Karen Noske joins us again to share photos and descriptions of the Chautauqua landmarks she explored this summer, with Isabella Alden’s novels in mind. Welcome back, Karen!
My next objective was the Hall of Christ, as there was an archival lecture to be given momentarily on one of the most influential early religious leaders at Chautauqua, the renowned Shailer Mathews.
I imagined how Isabella might have felt, sitting in this arena, listening to contemporary reflections on the man whose influence changed the course of the Institute in so many ways.
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“The Hall of the Christ, is first of all, to stand in the center of Chautauqua to represent Christ as the center of all learning and all true living; the Key to the true and eternal wisdom…a Hall where Jesus Christ is enthroned; where only his story is allowed; told in print and picture and sculpture and the human voice. Isn’t it grand!”
(Four Mothers at Chautauqua)
The workmanlike interior of the unprepossessing Hall of Christ makes me wonder if there haven’t been many changes to it over the years.
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The general atmosphere is one of beneficent neglect and exhaustion. A magnificent organ dominates the stage—sadly, it was eclipsed by the speaker’s screen and I only got this tantalizing glimpse of it.
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Engrossing as the lecture was, I was glad to make my way out towards my next objective—the centerpiece of Chautauqua for Isabella and, as it turned out, for me.
The Hall in the Grove
Directly adjacent to the Hall of Christ is the cherished “Hall in the Grove.” I recognized it immediately by its prominence and its beauty:
“If you have up to this time been even a careless reader of this volume, you have doubtless discovered that the center of Chautauqua life was the ‘Hall in the Grove.’ A beautiful grove, with trees old enough and grand enough to be worthy of their baptismal name—”St Paul’s Grove.” White-pillared, simple, plain, yet suggestive of such a brilliant past and hinting of such a glorified future … this bit of green and white, with a glimmer of lake between.”
(The Hall in the Grove, page 286)
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A talk by the very popular Bill Moyers (of CBS News fame) was just finishing up, so I crept in around the edges and starting following the elaborate and beautiful mosaics that frame the lecture hall’s floor.
“All was quiet there. The sunset meeting which had been held in that white, still place was closed sometime since, and their feet, as they stepped on the floor, resounded throughout the vacant Hall.”
(The Hall in the Grove, page 240)
I was delighted to find the shield of Pansy’s Class of 1887 in a place of genuine honor—nestled around the corners of the lectern.
The lectern platform itself is still a modest affair, virtually unchanged since Pansy’s class approached to celebrate their graduation. Let’s join Paul Adams from The Hall in the Grove here:
“Arrived at the white, quiet building, he entered it with soft tread, and, under an impulse which he did not in the least understand, uncovered his head. He stepped softly onto the platform, drew the armchair, which was the seat of honor, forward a trifle, and settled himself in it. Then he brought up before him in review the many and varied and wonderful experiences which the weeks had brought him in connection with that spot … Then he got down from the professor’s chair and … after a silent last look at the Hall, he walked home with Joe, they two speaking words together that were better than marble columns or millions of money, for they represented manhood.”
(The Hall in the Grove, page 382)
In The Hall in the Grove, Isabella shares a peek into her heart:
“…the gleaming pillars of the Hall of Philosophy rose up before him; something in the purity and strength and quaintness seemed to have gotten possession of him. Whether it was a shadowy link between him and some ancient scholar or worshiper I cannot say … but treading the Chautauquan avenues for the first time … his young heart thrill[ed] with a hope and a determination, neither of which he understood, every time he saw those gleaming pillars.”
(The Hall in the Grove, page 198)
When Caroline Raynor (another character in The Hall in the Grove) objects to the Hall being made in the style of a Temple of Minerva, she is vigorously corrected by her soon-to-be suitor, Robert:
“I like it exceedingly. Let the beautiful white temple be rescued from its heathen desecration and dedicated to the service of the good and true God our Father, and his Son Jesus Christ.”
(page 204)
I passed an ancient oak near one of entrances that was garmented in ivy and wondered … if I parted the ivy, would I find a lichen-crusted carving in the tree reading “Vine, 22, 1887”? (Eighty–Seven, page 12.)
I surely saw what Dr. Winter Kelland did when …
“he and Vine walked … around under the hill, and up the hill, and come out beside the white-pillared hall and stopped under one of the tallest trees, and looked about them, and were silent. Dr. Kelland took off his hat and looked up reverently to the very top of the tall tree, beyond the top, into the blue of heaven.”
(Eighty-Seven, page 318)
As I walked reluctantly away from the Hall, I looked up and felt sure I was seeing the same trees, the same sky, the same view Pansy enjoyed in Four Girls at Chautauqua:
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“None of all … who spent the day within the shadow of that sweet and leafy place have surely forgotten how the quaint and quiet beauty of the place and its surrounding fell upon them; they know just how the birds sang among those tall old trees; they know just how still and blue and clear the lake looked as they caught glimpses of it through the quivering green of myriad leaves …”
(Four Girls at Chautauqua, page 180)
Next time, Karen makes a little visit to the Chautauqua Post Office before trekking to the “Holy Land.”
If you missed previous posts about Chautauqua Institution, you can read them by clicking on the links below:
Postcards from Chautauqua – Summer of 2017
A Tour of Chautauqua: Getting There
A Tour of Chautauqua: Strolling the Grounds
A Tour of Chautauqua: Where to Stay
A Tour of Chautauqua: Lectures and Classes
A Tour of Chautauqua: Having Fun
A Tour of Chautauqua: The Teachers’ Retreat
A Tour of Chautauqua: A Healthy Body
A Tour of Chautauqua: Palestine Park
Isabella Alden 
Thanks again, Jenny, for allowing me to share my memories with your readers! I enjoyed my brief visit there and hope to return next summer–to walk through the Golden Gates of the Hall in the Grove with my fellow classmates of 2018! Thank you for loving Isabella enough to create this platform to share her wonderful works. Gratefully, Karen
It’s my pleasure, Karen! I’m so glad you were willing to share your visit to Chautauqua with us. Your posts helped me visual the place Isabella loved so much. —Jenny
I think the biggest surprise to me was the topography….honestly, it’s a workout to go get your morning coffee! I can’t imagine laboring up and down those hills in the elaborate Victorian layers necessary for propriety in Isabella’s days…much less living in TENTS! My hat is off to those doughty damsels who braved such conditions to bring home new ways to enlighten their Sunday School scholars! PS–Can you find anything about Frank Beard…I’d love to see his work! XO K
There are several newspaper articles you can find on Google about Frank Beard and his Chalk Talks. In 1883 Frank wrote an article for St. Nicholas (a children’s magazine) explaining his process. Here’s a link. Also, in 1896 Frank’s book “Chalk Lessons or the Blackboard in the Sunday School” was published. The book gives Sunday-school teachers instructions for drawing simple figures on the blackboard to help illustrate Bible lessons for children. You can see some of those illustrations in a previous post (click here) about Frank.
Oh, this is fantastic! I should have KNOWN you’d be all over Frank Beard and his marvelous chalk talks! Thanks, Jenny! I’ll jump right on that!
Just read it and boy, was it good! It’s exactly what I hoped to learn. Don’t you wish you could have seen him do a Chalk Talk? No wonder he was so popular! (And from other reading I just did, a HUGE temperance worker, too!)
I would have loved to have seen a Frank Beard Chalk Talk, too, Karen. So far, I haven’t been able to find (after much searching) any record of a recording of one of Mr. Beard’s presentations, but I keep my fingers crossed that somehow one will turn up. His sketches were so entertaining, but by all accounts it was his wit and engaging style of speaking that were most memorable. —Jenny