Auditorium / Amphitheater

Auditorium, also, Amphitheater. . , The outdoor amphitheater was the center of the Silver Lake Assembly, which was formed from Camp Wesley in 1887 and replaced the Preacher Stand. Built for $2000 in 1888, just four years before Epworth Hall, the amphitheater had an arched roof 32 feet high and covered a space of 80 feet by 120 feet. It could hold an audience of 2000 people, as well as a choir of 500. The Assembly and the Chautauqua-type Institute that followed in 1908 used it to hold large worship services, lectures, concerts, entertainments, and other public gatherings during the summer season. Day visitors flocked there by train, while others rented cottages or rooms in boarding houses or hotels. A disastrous fire, apparently set by two young boys, destroyed the building in 1918. This ended an era at the Institute. Subsequent preaching took place indoors at Epworth Hall which had been designed for lectures and the young people's Epworth League activities. In Loving Memory of Lorraine Kraft by the Kraft Family