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    Bay View
    Bay View
    Bay View
    Ebook193 pages42 minutes

    Bay View

    By Dr. John J. Agria and Mary A. Agria

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    About this ebook

    Bay View is a jewel box of a Northern Michigan Chautauqua community along the shores of Little Traverse Bay, southwest of the Mackinac Bridge. Founded in 1875 and now a National Historic Landmark, its 31 public buildings and 450 cottages are among the most pristine examples of 1900-era High Victorian architecture in the United States. Historical photographs capture the fascinating journey via rail and Great Lakes steamer to the early campground s beech-forested hillside. Rare images trace its path from a wilderness Methodist campground to a vibrant embodiment of Chautauqua s four pillars: the arts, education, recreation, and religion. Building on the Camp Meeting and Chautauqua traditions, the founders forged a unique lifestyle that ends every November only to resume with renewed energy every April. The turrets, towers, and gingerbread of this timeless Brigadoon excite the imagination today just as they did more than 135 years ago.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateMay 19, 2014
    ISBN9781439645222
    Bay View
    Author

    Dr. John J. Agria

    Dr. John and Mary Agria have lived as Bay View cottagers for over 40 years. For 10 of those years, John has served as the official Bay View and festival photographer. Novelist Mary Agria�s Life in the Garden series was inspired by her summers with the Bay View Memorial Garden crew. Their love of Bay View and insights into its history and lifestyle come through on every page of this pictorial history.

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      Book preview

      Bay View - Dr. John J. Agria

      locations.

      INTRODUCTION

      Bay View was founded in 1875 by Methodist Episcopal Church clergy and laypersons seeking to establish a Michigan camp meeting in the tradition of the religious and cultural retreats flourishing at that time. From those roots sprang one of the most thriving Chautauqua programs in the country—a one-of-a-kind community of late-1800s and early-1900s buildings. The 450 cottages and 31 public buildings today attract visitors from all over the United States.

      Camp meetings originated in Great Britain but achieved greatest popularity in the United States. Religious revivalism first swept the colonies in the 1740s. Ocean Grove, New Jersey, founded in 1869, is known as the Queen of the Victorian Methodist Camp Meetings. Though the rise of automobile travel diminished the role of summer campgrounds in family vacations, the camp meeting still influences revivalist denominations today.

      Centennial historian Keith J. Fennimore writes that when Bay View founders shaped their campground in 1874, they were well acquainted with similar Methodist institutions on the East Coast. Preachers and speakers addressed the crowds, often in outdoor or rural settings. The site chosen for the Michigan campground was located in the wilderness along the shores of Little Traverse Bay outside of Petoskey, Michigan.

      While Bay View’s campground was in the planning stages in 1874, the Chautauqua Assembly was founded in Fair Point, New York. Located on a site of former Sunday school institutes, Chautauqua de-emphasized ties to the camp meeting movement when it announced its first assembly. Programs rested upon what founders call the four pillars, a holistic mix of the arts, education, recreation, and religion. Their vision launched a cultural movement in America that today proudly bears its name. Ties between that original Chautauqua and Bay View would have a profound impact on Bay View’s future.

      Bay View’s first camp meeting started on August 2, 1876, and ran for six days. Big Sunday drew the largest crowds. Hymn sings were popular, an emphasis on music that continues today with Sunday night Vespers and the annual Bay View Music Festival. When Bay View also introduced a Sunday school training congress in its second season in 1877, its leaders brought educational materials with them from the New York Chautauqua. Bay View’s vision embraced the Chautauqua ideal. Its 25th anniversary bulletin in 1900 boldly proclaimed: Bay View is not a church or denominational establishment, but a Christian institution of the broadest catholicity. Anyone 21 or older, its Articles of Incorporation proclaimed, and of good moral character, was eligible for membership.

      To encourage membership, by 1886 Bay View added Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Temperance Days, a ministerial union, and Missionary Days. But 10 years after its founding, only 131 cottages had been built. Bay View was in danger of violating its contract with the railroad to develop the site. The trustees persuaded John Manley Hall, a 35-year-old lawyer from Flint, to become superintendent of a new Chautauqua educational department and to install a full-fledged Chautauqua Assembly. Hall’s new programs proved popular. Over the next two years, cottage leases went up to 402. Between 1886 and 1891, the following six public buildings were constructed on campus: Chautauqua Cottage (1887), Loud Hall (1887), Tabernacle Hall (1887), Hitchcock Hall (1889), Evelyn Hall (1890), and Epworth Hall (1891).

      In 1890, the railroad gave the Bay View Campground Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church a quick claim to the land. With correspondence courses booming, John Hall resigned as on-campus education and assembly director to pursue development of his off-campus programs. After Hall’s departure, the assembly struggled, and a financial crisis in the early 1900s brought Bay View to the brink of bankruptcy. For several years, no assembly was held; the last camp meeting was held in 1908 (campground was removed officially from the name in the 1930s). At that crisis point, Bay View appointed John M. Hall as trustee in 1905 and negotiated a contract with him to organize the assembly again for 10 years. Some of the most nationally prominent speakers came to Bay View during that period. Hall’s last major contribution was the building of a new auditorium in 1913. Sadly, he died in December 1914 before the auditorium was completed. The magnificent Greek Revival hall that bears his name was dedicated in the summer of 1915.

      Today, Bay View remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church and takes pride in that heritage. Its Chautauqua programs continue to flourish—an ongoing, unique contribution to Northern Michigan life.

      Chautauqua, Theodore Roosevelt once said, is the most American thing in America. The movement spread like wildfire through the country. Artists, lecturers, and teachers also took to the road to share their talents on the Chautauqua circuit. At its peak in 1915, some 12,000 communities hosted Chautauquas, reaching around 45 million people. While most Chautauquas eventually lost their programs and continue today only as homeowner associations, 15 survived and relate to each other through a Chautauqua network. The movement has seen a revival in recent years, including the founding of several new Chautauquas.

      Today, the Bay View Association, located 30 miles southwest of the Mackinaw Bridge, is second only to the Chautauqua Institution in New York in the range of its programs. Also setting it apart is its turn-of-the-century architecture, which is more intact stylistically than any other Chautauqua. In 1986, the community was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 2012, the Paint Quality Institute also named Bay View One of America’s Prettiest Painted Places. Walking through Bay View’s densely shaded streets transports the visitor to a simpler time and life. It is a place where watching television is a guilty pleasure and rocking on the porch reading a book or talking with neighbors is a must.

      Bay View has struggled to balance its early campground roots with its unique character as a Chautauqua through two World Wars, the Depression, recessions, and hard financial times. Through it all, it has resisted pressures to become just another year-round resort. Cottage life remains tied inextricably to the program season. The entire community closes November 1 and does not open until late April. If you wonder why this Brigadoon on Little Traverse Bay has flourished for over 135 years as a place of learning, religion, recreation,

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