Camp meetings, religious revival meetings where parishioners would set up their carts and tents around a central preaching platform, were once a vital feature of frontier American Protestant Evangelicalism in the nineteenth century. Participants, freed from their daily routines, could attend the almost continuous services that often lasted several days. While Presbyterians and Baptists sponsored camp meetings, these religious gatherings came to be particularly associated with the Methodist denomination. Methodists soon introduced the camp meeting, originally a western phenomenon that flourished before the Civil War, to the east.
The New Haven District of the Methodist Church founded a campground for summer revival meetings in the west end of Plainville (320 Camp Street) in 1865. Methodist camp meetings would continue to be held there every summer until 1957. Initially tents were pitched around a central platform. Soon the Association Building was constructed, where equipment could be stored. Individual churches then began constructing 2-story cottages facing the center of the Campground, along what is known as The Circle. Nineteen of these central cottages survive today. Individual families also began to build their own cottages on the narrow avenues radiating from The Circle, replacing the tents of the campground‘s early years. Most of the cottages date from the 1880s to 1910, although a few were constructed as late as 1925. The present Auditorium building was built around 1905 in place of the original preaching platform. At one time a screened pavilion, the Auditorium is now open to the outside. The Plainville Campground Association purchased the property from the Methodists in 1957. 87 of the cottages are now private residences, the other 39 being owned by various churches. A few of the cottages have been modified for year-round use, while the rest are occupied in the summer. I have additional photos of the Campground:
Above is the Auditorum. Below are images of some of the cottages that face towards it.
Below are pictures of some of the cottages along The Circle.
Below is one of the roads leading off from The Circle:
LOVE these houses. When I was growing up, we’d drive by this campground all the time and back then it was so mysterious and fascinating. Thank you for taking the time to explore this area and share it.
We purchased one of these cottages in 2013. The cottages are seasonal and most of the residents live in Florida for most of the year. It is a wonderful place to spend the summers to escape the tropical heat of Florida.
I grew up on Circle Street in Forestville and fondly remember riding my bike up past Anderson Dairy and through the winding dirt roads of the Plainville Campground. I now live in New Jersey and have become very familiar with Ocean Grove and the Camp Meeting Association based there. Every time I visit Ocean Grove, my mind wanders back to the 1950’s and my growing up years not far from Camp Street.
WHERE CAN INFORMATION OF THE SITES THAT ARE FOR SALE CAN BE FOUND
How can I find out about the Unionville Cottage which was probably sold about 1930??
Celebrating 200 years of our church and would love info on this part of our church life and history.
My friends and I grew up in the neighborhood just behind The Campground and walked the footpath through the woods every day to Toffolon school, and still to this day I quietly drive through in the off season just to reminisce.. such a cool part of Plainville.
I really enjoyed seeing these current pictures of this area. I am only famliar with it through old pictures of the campground I believe were my husband’s grandmothers. Probably from the late 1800’s or early 1900’s.