"Before radio and television, the Chautauqua Movement united millions in common cultural and educational experiences. Orators, performers, and educators traveled a national Chautauqua circuit of more than 12,000 sites bringing lectures, performances, concerts, classes, and exhibitions to thousands of people in small towns and cities. Theodore Roosevelt called Chautauquas, "the most American thing in America."
On July 4, 1898, over 4,000 people gathered for the opening day of the Colorado Chautauqua. Boulder civic leaders and Texas educators had joined together to create a cultural and educational summer retreat.
Located at the base of Boulder's Flatirons and one of only 21 National Historic Landmarks in the state of Colorado, the Colorado Chautauqua is one of only a few remaining chautauquas in the U.S. and it is the only site west of the Mississippi that has been in continuous operation since its founding and with its original structures intact and used for their original purposes.
The Colorado Chautauqua is considered THE western representation of a cultural movement that swept the U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and continues to exemplify its original ideals - lifelong learning, love of nature, voluntary simplicity and music, oration and the arts." (from (
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"The Colorado Chautauqua, located in Boulder, Colorado, United States, and started in 1898, is the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi River still continuing in unbroken operation since the heyday of the Chautauqua Movement in the 1920s. It is one of the few such continuously operating Chautauquas remaining in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. According to its governing body, the Colorado Chautauqua Association, it is also unique in that it is the only year-round Chautauqua.
The Colorado Chautauqua Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as the Texas-Colorado Chautauqua Association, presents a variety of lectures, live musical performances, and silent films on a year-round schedule, although the summer months are emphasized. The operation also includes the Chautauqua Dining Hall. Short-term lodging is also offered. The Association manages 26 acres (110,000 m2) leased from the City of Boulder, including the historic Chautauqua buildings, all of which are still in regular use:
the 1898 Chautauqua Auditorium, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 21, 1978
the 1898 Dining Hall
the 1900 Academic Hall (now the Administration Building)
the 1911 Missions House
the 1918 Community House
the 1919 Columbine Lodge
98 cottages, constructed between 1899 and 1954 (80 before 1915), some of which are owner-occupied and some of which are rentals offered by the Colorado Chautauqua Association.
Between these 26 acres (110,000 m2) of Association land and Baseline Road lies a 14-acre (57,000 m2) Boulder city park called Chautauqua Park. This area is marked "Chautauqua Green" on the map published by the Colorado Chautauqua Association. Both the park and the Association land are open to the public without an entry fee.
The entire 40-acre (160,000 m2) site, including both the Association land and the adjacent Chautauqua Park, was designated a National Historic Landmark on February 10, 2006. The site is bounded on the north by Baseline Road, on the northeast by residential back yards on 10th Street, and on the southeast, south, and west by the City of Boulder Mountain Parks.
Residents of Boulder generally refer to the entire 40-acre (160,000 m2) site by the single word Chautauqua. In the early years, the site was known as "Texado Park"." (from (
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This is an interesting NRHP waymark in that the NRHP website lists this property as being approved in 1978 and in 2006. The above coordinates are from the 2006 NRHP plaque found on the Dining Hall structure.