The following text is taken from the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form to describe this structure's history:
An approximately 28' wide space between two adjoining buildings, construction of the 75' long Chautauqua Walk followed publication of the following statement in the 'Ashland Semi-Weekly Tidings', "The lot on Main Street next to the Pioneer Store has been purchased by the Chautauqua Association and is being cleared and made into a suitable entrance to the temple." The foundation of the Chautauqua Temple provided the basis for the first Elizabethan Theater of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and today the well-landscaped Chautauqua Walk leads to the OSFA's "Bowmer Theater" and the brick courtyard on Pioneer Street. Embedded bronze letter spell out "Chautauqua Park" at the East Main street entry. The Chautauqua Walk was elevated as a contributing element in the Ashland Plaza area, considered eligible by the Oregon SHPO. It retains high integrity to its original design and has significant associations with the development of the Chautauqua festival in Ashland.
What the NRHP registration form doesn't mention is the history behind the former Chautauqua Temple. Before the current Shakespeare festival existed on this property, there was the Chautauqua organization which included a dome-like building that held regular meetings promoting self-improvement and other educational seminars in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I've located two online resources that highlight this movement. The first article reads:
What did Ashland inhabitants do before movies, the internet or the Shakespeare festival dropped anchor? How did the early inhabitants of our town spend their Friday nights and weekends? One major source of entertainment was in the intellectual fulfillment of the local Chautauqua group.
The Ashland Chautauqua organization emerged as an offshoot of the original New York group. The name comes from the location of the first meeting, Lake Chautauqua, where Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent organized an event to train Sunday School teachers. By 1885, the idea had spread throughout the country, and in 1893 Ashland had its first Assembly of the far less religious program which existed at that time.
Throughout the next several decades, the ten day events, which prioritized self-improvement and education, thrived. Residents from the area flocked to the beehive-shaped Chautauqua building to hear speakers from orator William Jennings Bryan (who visited in 1897) to the common attorney present their views on the issues which captivated the region at the time, promote moral lives or simply play America’s Pastime. As the Chautauqua events grew, the attendance grew to the point where the thousand the building sat was insufficient, and some speakers had to move outside.
Just when it appeared that the event had become a permanent part of our town, societal changes began to bring it to an end. In the early 1920s, the widespread introduction of the radio and movie houses sucked the interests of residents away. Thus, by the end of the decade the movement had come to an end.
However, the academic effect that the Chautauqua groups had could not be erased without a trace. As a result, in 1935, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an annual event at the time, came storming into town. Reminiscent of the tremendous influence the performances of the decades before had on it’s development, the first several festivals occurred at the old Chautauqua building. Thus, although it may have a different name today, our free time is occupied by much of the same as it was for the original inhabitants of our valley.
The second article to highlight the Chautauqua movement reads:
Chautauqua had its roots in camp meetings, annual summer gatherings held by evangelical Christian sects during the nineteenth century. In 1874, Methodist minister John Heyl Vincent organized a special camp meeting by the shores of New York’s Lake Chautauqua to train Sunday school teachers. This first Chautauqua Assembly included lectures, classes, and recreational activities.
The Chautauqua idea quickly took hold across the country. In 1885, a small meeting was organized in Canby, Oregon, but this Chautauqua only lasted a year. Both Ashland and Gladstone organized more lasting Chautauquas in 1893. By this time the meetings had become non-denominational and partly secularized.
According to one local newspaper, the Chautauqua societies of Oregon were the “promoters of moral as well as intellectual culture.” The popular ten-day events featured concerts, group prayers, lectures by noted orators, baseball games, and classes on everything from geology to physical fitness.
Although Ashland’s original Chautauqua building—a beehive-shaped structure built in 1893—seated 1,000 people, hundreds were sometimes turned away from the more popular lectures. When William Jennings Bryan—a popular political figure known as the “silver-tongued orator”—came to Ashland in 1897, he attracted so many people that he was forced to give his lecture outside.
The Chautauqua circuit slowly faded away in the 1920s, the victim of radio and motion pictures. The once popular event did not completely disappear, however. The original meeting at Lake Chautauqua is still held annually, and many state humanities councils have recently revived the Chautauqua idea. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an annual event first organized in 1935, takes place at the old Ashland Chautauqua site.