Lake Madison Chautauqua Grounds

Lake Madison Chautauqua Grounds. . , The Lake Madison Chautauqua Association established 1890 was a corporation patterned after the original Chautauqua in New York. One of the first Chautauquas west of Chicago, it purchased 60 acres of the old Baker homestead from J. A. Trow, known as "Morena Beach" platted and set out trees, built the Grand View Hotel of 40 rooms (located near this spot which burned in 1946), the Auditorium seating 2500, the cafeteria, and a fine dance hall. It grew from a white city of 200 tents and stables for 200 horses to a summer resort of 125 cottages., For 40 years it furnished a high grade program for two weeks each summer, often having in attendance 3000 and 10000 on July 4th. Excursion trains ran, on special days, from 500 miles distant, and a narrow gauge motor track from Madison, and later a spur of Milwaukee track were used. Its platform was an open forum and did much to bring into favorable notice the city of Madison and Lake County. Some of the noted speakers were T. DeWitt Talmage, W. J. Bryan, William H. Taft, Booker T. Washington, General John B. Gordon, Robert M. LaFollette, Eugene V. Debbs, Russell H. Conwell, Sam Jones, Bishop Hartzell, Father Cleary, Frank R. Roberson, and D. W. Robertson. The first moving pictures in South Dakota were seen here., Its first president was J. H. Williamson with E. C. Whalen Sec. and J. L. Jones, treas. The directors and stockholders were many of the prominent men and women of the state. For many years it graduated a class from its four year course in the "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle." The state W. C. T. U. built its headquarters here called Clarence Hall. After its first few troublesome years, the Chautauqua was saved, financially; sponsored and managed for over thirty years by its new presidents Capt. H. P. Smith and son Geo. G. Smith., With the coming of a new era - the auto, moving pictures and radio - the programs were discontinued and the Chautauqua Grounds became privately owned and used for cottages and playgrounds.