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Dominating
Getzendaner Park in Waxahachie,
a large wooden, octagonal-roofed pavilion stands as a symbol of
entertainment and enlightment in the days before movies and television.
The building was built in 1901 at the peak of the Chautauqua movement
in America, which began at Lake Chautauqua, New York, in 1874 as
a summer retreat for the training of Sunday School teachers.
The movement was soon broadened to include academic subjects, music,
art, humanities and physical education. By 1880, the Chautauqua
platform had established itself as a national forum for the open
discussion of public issues, international relations, literature
and science.
Numerous “tent Chautauquas” sprang up across America and continued
until the early 1930s.
Inspired by tented events at Waxahachie,
a group of community leaders built a 2,500-seat auditorium in the
town’s park, then known as West End Park.
It is not clear who was responsible for the odd design. Some believe
it was planned to resemble a tent; others believe it was a copy
of the original octagonal-roofed platform of the open-air auditorium
in New York State.
Similar tent Chautauquas appeared throughout East
Texas, most notably at Nacogdoches,
Texarkana
and Huntsville,
as a part of the Redpath-Homer circuit which started traveling around
the country in 1912. Even Call,
a small sawmill town on the Jasper-Newton
County line, hosted a Chautauqua.
The circuit was organized by promoter Charles F. Homer, who was
best known for encouraging amateurs to enter Chautauqua. He even
set up his own school to train young talent.
A typical Chautauqua in, say, East
Texas, began with a train carrying the circuit’s tent, baggage
and talent to a community, usually arriving in the morning and followed
by a grand parade to the local assembly grounds.
The tent was set up and the programs were usually held in the evening
to permit everyone to attend. While the program consisted of music,
plays and storytelling, a lecture was the backbone of Chautauqua.
Speakers posed challenges to the community, provided an informational
presentation, or made an inspirational speech. In the l920s, there
were twenty-one Chautauqua circuits operating in the U.S. and Canada
with an attendance of 35 million people. Some thirty Texas towns
benefited from the events.
Internationally famous cowboy Will Rogers was one of the most popular
speakers on the Chautauqua circuit. He came to Waxahachie
on Saturday, February 27, 1927, and entertained a capacity crowd.
As television pushed the Chautauqua movement aside, the Waxahachie
building declined until it was closed by the city in 1971.
But in 1975, the grand old hall was restored and rededicated, followed
by the revival of the Chautauqua movement seven years ago.
On the last
Saturday of each September, one of the few surviving Chautauquas
in America brings back memories of the days when people assembled
in public to listen and learn about the world around them.
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