Soothing Breezes & Gentle Waves

Celebrating 150 Years Of Lakeside Chautauqua

BY KAYSIE M. HARRINGTON

Cellphones allow us to connect with a friend across the globe in a fraction of a second. We “binge” television series, sometimes in one sitting. Fast-food restaurants provide us with a meal in an average of 181 seconds. All the knowledge in human history is at our fingertips. Our world is, in a word, fast. But when it all gets too much to handle, how can we disconnect? How can we recharge? Where can we find a place that offers quality rest, relaxation and renewal?

One hundred and fifty years ago, along Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline, a group of like-minded individuals was faced with a similar conundrum. Out of their search for a family-friendly retreat away from daily life’s vulgarities and vices, Lakeside Chautauqua was born.

This historic community on the Marblehead Peninsula offers a variety of cultural and educational programming throughout the summer months and continues to honor its historic roots as one of the first communities to form out of the Chautauqua Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The concept of Lakeside crystallized in part out of local Methodists’ concerns about the flourishing wine industry on the nearby Lake Erie Islands. Alcoholic beverages were viewed as a danger to families and a detriment to an individual’s relationship with God. The Methodist camp meetings, multi-day religious gatherings that evolved by the mid-1800s from highly emotional evangelical affairs to calmer, more relaxed “resort” experiences, offered physical retreats away from the immoralities one could be exposed to in daily life, including alcohol.

Local Methodists Rev. Richard P. Duvall, Samuel R. Gill, Adam Clark Payne and Bernard “Barney” Jacobs formed the Lakeside Company to provide land and

Heritage Hall Museum

A great place to discover Lakeside’s fascinating history is Lakeside Heritage Society’s Heritage Hall Museum at 238 Maple Avenue. The modest white frame building, finished in 1876, was Lakeside’s first Methodist chapel. Inside, you’ll find memorabilia of events such as Eleanor Roosevelt’s 1940 standing-room-only lecture in Hoover Auditorium; mementos of Hotel Lakeside; menus of Lakeside eateries over the years; vintage croquet, roque (similar to croquet with shorter mallets), tennis, shuffleboard and fishing equipment; and photos of the boats, trains and interurban cars that brought visitors from all over Ohio and surrounding states to Lakeside every summer. Free, the museum is open regularly during the Junethrough-August summer season. Visit lakesideheritagesociety.org/ about for hours.

infrastructure for a camp meeting along the lakeshore, which offered a scenic, tranquil backdrop.

The company partnered with the Lakeside Camp Meeting Association, which oversaw the camp meeting programming and promoted resort attendance. On Aug. 27, 1873, the first religious meeting was held on Lakeside grounds. A preacher’s stand was built, rudimentary seating was provided and approximately 20 tents were set up to house the attendees.

Early Expansion

Plans were made to increase amenities and attendance, and by 1874 the Lakeside camp meeting was receiving wide publicity through Ohio newspapers and the Methodist church network. By 1878, Lakeside had expanded to include Hotel Lakeside (which featured postal and telegraph services), 50 cottages, 72 twostory board tents and two lodging halls.

While the Lakeside Company considered how to expand its infrastructure and increase programming and revenue, in western New York state, Akron businessman Lewis Miller and Rev. James Heyl Vincent were establishing a Sunday school instruction encampment at Lake Chautauqua in 1874.

Their original goal of educating Sunday school teachers in new instructional methods rapidly evolved into a movement to provide general education and cultural enrichment for adults of all denominations. While Miller and Vincent’s campground in New York was (and often still is) referred to as the “mother” chautauqua, other “sister” chautauquas were established across North America between 1875 and 1900 as summer resorts offering secular and religious education.

Lakeside’s connection with the Chautauqua Movement was established as early as 1877, with the first Sunday School Assembly held on the grounds that July. Following this first assembly, Rev. John Vincent arranged for his brother, Rev. B.T. Vincent, to lead Lakeside’s two-week Sunday School Assemblies from 1879 to 1895, with B.T.’s wife, Minerva “Ella” Vincent.

These gatherings laid the foundation for a strong chautauqua program full of religious, educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for Lakeside visitors throughout the 20th century.

Youth Summer Institute

While religious programming evolved from the early camp meeting style, Lakeside continued to hold worship services, host Bible study programs and welcome Methodist missionary societies and youth groups to the grounds for religious education, fellowship and recreation.

