Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
to American education. Not only did it pioneer continuing adult education, correspondence
courses, and Great Books curricula, but it spawned a whole Chautauqua Movement, as well.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, traveling chautauquas toured the country, offering
speakers and demonstrations in large open-air tents.
11 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA
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Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his “I Hate War” speech from the amphi-
theater platform in 1936.
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Ronald Reagan addressed the Third General Chautauqua Conference on
U.S.-Soviet Relations via satellite in 1987.
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Thomas Edison was the son-in-law of Chautauqua cofounder Lewis Miller.
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George Gershwin finished his composition of his Concerto in F in a
Chautauqua practice shack in 1925.
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The Athenaeum Hotel was one of the first hotels to have electric lights.
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Abba, Kenny Rogers, the Village People, Lucille Ball, Willie Nelson, and
Peter, Paul, and Mary all have performed at Chautauqua.
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The oldest continuous book club in America, the Chautauqua Literary and
Scientific Circle, has enrolled at least a half million readers and at one time
sponsored 10,000 reading circles throughout the country.
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Chautauqua has two 18-hole golf courses.
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Thanks to its huge bat population, Chautauqua is practically mosquito free.
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New York University conducted summer courses at Chautauqua for ap-
proximately 30 years.
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Chautauqua's Palestine Park is a large-scale model of the Holy Land.
Chautauqua is set on a large natural lake in New York's wine country. Its 750 acres in-
clude stately homes, Victorian gingerbread cottages, winding brick roads, huge maple trees,
art galleries, interesting little churches, and all the amenities of a rural village. Cars are dis-
couraged.
There's a special energy at Chautauqua that defies words. People are excited, inquisitive,
and hungry for more than they hear from the nightly drone of their TVs. They treat each other
with friendliness and civility. Nobody locks their doors. There's a restorative, peaceful atmo-
sphere. Theodore Roosevelt, in fact, pronounced Chautauqua as “America at its best.”
