Steve Hartman: In today's world, a lot of people are looking for an escape from the realities of modern life.

And for some, this is that retreat.

I'm here in Lakeside, Ohio, a place very close to my heart.

Lakeside is nestled along the Lake Erie shore on the Marblehead Peninsula.

And when you drive through the gates, you take a step back in time.

It's a place to relax and enjoy a purposeful vacation.

I know my family has been coming here for six generations.

This is me in my very first lakeside sweatshirt.

I took my first swimming lessons here, and I still boast about my lakeside peewee shuffleboard trophy.

I have learned and experienced so much in this unique place.

So join me as we explore the remarkable history of Lakeside Chautauqua.

In the period following the Civil War and leading into the Industrial Age, families were relocating from the farm to the city due to a changing economy.

People were looking for jobs, a better life and new communities.

Often communities grounded in faith.

Enter the camp meeting movement and members of the Methodist Episcopal Church that developed an idea to combine a physical retreat with evangelism, a place where one could get away from daily life.

The Methodist community in Port Clinton and Marblehead, Ohio, were inspired by this opportunity.

Dave Boling: You could say that Lakeside was a social justice experiment.

It gave people room to have a new community.

Still had the chance to relax, still could enjoy the lakeside sunset.

But the main purpose was to help people grow in their faith.

After the Civil War, a thing called the resort camp meeting begins to take hold.

That's the tradition that Lakeside is born into.

Steve Hartman: In 1872.

Lakeside's Founding Fathers Reverend Richard Duvall, Samuel Gill, Adam Payne, Barney Jacobs, and Alexander Clemmons gathered to form what would eventually become the Lakeside company and set aside 30 acres of land for a camp meeting site.

Sean Gill: Lakeside began as more of an idea of the temperance movement.

Then it.

Then it began as a Chautauqua, actually.

Richard Peach Duvall, the man with an idea said, “Wouldn't it be great if there was a place where people could go to get away from the alcohol and still have a vacation?

” S.R.

Gill, This was the only area he knew growing up.

He knew what he wanted Lakeside to be.

He went to one of his great friends, Barney Jacobs, and said, This is a great idea.

He agreed that it would be a good idea to partake in something like this.

And then S.R.

Gill got his uncle, Adam Paine.

Richard Duvall, was reassigned to Ottawa, Ohio.

He never saw Lakeside open, but then it was S.R.

Gill, Jacobs and Paine that started purchasing land and started drawing attention to this area.

Steve Hartman: In the beginning, Lakeside wasn't at all the place it is today.

It was land where tents were erected for camp meeting attendees.

The company began developing plans for roads and buildings.

Hotel Lakeside was built and sta Dave Boling: People came here one just out of curiosity to see what the heck was going on.

Two, they came here for a growing of their faith, an enlargement of their faith, a bigger experience in God they called it.

Sean Gill: It was a perfect time for people to come and get away from other things that were around them that were kind of distractions, so to speak.

This is shortly after the Civil War.

And so we're in the middle of reconstruction and not just reconstructing the United States, but kind of a moral reconstruction.

Steve Hartman: Also, in 1875.

The Lakeside Chapel was constructed.

It was a permanent church for local Methodists.

A German Methodist presence would grow at Lakeside, eventually, attracting more than 4000 German immigrants who had their own annual camp meetings in German.

In 1933, the Central German Conference, which sponsored the German camp meetings at Lakeside, merged with the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Tom Campbell: The church was everything, and there was large membership, especially with children.

Sunday school classes were large.

There were a lot of families that lived in Lakeside.

Steve Hartman: Continuing its desire to attract more visitors.

The company added amenities and improved infrastructure.

Significantly, it adopted a unique Sunday school teacher training program created in Chautauqua, New York, by Methodist Bishop John Hyle Vincent and Louis Miller.

Centered around programs in religion, education, arts and recreation.

This would eventually evolve into the chautauqua experience we know today.

Bill Carlson: Well the chautauqua movement started in the 1870s in the Lake Chautauquan western part of New York State and was originally supposed to be for the education and training of Sunday school teachers, but it soon expanded into a broader education program of studying at home, taking courses at home, and then added arts and culture programs and of course the recreational and so on.

Lakeside picked up on it in 1870s and it grew from there.

People are looking for, in some cases a faith based community, some a place that offers all these different kinds of things that you can do in a chautauqua, especially when if you think of Lakeside, beautiful setting.

