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15_the_circle) wrote2006-07-12 12:00 pm
camp meeting sites and Live Journal
[OT from cottage renovations]
[moved from a comment thread]
based on a couple of threads, both here and in another journal, I got to wondering about communities in former camp meeting sites and about LJ usage on the part of their current dwellers. the obvious place to look was online, where I found Google references to 38 active and 18 former camp meeting sites. the active locations are as follows:
- Asbury Grove CMA, South Hamilton MA
- Balls Creek CG, Catawba NC
- Bay View, Petoskey MI
- Belsano CMA, Belsano PA
- Bloys Camp Meeting, Jeff Davis County TX
- Brandywine Summit, Chadds Ford PA
- Camp Aldersgate, Scituate RI
- Camp Bethel, Haddam CT
- Camp Sychar, Mt Verson OH
- Cassadaga Sprirtualist Camp, FL
- Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Lake NY
- Chester Heights, PA
- Craigville, Centerville MA
- Cypress Camp Meeting, Berkeley County SC
- Des Plaines Methodist CG, IL
- Dimock Camp Meeting, PA
- Empire Grove CMA, East Poland ME
- Hedding CMA, Epping NH
- Indian Field CG, Dorchester County SC
- Indian Springs Holiness CMA, Flovila GA
- Lake Creek, Smithton MO
- Landisville Camp Meeting, Lancaster PA
- Malaga Camp, NJ
- Mckenzie's Grove CG, Catawba County NC
- Monteagle Assembly, Monteagle TN
- Motts Grove CG, Terrell NC
- Mt Gretna Camp Meeting, PA
- Oak Bluffs a/k/a Wesleyan Grove, Marthas Vineyard MA
- Ocean Grove CMA, Monmouth NJ
- On-I-Set Wigwam Spiritualist Camp, Wareham MA
- Rhodes Grove, Chambersburg PA
- Rock Springs, Denver NC
- Salem Camp Meeting, Covington GA
- Salem CMA, Salem VA
- Shady Grove, Harleyville SC
- South Seaville, Cape May NJ
- Summit Grove, New Freedom PA
- Tucker's Grove Camp Meeting, Machpelah NC
note: the majority of these were Methodist camp meetings, but the list also includes Adventist, spiritualist and other denominations' camp meetings as well as some locations from the Chautauqua circuit. Washington Grove, like many, was both at one time or another. I did try to filter for camp meetings as opposed to religious summer camps; accordingly some of the in/exclusions may have been rather arbitrary.
and former camp meeting locations where a residential community seems to now exist:
- Defuniak Springs FL
- Emory Grove, Glyndon MD
- Epworth Heights OH
- Franklin Grove, Dixon IL
- Island Heights NJ
- Lake Bluff IL
- Mount Tabor NJ
- Mountain Lake View, MD
- Ocean Grove, Point Lonsdale, Victoria, Australia
- Pacific Grove CA
- Pacific Palisades CA
- Pitman Grove, Pitman NJ
- Rehoboth Beach DE
- Round Lake NY
- Sea Cliff Grove, Sea Cliff NY
- Shelter Island Heights NY
- Washington Grove MD
- Willimantic CMA, Willimantic CT
taking the 18 identified former camp meeting locations and plugging them into LJ's rather lame search function, it returned over a thousand journals as follows:
| Defuniak Springs FL | 22 |
| Glyndon MD | 20 |
| Epworth Heights OH | none |
| Franklin Grove / Dixon IL | 94 |
| Island Heights NJ | 51 |
| Lake Bluff IL | 66 |
| Mount Tabor NJ | 10 |
| Mountain Lake View MD | none |
| Ocean Grove / Point Lonsdale Vic. AU | 6 |
| Pacific Grove CA | 119 |
| Pacific Palisades CA | 405 |
| Pitman Grove / Pitman NJ | none |
| Rehoboth Beach DE | 93 |
| Round Lake NY | 12 |
| Sea Cliff Grove / Sea Cliff NY | 57 |
| Shelter Island Heights NY | 2 |
| Washington Grove MD | 14 |
| Willimantic CT | 132 |
| total: | 1,103 |
of course there are gaps in the data (for instance I couldn't find any reference to Harvey Cedars in NJ) and LJ results are both over- and under-stated (LJ never seems to clean out stale/dead journals, and geographic location is self-reported by its users) but even so there certainly seem to be more of us than I had imagined, at least potentially.
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(Anonymous) 2006-07-12 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)Well, I just did my (short) list from memory, vs. your Live Journal search. However, I agree that LJ may have problems. You had "Island Heights" or something like that -- I think that's actually Harvey Cedars. Also, the Chatauqua Institution, while very much still alive, is hardly a classic religious camp meeting site. Take a look at their program some time. And Cassadaga, FL (or the similarly named location in upstate NY) are both "spiritualist" camps featuring palm readings and Tarot cards. So we'll have to be pretty inclusive in our definition of "camp meeting".
The one near Pitman, NJ is, like Washington Grove, a former meeting site. I'm surprised to find so many (active and not) in the NJ/PA area.
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have you ever been to any of the camp meeting sites in your area? just wondering ...
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for its first almost-hundred years ownership of my cottage was passed down through a single family. not mine, though: I am, like Major General Stanley in the Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, "their descendant by purchase, if I may so style myself."
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Across the circle there's a cottage that has never passed out of the original owner's family. The owner died this past winter and it may (cross your fingers!) become a historic house museum. She was so commited to preserving her cottage that I can't picture any other fate for it. She actually refused to get cable purely on the grounds that "my cottage has enough holes in it already." It even has original stencils on the beadboard in the living room.
