Asbury Grove Historic District Hamilton, Massachusetts

1
Asbury Grove Historic DistrictHamilton,
Massachusetts

• Christine Beard
• Tremont Preservation Services

2

• District Boundaries

3

• Historical Background

• Camp meetings (open air religious revivals) began
  in the late 18th century in the South and were
  embraced primarily by the Methodists who had
  become the single largest Protestant denomination
  in the country by the early 19th century.
• In 1811 approximately 1.2 million people attended
  camp meeting across the country (one-tenth of the
  American population).
• Asbury Grove was one of several thousand camp
  meeting grounds established in America in the
  19th century and one of about two dozen in
  Massachusetts.

4

• Historical Background

• Prior to establishment of Asbury Grove, members
  of the Boston area and North Shore Methodist
  churches had to travel to Cape Cod to attend camp
  meeting.
• Asbury Grove established in 1859 on former
  10-acre farm of Joseph Dodge
• Approximately 2,000 people attended the first
  public prayer service at Asbury Grove, in a town
  that had less than 1,000 residents.

5

• 19th Century Camp Meeting

• Rise at 530 am and adhere to 10 pm curfew
• Meals served at 630 am, Noon, and 5 pm
• Public preaching services held at 10 am, 3 pm,
  and 7 pm
• Smaller prayer meetings were to be held by
  individual societies one-half hour after each
  meal
• No vehicles in the Grove during services
• No smoking in the prayer circle
• Temperance strongly encouraged - no alcohol in
  public buildings or areas

6

• What Makes Asbury Grove Special?

Historical Associations significant for its
associations with the Methodist church as a camp
meeting ground one of only about 100 that remain
intact and hold regular summer meetings
Architecture significant as a collection of
well-preserved cottages and common buildings that
define the rich history of the site
7

• Residential Buildings

Superintendents House/ Joseph F. Dodge
Farmhouse (c. 1830) On site when land purchased
for Asbury Grove in 1859
8

• Early Camp Shelters
• canvas tents remained the principal shelter for
  camp meeting participants through the 1860s
• rent in 1860 was 1

9

• Asbury Grove Victorian Cottages
• beginning about 1870, the tents were gradually
  replaced by small wooden cottages

10

• Construction in the 1870s
• Roughly 70 of the cottages at Asbury Grove were
  built in the decade from 1870 to 1879

11

• 1870 Plan of Asbury Grove
• earliest cottages generally built closest to
  prayer circle

12

• 1898 Plan of Asbury Grove
• Number of cottages grew from about 220 in 1870 to
  nearly 300 at the peak around 1905

13

• Cottages Today
• Despite major fire in 1927 that destroyed roughly
  half the cottages, there remain about 125
  historic cottages that represent the heyday of
  the Grove from 1870 into the mid-20th century.

14

• Who Built the Cottages?

Name Cottage Home Occupation Thomas P.
Richardson 5 Central Ave. Lynn shoe
manufacturer Fred Wilcomb 15 19 Central
Ave. Ipswich auctioneer real estate George H.
Barker 8 Clark Ave. Malden carpenter Charles R.
Tuck 9 Clark Ave. Hamilton store clerk Columbus
Moulton 16 Clark Ave. S. Boston teamster Francis
Flagg 8 Hedding Ave. Lynn shoe factory
employee Horace Brown 18 Lee Park Saugus tin
manufacturer Ezra D. Winslow 5 Merrill
Ave. Newton clergyman Henry H. Chandler 1 Mt.
Zion Ave. Charlestown dry goods dealer John D.
Kidder 2 Mt. Zion Ave. Chelsea teamster William
N. Learned 7 Mt. Zion Ave. Lynn shoe factory
employee James Blaisdell 11 Mt. Zion
Ave. Chelsea oil dealer Joseph E. Hodgkins 14 Mt.
Zion Ave. Lynn shoe dealer Sherman Stone 28 Mt.
Zion Ave. Charlestown house carpenter Benjamin T.
Norris 29 Mt. Zion Ave. Lynn house
carpenter George Babb 16 Mudge Ave. Lynn expressma
n Abram D. Wait 28 Mudge Ave. Ipswich life
insurance agent Lemuel L. Katon 46 Mudge
Ave. Chelsea tin ware dealer Rev. S. Jackson 50
Mudge Ave. E. Saugus minister Rev. John Chapin 3
Thompson Ave. Wenham minister Wakeman Davis 5
Thompson Ave. Rockport furniture dealer Rev. Ed.
A. Manning 12 Thompson Ave. E. Boston Methodist
minister William Burrows 16 Thompson
Ave. Ipswich net manufacturer Rev. J.F. Mears 17
Thompson Ave. Unknown minister Joseph H. Bowen 18
Thompson Ave. Lynn private watchman
typical cottage owners in late 19th and early
20th centuries
15

• Society Buildings

• earliest dormitories were tent-like structures
  with wood sides, canvas roofs, and straw on the
  floors
• beginning about 1875, the society tents were
  gradually replaced by two-story wood structures
• were roughly two dozen society dormitories at
  the end of the 19th century - five remain today

16

• Community Buildings

• Stand is among the earliest structures in the
  Grove (c. 1865)
• modeled after the stand at Wesleyan Grove in Oak
  Bluffs
• this was built in the location of the first
  pulpit and has been in use for about 145 years

17

• Community Buildings

• by 1870 the Grove had become a self-contained
  village, with a boarding house, bake house,
  dining hall, store, police station, barber shop,
  railroad ticket office and a restaurant
• village center remains

18

• Summary

Asbury Grove is historically and architecturally
significant as a well-preserved collection of
19th and 20th century structures that represent
development of the site from a rural farmstead to
one of the countrys most successful Methodist
camp meeting grounds. This collection of
well-preserved cottages and common buildings
defines the rich historic of the site and
documents 150 years of continuous annual camp
meetings.