Reverend B. T. Vincent, the brother of one of the co-founders of the chautauqua movement, came here with his wife and was here for about 17 years the two of them running the programing here.

And they adopted a lot of the programs from the Chautauqua, New York, and that helped shape what Lakeside became.

Nancy Carlson: There are three gated season communities.

Lakeside, Chautauqua New York and Monteagle Tennessee, and the others are a day, a week, a month, several months.

It depends on the community that they serve.

And they're all either on water or they're on mountains, most of them.

There's a few exceptions, but most of them are like that, and there are currently about 15, maybe 16.

The number varies because some start up and some drop off.

Dave Boling: The Chautauqua is a place where all or welcome the poorest person and the richest person.

Both have an opportunity to learn.

Steve Hartman: While spending summers in Chautauqua, New York.

President Theodore Roosevelt, on his last visit in 1905, is quoted saying, “Chautauqua is the most American thing in America ”.

As people began coming to Lakeside.

The company moved ahead with infrastructure projects, the first being a dock.

Trees were bundled together and sunk, and when that section was completed in 1873, the B.F. Ferris steamboat began regular service to Lakeside, carrying thousands of passengers and cargo.

Eventually, the Lakeside and Marblehead Railroad and the Toledo Port Clinton Lakeside Interurban electric train would provide additional transportation opportunities for getting to Lakeside.

After visiting other camp meeting communities along the East Coast, the founders of Lakeside designed the streets and parks we see here today.

1879 saw more land purchases and buildings, including an auditorium, boathouse, headquarters and other facilities.

Hotel Lakeside was also expanded to accommodate more overnight visitors.

32 new rooms were added for employees and the servants of guests.

The company continued its land expansion in 1888 with its final purchase for the large sum of $25,000, an amount equal to $800,000 in 2023.

Dale Knobel: At Lakeside, we have a grand history.

In 1983, they accepted Lakeside as a historic district, and they nominated it to the National Register of Historic Places.

And it was accepted.

With all these contributing structures, cottages, as well as the public buildings like the Hotel Lakeside, like Orchestra Hall, the administration building, Hoover Auditorium, about 900 cottages or so.

And of those, about 700, 600 to 700 were actually of historical significance.

You can walk the grounds and again see that we evolved from the board tent to the lakeside cottage to the bungalow to the second empire, to kind of another 20th century Craftsman style.

And it helps us retain the essential character of the place over this almost now 150 years.

Steve Hartman: In 1929, the year most associated with the beginning of the Great Depression, Lakeside suffered a major setback just days before the stock market crash.

On October 20th, sirens began wailing.

A fire had started at Fifth Street and Walnut Avenue.

Phil Dale: A guy by the name of Scottie Lawson.

For some reason, he started the stove around 8:00 on Sunday morning.

When when Scottie returned to the kitchen or wherever the stove was located, curtains were on fire and because of the direction of the wind, literally started marching from one house to another up north on Walnut Street.

It's heading north toward Hoover Auditorium.

The wind changed direction, so the Lakeside Methodist Church is in line of the fire.

To save the church building, they wanted to dynamite the more cottages that were surrounding that.

It went every direction and landed, of all places, on the church.

The building they were trying to protect.

You know, America fell on tough times with the Depression in 1929.

Lakeside certainly was no exception.

Evidence of the fire still exists by just taking a walk through the area.

Steve Hartman: Through the amazing efforts of volunteer firefighters.

The recently dedicated Hoover Auditorium was saved.

Lakeside has a rich history, and events such as fires are one reason that preservation and archiving is important.

Dale Knobel: Residents and visitors alike prize the experience of coming to Lakeside and seeing that 150 year old past there have played out in front of their eyes.

Kaysie Harrington: I really see our role as preserving the stories of our community and the memories.

Each person, no matter how insignificant it might seem.

Their experiences within Lakeside, their memories within Lakeside form the community's collective memory and theyre all important.

Dale Knobel: Communities evolve, and over time, buildings at Lakeside have moved location.

You know, it's an early form of sustainability that rather than tearing down and rebuild, buildings are repurposed here at Lakeside.

And so not only are building have they been moved over the years, but of course the needs of families change over the years.

And so buildings have sometimes grown over the years.

The challenge of historic preservation, is how you can allow for that kind of growth and preserving the essential character, particularly of these contributing structures to the National Register Historic District.