I see that you've compiled a long enough list for a lengthy camp meeting haj. Should you make it as far as here let me know and I'll be sure to give you the insider's tour of town. We're all very nosy and know far too much about each other's houses. You could even arrive by train, just like the Victorian pilgrims!
road trip!
that's a lot of places, but I think the actual haj tour need not be as extensive. based on what I've seen so far my picks would be this baker's dozen of camp meeting communities:
current use sites
(I have actually been to Bay View and Monteagle, am not sure why I wrote the other day that I had only been to Oak Bluffs. premature Alzheimer's I guess).
historic sites
from what I've learned I believe the following to have that out-of-time quality that I associate with the Grove:
worth checking out
these ones seem to have potential but I just don't know enough about them, at least not yet:
short of renting a bus it might be interesting to try connect with whoever's online in these places.
Re: road trip!
Ocean Grove is definitely worth a visit. There are a lot of stunning houses to be seen and there's even a small business district. I've never seen the tents in the summer when they're in use, but I have seen their platforms and the boxes that form the rear room of the tent and then hold everything in the off-season.
There's also the added benefit of walking down the beach a bit and seeing the abandoned casino and convention hall in neighboring Asbury Park.
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undoing vandalism to one's cottage can be fun (without it I would never have started this journal) though it can be souring on one's attitudes to the place's previous owners. I have come to the conclusion the the [names withheld] who bought my cottage in the late 1970's just didn't like old houses; they seem to have tried very hard to turn it into something 'up-to-date' and 'modern'. it has made many of the choices quite simple: find their works and undo them.
the term I use is unremuddling which should make immediate sense t anybody who's ever seen a copy of Old House Journal. oddly enough it's unique in LJ interest space.
your late neighbour's point on cable is well taken. the time to deal with any sort of electrical/plumbing/data infrastructure is while the walls are open. one cottage in the Grove was extensively renovated; by the time the workers were done with it the place was a real showpiece. but within a year the owner decided to bring in cable TV and the installers did, well, what you would expect from the cable guy. the first time I saw it I nearly [you can imagine] but oddly enough I have come to terms with it. of all that cottage's quirks it's just the most recent, so it really does have a context. an ugly anachronistic one, to be sure, but a context nevertheless. I even included it in LJ image posting, though to a community not directly related to old houses.
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I can't totally blame them because the cottage walls are just a beadboard and wood siding sandwich with nary a bit of insulation, and the floor has nothing between it and the basement. The purists in this town really are chilly in the winter. I'm settling for regular walls with some exposed beadboard on interior walls. Despite this understanding, I curse them every time I remove a section of vinyl from the living room floor. It's about 1/3 scraped up and incredibly hideous right now. It looks like my house is floor is molting. I don't know what kind of glue did this, but it's amazing stuff.
The best part of the covering over of the beadboard is that every wall that's opened has its original Victorian paint intact on the beadboard. I know the colors that were used in every room but the kitchen. Here's what I'm babbling about. I just realized that I made a post on this topic last summer with good pictures of what lies beneath. Are The Grove's cottages built along similar lines? If not, then how?
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>
> Are The Grove's cottages built along similar lines?
>
yes, looking at your post (BTW thanks for including the link) your walls, like so much else you describe, were/are so very familiar. I do hope that while you had them open you took the opportunity to put in some modern high grade insulation. it makes one heck of a difference.
were/are interior and exterior beadboard separate layers?
I hope you don't mind my asking, but your sentence "Of course, I'm selling this house and moving in 6 months so I suppose I'll get over it" made me wonder what happened to your migration plans.
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Oh yeah, the moving thing. We actually planned on moving to Savannah, GA last year. It's enchanting there and we were going through a quarter life crisis or something. We wound up staying here when my charming niece was born and some annoying issues finally resolved themselves. I have to say though, the day we really started doubting the plan came when all the living room trim was finally up and we remembered what we liked about this house in the first place. From that day on we didn't want to leave. I've never actually admitted to my family that I stayed for the crown molding.
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seem to recall a cluster of little houses and maybe a meeting hall described as such a place i used to drive by in portsmouth rhode island..
i can't recall any details alas... pretty small. don't know the definition being used but thought i'd throw that in see if anyone knows anything
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yes, there does seem to have been a Camp Meeting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_meeting) in Portsmouth RI; apparently it had been active on the order of 100 years ago and operates today as a religious summer camp. as they were quite widespread a cursory online search is bound to omit many; I was trying to locate ones whose facilities later became a residential community. did you have the impression that this was the case? if so I should edit the post accordingly.
though I have family in the Providence/Warwick area I must confess to not having even heard of that Portsmouth before, though I have been to the ones in Hampshire UK, NH, OH and VA; just not RI. oh, well, here in the Grove we are used to obscurity.
this cottage, and the Town in which it is located, owe their existence to the Camp Meeting movement, hence my historical interest.
portsmouth
i..think..there..is..little..or..no..full-year..use
wish..i..remembered..more..past..how..pretty..a..place..it..was
will..try..your..link;..do..you..have..an..address..for..it
link?
uh, link? sorry, I don't think I quite understand.
that reply did contain a link to the Wikipedia entry for Camp Meeting, just a very generic reference for anybody not familiar with the term. I don't have anything specific on the camp meeting in Portsmouth RI.
Re: link?
not..any..such..on..quick..surfing.
thanks..anyway....