s, mostly).


Leases are seasonal, and as long as the residents participate in the programming through their presence and participation in the community, their lease is renewed. Leases are passed down from generation to generation and only one or two cottages open up a season (so they have a very long waiting list).

Today, I was able to visit one cottage. In this cottage, the front room was set up as two bedrooms.


And the back room was a living room, with a kitchen off the back and bathroom off the side. The resident told me her mother put in a bathtub because she didn't believe in showers; it's one of two bathtubs in the tents.

This is the kitchen, added on in the '50s. From the kitchen is a back door to a communal backyard. All of the tents are arranged in blocks, so that all of the back doors open onto this backyard. Now a spot for picnics and games, it was once the spot for the latrine.


In addition to the tents, the association also owns and similarly leases 15 cottages. Other cottages on the grounds are privately owned, and on 99 year leases.

Ocean Grove, New Jersey

After a great 4th of July in Vermont (and jokes about my becoming chautauquasized), I've spent the day traveling to Ocean Grove, on the Jersey Shore. Ocean Grove is really a camp meeting, though it is in the Chautauqua Network. One of my tasks it to determine whether it ought to be catagorized as a chautauqua, or is solely a camp meeting (was it ever a chautauqua? is it still one?)


On first glance, Ocean Grove seems to be a place of rich contrasts. It is right on the beach, but much of the construction of the community is focused inward, toward the Great Auditorium. Some houses are four floors while others are literally still tents. Most striking is that, to get here, one must drive through next door neighbor, Asbury Park, which is very poor. While Asbury Park appeared to be all-African American, Ocean Grove is very white (though not entirely). Ocean Grove's architecture is mostly from the 1880s and 1890s, but some are brick apartment blocks. Quaint cottages are next to massive condo buildings.

It does have a neat downtown area, which I will take pictures of tomorrow.

This evening, I watched the moon rise over the Atlantic and listened to the Ocean Park Community Band practice right on the boardwalk.

Ocean Park, Maine

Apologies for not writing more regularly. I spent last week at an American Studies conference at Dartmouth, and this week at a rainy Ocean Park, Maine. Ocean Park was founded by Free Will Baptists ins 1881, and is part of the town of Old Orchard Beach, about 20 minutes south of Portland.

This was my second trip to Ocean Park, and I had a great visit with Frank and Helen Gwalthney. Their little cottage has three bedrooms, but they're all connected by closets. The beams in the living room are open to the rafters. A neat little spot to spend a few cold, rainy days.


Ocean Park is an especially neat spot because it is right at the edge of the ocean, and also has a town square just a block away, complete with soda fountain, gift shop, sub shop, and association office.


Most of the architecture at Ocean Park is a cross between Cape Cod and Victorian - in the woods and also right on the beach. The Temple, their auditorium and church, is an octagon with one center pole; the construction was so solid that, to make way for better movie projection early in the 20th century, the pole was cut off about 20 feet in the air.


Ocean Park is a very down-to-earth, pretty community ... very Maine (though residents hail from around New England and beyond). Next week, I'm off to Ocean Grove, NJ and Mt. Gretna, PA.