Chautauqua Pavilion
Chautauqua Park, Hastings, NEIn November of 1905, Georgia Evangelist Lincoln McConnell conducted a series of revival meetings in Hastings. Speakers on Gladstone and puritanism, musical programs, and religious exercises made up the week-long revival that was highly successful. The Hastings community was so inspired by this educational phenomenon that a group of local businessmen and the Rev. Hiram B. Harrison of the First Congregational Church formed the Hastings Chautauqua Association.
On January 13, 1906, the group elected a board of directors and began to plan a summer assembly. A large tent, 80 x 120 feet, with a seating capacity of 2,000 was purchased as were 150 smaller, family-sized tents. This first regular assembly was widely accepted with 8,000 people in attendance. Families who could afford to rented tents and camped on the grounds for the entire eight days. Some came to town in specially chartered trains from outstate communities.
The success of this first assembly resulted in a decision to build a permanent pavilion before the next assembly. A large, trussed pavilion measuring 121 x 151 feet was erected at a cost of $5,000. Capable of seating 3,500 people, the pavilion was dedicated on July 19, 1907. It was purportedly the finest and largest pavilion in the state. Several tents were still used to house some of the activities and as temporary homes for visitors.
The Chautauqua movement began in 1874 with a summer training program for Sunday School teachers in Chautauqua, New York. Two men of the Methodist faith founded what came to be known as the Chautauqua Institution on the shores of Lake Chautauqua. Soon programs were expanded to include more than religious topics. Visitors came from various parts of the country and were so inspired by the program, that many organized their own summer assembly.
Though many Chautauqua organizations were part of the National Lyceum Circuit, the Hastings Chautauqua was locally controlled until 1913, when due to waning interest, the association found itself in financial difficulties and was forced to join the national system.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.