We work with our property owners to try to bring about successful conclusions where cottages look like the cottage they've always been, but inside they've changed with modern kitchens and modern bathrooms and more bedrooms.

Steve Hartman: Repurposing of buildings is common at Lakeside.

An example of this is Heritage Hall Museum, which used to be a church.

One of the oldest buildings in Lakeside.

Although many buildings have been repurposed, some have been torn down and rebuilt like the iconic pavilion.

The original auditorium was replaced by the Hoover Auditorium in 1929.

Lakeside has hosted many prominent people, including politicians, bands, musicians and civic leaders.

People like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, aviator Amelia Earhart, musician Ray Charles and President Rutherford B Hayes.

Beyond building infrastructure and attracting prominent speakers and performers, Lakesides Community has created and organized groups that promote educational opportunities, as well as bringing together people who share common interests.

One such group was the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

The League and Lakeside had similar missions.

Created in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1889.

Epworth Mission was to promote an earnest, intelligent, practical and loyal spiritual life for young people.

Evolving into summer institutes, the first Lakeside Youth Institute was held in 1915, with attendance reaching a peak of about 1400 kids by 1925.

Huge attendance continued well into the 1960s.

More important than the numbers, though, these institutes gave kids a sense of community outside of school or church or family.

A new family of friends and in many cases, friends for life.

Another historic Lakeside organization was made up of volunteer firefighters.

David Glick: It all started in 1905 after the next block completely burned out within a week after the fire.

They met and formed this Lakeside Volunteer Fire Protective Association.

Even when I was 16 years old, if you come upon a fire, you could grab an ax or grab a thing.

And they never had a question.

In the old days, we had no gear.

We didn't you know, the barber had his apron on running around the truck and crawling on my hands and knees in a cottage of fire with a suit coat on.

Gretchen Curtis: In 1928, Mr. Hoover and his wife Bessie, recognized that Lakeside needed to have a women's club.

Mr. Hoover arranged that the Lakeside Association Board designated this as the clubhouse for the newly formed Lakeside Women's Club with his wife, Bessie Hoover, as the first president.

And it remains a vital organization.

Steve Hartman: Despite the popularity of Lakeside.

By the late 1800s, the company was struggling financially.

Ultimately, a public auction of all assets was held in 1902, with the purchaser being what would eventually become today's Lakeside Association.

Lakeside remains firmly rooted in its founding values.

Writing 150 years ago, one of Lakesides original founders expressed his view of what Lakeside was about then and still is today.

“People of the peninsula have long been acquainted with the fact that its natural attractions are not excelled by any location in the West, that its lake views are as fine, its breezes are as cool, its fishing as good, and its scenery more varied than any place upon Lake Erie, and that were its advantages known to the pleasure seeking world, it would soon become a popular place to resort to those seeking rest, restoration and cool breezes.

” Jane Anderson: We're lakeside, and the lake is so important to us.

We have been looking at how to be sustainable not only financially but environmentally.

What can we do to keep this one square mile healthy for the next generations?

What can we do to improve the environment, to continue to stay in the forefront of working with people who are working to keep the lake clean.

Steve Hartman: At the heart of the Lakeside experience and what makes it truly different from a typical vacation spot is the summer programing a perfect balance to nurture mind, body and spirit.

Choose from any combination of cultural arts, educational, recreational and spiritual programs to create a vacation with a purpose.

Kip Greenhill: The four pillars really are the backbone of Lakeside, and that's the arts recreation, education and religion.

Jessica Bettencourt: I think if you look at the four pillars of Lakeside, you see what would make someone well-rounded, someone who is grounded in their faith, but also can enjoy recreation, maybe enjoys the arts, but also wants to be educated.

So if you look at it as a whole, I think it just makes our community very well rounded.

Shirley Stary: You know, one of the things that I always think about Lakeside is there's a phrase that certain lakesiders use, they said Lakeside is grace filled land.

So Christian communities have been gathering here, you know, for 150 years.

This stage in Hoover.

We've seen ordinations, you know, for decades on this stage.

So there's something very special about these grounds.

And I don't think you have to be Christian or even particularly spiritual to feel it.

Jane Higgins Marx: God is here.

You can feel God here.

God is in our community.

It's in our people.

It's in the way that we interact and treat each other.

It's in our programing.

Gretchen Curtis: Mrs. Vincent was a good friend of Mrs. Captain Bradley.