Boarding house guests 'take the air' in front of Green Gables cottage at 161 Walnut Avenue. Built in 1883 by the Hubbard family, the cottage has been the home of the Lakeside Women’s Club since 1928.

The first youth summer institute was held in 1915. These gatherings reached a peak attendance of approximately 1,400 by 1925 and continued to be popular well into the 1960s.

The wholesome and educational value of daily programs were important criteria in the selection of Lakeside speakers and entertainers from the outset. Attention was given to selecting groups and individuals who represented a range of educational, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Speakers at Lakeside have included pioneer social worker and activist Jane Addams, Ohio Governor William McKinley, aviator Amelia Earhart, evangelist Billy Sunday and former first lady and activist Eleanor Roosevelt.

Lakeside has also provided a range of arts and entertainment for visitors throughout Lakeside’s history.

Early performers included Alberto Salvi, renowned Italian harpist; Metropolitan Opera contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink; and the African American spiritual choral ensemble, the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Comedian and pianist Victor Borge, singer-songwriter Amy Grant and the rock band America have also performed on Lakeside’s stages throughout the years.

Cool Breezes

The cool breezes along Lake Erie’s coast have continually made Lakeside a pleasant space for the variety of recreational opportunities offered over its 150-year history. By 1891, two tennis courts were built on the Hotel Lakeside lawn. Shuffleboard was introduced in 1928 and immediately became one of Lakeside’s most popular recreational pursuits. Thirteen lighted courts for night play were available by 1939. Swimming, boating, croquet and horseshoes were common recreational activities

Lakeside is now the second-largest continuously operating chautauqua in the United States, and continues to offer a robust schedule of religious, educational, cultural and recreational programming during the summer season from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

In recognition of its rich history as a community gathering place, Lakeside was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The designation aided in drawing attention to and preserving the original architecture of many of Lakeside’s earliest structures that remain on the grounds today, such as late-19th-century cottages, Hotel Lakeside and Hoover (Central) Auditorium.

In its 150th anniversary year, Lakeside continues its tradition of offering space for education, relaxation and recreation. Generations of family members have continued to visit or live on the grounds year after year. Their experiences continue to build the collective memory of Lakeside Chautauqua and add to its continuously rich history.

Kaysie Harrington is the archivist and manager of operations for the Lakeside Heritage Society. She received her master's degree in history and Certificate of Public History from Bowling Green State University in 2018.

Learn More

Visit the Lakeside Heritage Society website at lakesideheritagesociety.org, where you can learn more about the Heritage Hall Museum and the Heritage Archives.

Visit history.lakesideohio.com/history for a virtual tour of Lakeside landmarks.

Explore hundreds of historic photos in the collection of the Lakeside Heritage Society online. Visit lakesideheritage.catalogaccess.com/home, then click on “Photos.”

For a schedule of summer programming or to plan a trip to Lakeside, visit lakesideohio.com.

In his 1961 book The Chautauqua Movement: An Episode in the Continuing American Revolution, Joseph E. Gould explores “one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of American adult education.” At the time he wrote the book, Gould had access to the as-yet uncatalogued papers of William Rainey Harper, one of the movement’s leading personalities and the first president of the University of Chicago. Learn more about chautauquas from historian Jim Craft in the Rochester Hills (Michigan) Public Library video Chautauqua Movement: Its Origins, National Significance, and Presence in Michigan. In this 105-minute program, Craft explains what a chautauqua is; the story of Rev. J.H. Vincent and Akron industrialist Lewis Miller, founders of the first one; the other independent chautauquas such as Lakeside that soon followed; the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, a reading program launched in 1878; the traveling chautauquas that toured communities in Ohio and elsewhere in the early 1900s; and the impact chautauquas had on Progressive Era political and social reforms such as women’s suffrage. Find it at ohiohistory.org/ chautauqua1.

Planning Your Visit

The heritage of Lakeside is as a summer community, and Lakeside’s season runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day. During this summer season, Lakeside offers a variety of programs every day related to the four historic “pillars” of Chautauqua (religion, education, cultural arts and recreation), as well as providing entertainment most evenings. From the last week of July through the second week of August, the Lakeside Summer Symphony performs in Hoover Auditorium some evenings. A gate fee to enter the grounds during the summer season provides free access to most facilities and programs. The fee is pro-rated according to the amount of time you plan to stay, from one hour to all three months. There is no gate fee (and little programming) during the nine-month off-season. Some accommodations and businesses remain open, though for the full Lakeside experience, summer is the time to visit.