Pennsylvania Chautauqua in Mount Gretna runs extensive summer programming with classes, concerts, outdoor recreation and cultural events listed in a 54-page pamphlet. The town's year-round population of about 1,000 more than doubles each June through August as thousands arrive for major events. Residents and cottagers engage in cooking lessons, nature walks, yoga, lectures, music and plays across picturesque porches. The Chautauqua movement began as a program for Sunday school teachers at Lake Chautauqua, spreading through prohibitionist and reading-circle networks to promote scientific and literary awareness and religious education. Traveling tent Chautauquas reached millions, peaked in 1907, and largely faded during the Great Depression.
It takes a 54-page pamphlet to list all the classes, concerts, outdoor recreation and other self-improvement and entertainment going on at the Pennsylvania Chautauqua in Mount Gretna this summer. The area springs to life every June, July and August, when a year-round population of about 1,000 more than doubles and thousands more crowd in for big events. The picturesque front porches that define the town are abuzz with energetic cottagers who punctuate their days with cooking lessons, nature walks, yoga, professorial lectures, music and plays.
In short, it's kind of a summer camp for the sort of people who want to fit in a lecture on the Marquis de Lafayette between a bird watching walk and a bluegrass duo performance on a random July day. "Some people don't last, but most of the people who understand it, love it," said Bonnie Harvey, who has lived full-time in Mount Gretna since she and her husband, Dave, sold a bed-and-breakfast inn in a nearby town. "If you're bored, it's your own fault."
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