Chautauqua Institution

The Chautauqua Institution is a non-profit adult education center and summer resort in Chautauqua, New York. It was founded in 1874 by inventor Lewis Miller and Methodist Bishop John Heyl Vincent as a camp for Sunday school teachers. The Institution has operated each summer since then, gradually expanding its season length and program offerings.

The official Chautauqua season runs for nine weeks each summer, from late June to late August, though many of the residents arrive as early as May and stay well past Labor Day. Though many of the people living on the grounds have been coming for many years and for multiple generations in their family, those who have never before visited Chautauqua will no doubt find plenty to enjoy.

A typical weekday at Chatuauqua includes a devotional service and a lecture on a social, political or academic issue in the morning, an afternoon lecture on a religious topic, and an evening program. This evening Amphitheater event may be a symphony concert by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, a dance program by the Chautauqua Ballet Company, or a program by a special guest artist. Performers this past season included Neil Sedaka, Three Dog Night, and Michael W. Smith. During most weeks, there is at least one opportunity to catch an opera and a play, both put on by Chautauqua's resident summer companies. There are also regularly scheduled organ recitals, student recitals, master classes, forums, and seminars for the sophisticate. A remarkable range of special studies courses in music, art, dance, drama and general topics are also offered. The Chautauqua Schools of Music offer extremely competitive programs on the basis of scholarship.

Sundays at Chautauqua are rich and full, with many worship services, both denominational and ecumenical. There is an afternoon Amphitheater program, often a military band or student dance program. On Sundays, entrance to the Institution grounds is free. This is also true if you are over 85.

There is a special program on the first Tuesday in August called "Old First Night". This is the "birthday party" for the Institution, marking the opening of the first season back in 1874.

The Institution's grounds, located between New York State Route 394 and Chautauqua Lake, include public buildings (such as the 5000-seat Amphitheater), administrative offices, a library, a movie theater, a bookstore, hotels, inns, rooming houses, and many private cottages. There are about 400 year-round residents, but in the summer the population swells to an estimated 10,000 at any one time. The Institution is largely a pedestrian community, with bikes and scooters seen everywhere and a 15 mph speed limit for cars. There are several parking lots located on the periphery of the grounds.

The Athenaeum Hotel on the grounds is the only hotel actually owned and operated by the Institution. The 156-room wooden hotel, said to be the largest wooden building in the eastern United States, was built in the Victorian style in 1881. The hotel usually offers complete packages of room, meals at the hotel's dining room, and the gate pass necessary to stay on the Institution grounds during its nine-week summer season.

Summer admission is by "gate ticket" which allows the purchaser to enjoy the grounds and its village atmosphere, including many 19th-century houses and attractive gardens. The gate pass also allows use of Smith Memorial Library, including open wireless internet, use of public beaches and parks, and attendance of lectures and concerts. There is an additional charge for some courses, for films shown at the Chautauqua Cinema, for opera and theater tickets, and for use of the golf course and tennis courts.

One of the oldest day camps in the United States is the Chautauqua Boys and Girls Club. There is also a day care center for young children. At the other extreme, Chautauqua waives the gate fee for visitors aged 90 and over. (It has been facetiously described as "the place where little old ladies go -- and bring their grandmothers.")

The Chautauqua tradition continues to be Christian, and most mainstream denominations are visibly represented through houses that offer both religious programs and lodging. But there is also a strong Jewish presence and a growing Muslim community, thanks to an interfaith effort to bring together the Abrahamic traditions, started several years ago by Chautauqua's Department of Religion. Other efforts are being made to introduce some diversity to the traditional Chautauqua clientele, which is almost entirely Caucasian, and drawn heavily from the surrounding area of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. There is concern at Chautauqua that the summer experience, once enjoyed by clergy, teachers and others of modest incomes, is pricing itself out of that market, particularly through conversion and renovation of older houses into expensive condominiums and upmarket villas.

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), founded in 1878, is America's oldest continuously operating book club. Six books are added to the reading list each year, with authors generally coming to Chautauqua to discuss their writing and to talk with readers. Members may graduate from a CLSC class on a special Recognition Day during the summer season after they have paid dues for four years and read any 12 books from the complete CLSC list.

The Amphitheater boasts the Massey Memorial Organ, the largest outdoor pipe organ in the United States. There is also the smaller Tallmann Tracker Organ in the Hall of Christ, donated to the Institution by the First Baptist Church of Nyack, NY in 2000. Another feature of the Chautauqua grounds is Palestine Park, a 125-year-old outdoor scale model of the Holy Land.

The Miller Bell Tower on the grounds has an eight-note Westminster Carillon and is chimed every quarter hour and rung daily by bell-ringer Carolyn Benton for a 15-minute program of widely varying repertoire at 8 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. It was named in honor of co-founder Lewis Miller. The bell tower is one of the Institution's most beloved and well-known landmarks.

Chautauqua has been visited by United States Presidents from Ulysses S. Grant to Bill Clinton, and by other prominent Americans from Booker T. Washington to Karl Menninger and, in 2003, Tom Ridge. Franklin D. Roosevelt's historic "I hate war" speech was delivered from the podium in the Chautauqua Amphitheater. George Gershwin visited Chautauqua as a summer refuge to compose parts of his Concerto in F in a small wooden piano studio as well as its first public performance.

The Chautauqua tradition is depicted colorfully in the 1969 film The Trouble With Girls, in which Elvis Presley plays the manager of a Chautauqua company.

External link

• Official site
• The Trouble With Girls (1969) at the IMDB