Heart Strangely Warmed: The Chautauqua and Methodist Campgrounds at Plainville, Connecticut

The great American Social movements of Methodism and Chautauqua enabled Americans to educate and revitalize themselves, allowing them to take courage in their 19th century lives to face the 20th century with the utmost intelligence, reverence, and resolve. These movements have shaped our society in other ways as well. The earliest ones were intended as religious affairs, but from the very beginning they also offered a rare chance to escape the day-to-day routine of work and consider the meaning and course of oneÕs life. For city dwellers, the camp meeting offered a chance to escape to Nature. The sense of retreat to a place set apart for refreshment and renewal fed the camp meetings and Chautauquas into more educational but less strictly religious pursuits and then into some of the first resort communitiesÉPlainvilleÕs tiny cottages represent a building type that was invented at camp meeting grounds, but quickly became a model for vacation and resort cottages across the country.