Daily programs keep kids occupied at Lakeside, Ohio, like this bike safety rally.
By Mary Jacobs Staff Writer
LAKESIDE, Ohio—At Lakeside, Ohio, almost every house has a porch—and folks actually sit on them.
People don’t bother to lock back doors or bicycles.
And at 5 p.m., as beachgoers pick up their towels and start heading back to their cottages for supper, a tower at the pier chimes “Amazing Grace” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
“It’s holy ground for a lot of us,” said the Rev. Roger Smith, a retired United Methodist pastor. “There’s a sense of God’s people and community at Lakeside.”
Located in a tiny town on the southern shore of Lake Erie, Lakeside is one of more than a dozen Chautauquas around the U.S.—summer communities where visitors come to relax, learn and find spiritual renewal.
Originally a Methodist invention, most Chautauquas today embrace an interfaith outlook. But many, like Lakeside, still have strong Methodist ties that go back several generations.
“My folks came here, their folks came here and I’ve been coming here since I was 2,” said Dr. Smith, who serves as Lakeside’s director of religious life and church relations. “This was my experience of an extended family.”
Methodist roots
Lakeside was one of the earliest communities to spring out of the Chautauqua movement, which began in 1874 when Ohio manufacturer Lewis Miller and Methodist biship John Heyl Vincent founded the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y.
Initially intended as a summer training camp for Sunday school teachers, the New York camp expanded to a resort and added programs that today are called the “four pillars” of the Chautauqua ideal: the arts, education, religion and recreation.
The idea took off, and other faith groups adopted their own versions. Lakeside, which started as a camp meeting in 1873, embraced the Chautauqua approach, too.
By the early 1900s, more than 300 resorts associated with Christian and Jewish congregations across the U.S. had sprung up.
Some of those communities faded during the Great Depression; some became secular resort areas.
Today there are a dozen communities still operating as part of the Chautauqua Network, including Lakeside, the New York Chautauqua, Bay View, Mich.; Ocean Grove, N.J.; and others. Most are ecumenical in nature, but faith and spirituality remain central to the Chautauqua experience.
The original
The Chautauqua Institution in western New York is the largest and most well-known of the modern Chautauqua communities. For nine weeks every summer, the resort attracts 170,000 visitors for a full program of speakers, religious services, entertainment and classes in topics like digital photography and the history of jazz.
Visitors pay a fee as they enter the community’s gates; fees include admission to almost all of the lectures, classes and evening entertainment. The daily schedule includes Christian worship services, and on Saturday mornings, Jewish services.
Many equate the word “Chautauqua” with the institution’s morning lecture series, now held in a 5,000-seat amphitheatre.
Susan B. Anthony argued for women’s suffrage in 1892 at Chautauqua. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his “I Hate War” speech there in 1936. Margaret Mead, Amelia Earhart, Thurgood Marshall, Jane Goodall and Sandra Day O’Connor all have been speakers there, too.
Nine presidents, including President Bill Clinton and his family, have visited the Chautauqua.
Methodist ties are still evident. The only church on the grounds of the Chautauqua, Hurlbut Memorial, is United Methodist.
And there’s the United Methodist Missionary Home, bequeathed by another founding father of the Chautauqua, Indiana manufacturer Clement Studebaker. A devoted Methodist, Studebaker served briefly as the institution’s president. The mansion was originally the family’s summer home.
“The Studebakers left it to the church so that missionaries could have a place to come and have their vacations,” said Bill Cunius, who serves as host/manager along with his wife, Carol.
About 25 guests stay in the house each week during the season. Among them are missionaries, United Methodist clergy, laypeople and people of other denominations. Guests must apply well in advance to stay at the house. Other accommodations at Chautauqua, including a hotel, are open to the public.
“You can tell people about Chautauqua,” Mr. Cunius said. “But until you’re here it’s hard to explain.”
Bay View
Bay View, on the shores of Lake Michigan, was also founded as a Methodist camp meeting “for intellectual and scientific culture and the promotion of the cause of religion and morality.” The rustic camp soon morphed into a Chautauqua-style resort community, with Victorian and Queen Anne cottages.
Today Bay View is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
“People who come here and see it for the first time are enchanted,” said John Stakoe, executive director. “It’s a beautiful community in one of the most beautiful places in northern Michigan.”
Bay View is directly affiliated with the United Methodist Church; a majority of the community’s board members are United Methodists, according to its bylaws.
Mr. Stakoe believes Bay View is also the oldest continuously operated arts and music festival in the U.S. Besides a full schedule of speakers and religious programming, the resort hosts a symphony orchestra and stages an opera and a musical every summer. Professional musicians and students from across the country come to Bay View every year to study and perform.
Lakeside
United Methodists descend on Lakeside for two weeks every summer in June: The town hosts the West Ohio and East Ohio annual conferences. Many delegates rent a cottage and bring their entire families.
Youth camps and church groups also come and stay throughout the summer in the Lakeside Hotel or a dorm on the grounds. As a result, Lakeside holds memories for many Ohio United Methodists.
“So many of us have some connection to our calling here,” said Dr. Smith. Some were baptized in the lake, for instance; others had transformative experiences at a youth camp at Lakeside.
For Dr. Smith, the connection to Lakeside dates back to when he was 5 years old. His grandfather showed him the place where clergy are ordained during annual conferences.
“Pop, I’m going to be up there someday,” the little boy declared. Sure enough, Dr. Smith was ordained at Lakeside, and his grandfather lived long enough to witness the ceremony.
The new urbanism
Even though many Americans aren’t familiar with the Chautauqua concept, Lakeside president Kevin Sibbring believes Chautauquas created the kind of communities that people long for.
“They are pedestrian-oriented, they have town centers, and people sit on their front porches and talk to each other,” he said. “They have the features that the ‘new urbanism’ is trying to create.”
And the emphasis on faith and learning, Mr. Sibbring adds, makes places like Lakeside different in other ways that aren’t as obvious to a first-time visitor. With deep roots and strong intergenerational ties, they are oases of safety, Christian values and “families looking out for other families.”
CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman, who vacationed at Lakeside as a child, noticed another difference.
“What makes this place really special—what sets it apart from almost every other town in America—is that, here in Lakeside, people still actually trust one another,” he said in a 2009 news report.
A local business, for instance, rents bikes to vacationers without requiring a credit card or driver’s license—and hasn’t had a bike stolen in 20 years. An antique shop owner leaves his merchandise in front of his store when he’s away from the shop. Customers choose items and leave their payments in a slot in the door.
That’s the kind of atmosphere that keeps Bret Johnson, a United Methodist from Bedford, Ohio, returning to Lakeside year after year with his family.
“The first time my wife and I visited, we were hooked,” he said. “It’s all about community.”
UMR PHOTO BY MARY JACOBS
Methodist roots
Today Bay View is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
“They are pedestrian-oriented, they have town centers, and people sit on their front porches and talk to each other,” he said. “They have the features that the ‘new urbanism’ is trying to create.”
