Camp meeting picture taken in front of the Assembly Hall which still stands today. Thousands arrived by train every summer.
The Mountain Lake Dam and Spilway
Mountain Chautauqua Stories is a series of digital films that illustrate a vibrant Victorian resort founded on Christian values, neatly nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland. From the original founders of 1881 to the Chautauqua’s decline in the 1930s, director, Mark Stutzman assembles a collection of archived postcards, family photos, documents, and captivating interviews from historians, residents, and eye-witnesses.
You’ll travel back in time when the B&O railroad transported city passengers to extraordinary rural Victorian cottages and boarding homes that lined the streets of a bustling summer community. A recreational lake, prestigious hotels, boardwalks, tennis, golf, and inspiring presentations by notable personalities were all part of the Chautauqua experience.
The project is funded in part by the Maryland Heritage Area Authority, the Mountain Maryland Gateway to the West, and the Town of Mountain Lake Park.
A small group of Methodist ministers and businessmen founded Mountain Lake Park to create a community “free of sin” nestled between two established vacation resort towns in the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland. Oakland, and Deer Park had extravagant hotel resorts owned by the B&O Railroad making Garrett County a popular rural escape from the summer heat of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and points west.
A limited budget and a desire driven by faith, earned Mountain Lake Park a popular religious resort from 1881 through the 1930s. Many Victorian cottages built by the founding members still stand today in this precious community that provides glimpse into the past.
Mountain Lake Park was founded as a religious retreat for Methodists which expanded to include visits from well-known evangelists who inspired a generation of faithful followers. Religious presentations often assembled at the Bashford Amphitheater which was, at the time, the largest open amphitheater, holding up to 5,000 people in the round.
Hundreds of visitors would flock by rail each summer to drench themselves in an unspoiled community sheltered from moral peril.
Felix and Lucile Robinson were instrumental in reviving the Mountain Chautauqua through the 1930s. They founded the Mountain Choir Festival using Felix’s professional connections with New York City talent. The couple attracted top talent and filled the 5000-seat Bashford Amphitheater stage with hundreds of singers for over a decade.
Their daughter, Muriel Robinson shares personal stories of the Chautauqua experience that inspired her life-long musical career. Despite the challenges of being a young widow and a mother of nine children, Muriel pursued her passion of singing, playing piano, and teaching young students to perfect their talents.
Mountain Lake Park blossomed in the 1880s through the turn of the century. Families flocked to purchase land and build their own unique summer cottages. The diverse architectural styles reflected an aesthetic from their owners hometowns with many Victorian embellishments. A significant decline centered on the Hepburn act of 1906 disallowed railroad resorts that helped finance Mountain Lake Park and neighboring towns. The decline resulted in lost architectural treasures, however, many still stand in this charming rural community, along with a respect for what remains.
Mountain Lake Park has a lengthy history of bringing cultural presentations to the rural resort community that was originally founded in 1881. In the 1990s, former resident and Garrett County native, Kathryn Sincell-Corwell and violinist Erick Friedman began the Symphony at Deep Creek.
The annual summer classical music festival lasted for over a decade leaving a lasting impression on Mountain Lake Park's residents who housed and hosted the world-class musicians. This final episode revisits this special time in the "Park" as well as the ambitious plans for the 2020 Victorian Chautauqua July event. With all the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, the event planning committee is given no choice but to move their program schedule to the following year.
Whether you drink in a historical portrayal, listen to live music, learn from expert lecturers, witness demonstrations, shop, dine, stroll the historic district, or engage with your little ones, there’s something for everyone to enjoy at the Victorian Chautauqua. You can even dress in period attire to relive a time when propriety and cultural immersion were the order of the day.
In this final episode of Mountain Chautauqua Stories, Kathryn Sincell-Corwell revisits a remarkable time in Mountain Lake Park when world-class musicians assembled annually for the Symphony at Deep Creek. She describers her alliance with violinist, Erick Friedman to organize a decade-long classical summer music festival through the 1990s in Kathryn's home town – Mountain Lake Park. With no performance venues left in the "Park", Kathryn partners with the nearby community college to use their auditorium while most of the musicians are housed in the Park.
Erick works with his colleagues to assemble accomplished classical musicians from New York and around the world to play under his direction. As the orchestra's conductor, he slowly recovers from a car accident that sidelined his ability to perform. He eventually returns to the stage at the summer festival beginning the second chapter in his stellar solo career.
Chautauqua programming returns once again to Mountain Lake Park in 2019 with the help of Maryland Humanities and Garrett Lakes Arts Festival. A committee formed following the successful event to establish The Victorian Chautauqua. This new annual program honors the town's legacy of creating an environment that provides residents cultural enrichment as Kathryn and those before her also did.
Kathryn and the 2020 Victorian Chautauqua Committee grow excited in anticipation of their upcoming July event. Just five months before it's about to unfold, Maryland's Governor Hogan announces a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Large gatherings are prohibited for an indefinite amount of time, leaving the committee no choice but to cancel and move the entire event to 2021.