Based on Mrs. Vincent's request, Mrs. Bradley provided the funding for Lakeside to build Bradley Temple, which is still used for children's programing now, and that was dedicated in 1885.

Tom Campbell: October 20th, 1929.

Even though that was certainly a huge catastrophe, it didn't stop the involvement of the people in the church.

They continued to worship on Sunday in Orchestra Hall.

They continued to participate in other groups and activities here, and they held a communion service on New Year's Eve, December 31st, 1952.

So that kicked off the opening official opening of the church.

Kip Greenhill: Some people may come here just for the educational programing and for the discussions and to be challenged, you know, in their thinking.

Jane Anderson: Lifelong learning is at the top of the values for us.

Dakota Harkins: The opportunity for kids and adults alike to share and learning was one of my favorite aspects of working in the archives.

When kids come in and they bring their grandparents in and they come in with their parents, those kids that come in to learn.

They take something away from here and they can take it with them, not only out into Lakeside, but everywhere where they go.

Shirley Stary: One of the things that's great about Lakeside, it's a very intergenerational community and just this wonderful smattering of all ages.

And so they'll be able to experience things together no matter what their age.

Roger Berkowitz: I think the arts really kind of permeate our communities and our society.

I think what's wonderful about Lakeside is that it's very conducive to imagination, creativity, and whether it's performing arts or visual arts, it is very, very conducive to that at Lakeside.

Shirley Stary: That's what we try and do, something that the parents and grandparents can enjoy that maybe expand someone's cultural horizon allows them to experience something that they've never seen before and experience it together as a family.

I think one of the challenges we have in society right now is that we don't do enough together as families.

Charles Allen: Seeing kids playing in the streets and.

Gretchen Colon: Head to the docks to swim in the morning.

Jane Higgins Marx: Now, Lakeside has a pool, which I think is a is a wonderful addition to the grounds and the facilities.

Jane Anderson: Lots of kids on bikes and scooters and lots of intergenerational activities.

Gretchen Colon: Stepping on the courts at pickleball or tennis or shuffleboard.

Jane Anderson: There is something for everybody here.

No matter what time of day.

There's always something, whether it's an educational program or a music program.

It could be an art class.

It could be kayaking.

Gretchen Colon: They may not be able to articulate Chautauqua.

I'm looking for a Chautauqua, but they're looking for a purpose.

And Chautauqua is that purpose today.

Jessica Bettencourt: It's the opportunity to come together with people that are different than you, but also a lot alike and experience things that maybe you wouldn't experience otherwise.

Hannah Brainard: Coming into Lakeside, the opportunities that you can have as a kid, you can't get those anywhere else.

I mean, you know that your neighbors will come out and help you if you fall off your bike or if you get lost on your way home, or if you spend too much money at Marilyn's and you need that extra quarter.

There's a lot of history in the community just in how people talk to each other and greet each other on the street and look out for one another, that's not common in communities now.

Steve Hartman: To attract new generations, the Lakeside Association continues to build on its founding values while anticipating the future Lakeside Chautauqua: American Treasure.

Charles Allen: Lakeside is one of those very unique places.

Any time you've had an organization thats been around nearly 150 years, that within itself is an amazing thing.

Outside of the beautiful grounds, the amazing historical structures, the beautiful mile of the lake is also the heart of the people.

And I believe at the heart of the people is where you find acceptance, regardless of the reason that someone may come to Lakeside, they know they'll be met with people who care deeply and love humanity immensely.

Kip Greenhill: People need lakeside experience now more than ever, and we're committed to delivering that relaxing, fun culture here.

Gretchen Colon: Families today are running a thousand miles a minute and boy, to stop the hustle and bustle is something unique.

Dakota Harkins: Everyone has a different lakeside story, and that lakeside narrative always turned into their foundation for taking the story of Lakeside everywhere else and bringing more friends and then connecting through generation and generation.

Fran Warner: I think for Lakeside, it is an opportunity to do things at a slower pace.

Just enjoy each other's company and that's really important as far as building traditions and building memories.

Steve Hartman: Throughout Lakesides 150 year history.

There have been many changes new buildings, more cottages, many exciting events.

But what keeps Lakeside unique is the Lakesiders themselves, generations of families enjoying a place like no other, a place where you feel welcome from the time you step in the gates to the time you regrettably have to leave.

This is Lakeside Chautauqua.