It started as a camp — a Methodist summer camp, to be exact, where worshipers, many from urban areas, could enjoy a quiet rural setting to pray, sing, eat and simply walk among trees and small fields.
Today, Laurel Park in Northampton remains a pretty restful place, a neighborhood whose distinctive architecture and community bonds reflect its history as a 19th and early 20th century gathering place, not just for spiritual issues but for arts and education, too.
On Saturday, Oct. 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the community will celebrate its 150th anniversary, marking the time in 1872 when Methodists first put up some tents on the grounds to hold a camp meeting. Music, an art exhibit, and a communal lunch are all on the agenda, as are talks about community history from speakers such as Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and Historic Northampton co-president Laurie Sanders.
One of the organizers of the event, Sandra Matthews, has lived in Laurel Park, located on routes 5 & 10 near the Hatfield town line, with her husband, Norbert Goldfield, for almost 40 years. The couple raised two children here, says Matthews, who calls the neighborhood “a really special place to grow up.”
“There’s a real spirit here that I’ve always felt,” Matthews, a former photography and film professor at Hampshire College, said during a recent phone call. “There’s a sense of shared history, of community, and it’s very peaceful, very quiet, even though we’re not all that far from downtown Northampton.”
Homeowners hold the land collectively and pay service fees for snow plowing and other communal expenses.
Named in 1888 for the large amounts of laurel found on the grounds, Laurel Park is particularly noted for its modest but colorful homes, some with gingerbread trim and other Victorian decorative touches; many of these cottages stand just a few yards from neighboring ones. The average size is about 900 square feet, though some more modern designs or renovated cottages are larger.
That setting, with winding, narrow roads snaking through the wooded community, is a holdover from the days when people who had once stayed in tents during summer meetings built cottages on the footprints of the original tent sites, which generally measured 20 feet by 40 feet. (Some larger cottages were originally designed as dormitories.)
Beginning in the late 1960s, some owners began winterizing their cottages to live here year-round, and today about 150 people call it home, Matthews says, spread out among 100 homes.
She says only a handful of people were living full-time in the community when she and her husband arrived in the early 1980s.
“But over the years more people began winterizing the homes, then some got sold to other people, and new families moved in,” she said. “The small size (of homes) means they’re not ideal for every family, but that can also make them more affordable for couples and single people.”
What also attracts people to Laurel Park is the continued community feel, says Cindy Joy, another longtime resident and 150th anniversary organizer. From potluck meals in the community Dining Hall, to music and other presentations held in a pavilion, The Tabernacle, originally designed in the early 1900s for religious services, Laurel Park neighbors have held regular get-togethers for years.
“You can really feel at home here,” said Joy.
Becoming Chautauqua
Laurel Park traces its beginnings to 1871, when the Springfield District Camp Meeting Association (SDCMA) of the Methodist Church bought 74 wooded acres in Northampton to hold camp meetings. In summer 1872, the organization held its first gathering there; Matthews says an article from what was then called the Hampshire Gazette reported that 6,000 to 8,000 people came to the site on just one day of those meetings.
In 1887, Joy notes, Laurel Park — there was a nearby railroad stop at the time — also became part of the Chautauqua Movement, summer festivals held in a number of rural American communities that featured a range of entertainment and educational and cultural programs, with speakers, musicians, theater groups, preachers and others visiting the sites.
Chautauqua assemblies at Laurel Park “continued right up until the early 1930s,” said Joy, when movies and other forms of modern entertainment cut into their appeal. The movement probably peaked in Laurel Park around 1917, she added.
In the meantime, a number of communal buildings, such as The Tabernacle, were built on the property, including an indoor chapel, a dining hall, and what was known as “Normal Hall,” which served as a Sunday School training center, a practice area for choral singing, and for cooking classes, among other things. (Some communal structures, such as The Tabernacle, have been rebuilt over the years.)
For the Oct. 22 celebration, organizers are unveiling six historical signs, funded by the Northampton Community Preservation Committee, that describe some of this background, along with period photos and other exhibits. That includes information on the Native people who once called the region home, as well as their settlements in the region such as Nonotuck (Northampton).
In addition, Indigenous presenter Jennifer Lee will set up a large tipi on the community grounds that people can visit, and Lee will offer more details on local Native history.
Even when camp meetings and Chautauqua festivals came to an end, the property remained in use, Matthews and Joy say, with cottage owners returning for at least parts of summers. In the late 1960s, the SDCMA turned over cottage ownership to the Laurel Park Association (LPA), and in 1985 homeowners created a trust to purchase the land surrounding the cottages from the LPA.
Laurel Park has continued the Chautauqua tradition over the years, inviting artists to take up residencies and hosting concerts, lectures, and other events such as maypole dancing festivals — for the general public as well as residents. In early 2021, during the worst of the pandemic, organizers even put together some virtual events that they called a “Winter Chautauqua.”
“We feel that’s part of our mission here, to continue those traditions,” said Matthews, who notes that First Churches of Northampton, the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, and other organizations have used The Tabernacle for services on occasion.
Along with music from The Fiddle Orchestra of Western Massachusetts and singer/songwriter Claire Dacey, the 150th anniversary party includes an hour-long lunch created by Laurel Park resident Andrew Lehman, a professional chef, that will include 19th century foods (donations for the meal are requested).
Matthews isn’t saying what’s on the menu, though she’s not exactly clear on its contents herself. “We want it to be a surprise,” she said.
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.