Alton Bay Camp Meeting Grounds

[mcdude]

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ALTON BAY CAMP MEETING GROUNDS
1863-2005
PREFACE
Like myself, I'd guess many of you have driven by the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center and don't have much of a clue what this place is all about or of its' rich history. I actually drive through the campground to get to my camp up over the mountain. After picking up a few postcards of the campground, my curiosity was piqued so I enlisted the aid of our photopost friend, JacksonB, since I knew his family had ties to the campground. Despite having a full plate, JacksonB has been busy scanning and uploading photos from his photo albums so this is truly a collaborative effort. (Thanks JacksonB!) Most of the postcards are from the divided back era so they are dated 1907-1914. I'm guessing most of JacksonB's photos are from the 20s and 30s. Rather than note which image belongs to whom I will post a link to our respective galleries at the end of the thread so that you may see the photos individually and use photopost's wonderful enlargement feature. There aren't too many images available from 1863-1907 so the text will be accompanied with images of various buildings in the campground complex.
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ORIGINS OF THE CAMP MEETINGS
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Rand Hill Road Entrance - A now and then photo - top photo is 1946 while bottom photo was taken in February 2005.
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Click here to SUPER-SIZE this map. (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/15032/20scancampmap.jpg)
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Old Stereoview photo of the Alton Campmeeting Grounds.
:D

[mcdude]

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OFFICIALS and SERVICES
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Farmer's Market
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The Campground Store
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The Campground Store
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The Boarding House
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The Boarding House
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The Square with Boarding House
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[mcdude]

The OLD PUMP
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The Famous Fump
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Meeting at the Pump
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[mcdude]

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Campground Police
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Campground Policeman at Alton Bay
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Attentive audience listens to the preacher. Carl Magoon with daughter, Frances, in lower right.
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Campground Preachers
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Ministers and Wives

[mcdude]

The ADVENT GROVE
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"Annual camp meetings have been held at the Conference Center since 1863. The years with the highest attendance were between 1866 and 1880. In 1872, an estimated 35,000 people attended the Sunday services; five concurrent services were held. That year, 4,000 came by the Lady of the Lake and Mt. Washington, 6,500 came by train and 11,015 teams of horses brought the rest. The camp meetings greatly supported the railroad" - JacksonB
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Thousands of people attended the annual campmeetings. Many arrived by train or various steamships including the Mt. Washington.
The TABERNACLE
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[mcdude]

The GREAT CAMPGROUND FIRE of 1945

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Click here to SUPER-SIZE this text (for easier reading) (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/15032/medium/20scanCGnewspaperarticles.jpg)
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The CAMPGROUND TODAY
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This is one of the new chapels built after the great fire.
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More buildings erected since the great fire.
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Today the "campground" is known as the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center and is a prosperous faith community. Here is a link to the web page. (http://www.abccc.org/)
REFERENCES and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to JacksonB

"The History of Good Old Alton Bay" - Compiled and written by Paul Blanchard for the Advent Christian Publication Society - 1946 - Much of the scanned text and some photos from this brochure.

"Winnipiseogee Heritage" - Part 1 and 2. The Alton High School History Class - 1980.

LINKS

Link to JacksonB's Gallery (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=15037)

Link to mcdude's Gallery (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=15032)

For more information on the Advent Christian (http://www.adventchristian.org/) denomination

A short history (http://www.areachurches.com/adventinfo.html) of the Advent Christian Church

The Roots of Seventh Day Adventism (http://www.adventist.org/world_church/facts_and_figures/history/index.html.en)

Description of an Indiana Camp Meeting (http://www.lightministries.com/SDA/Books/id830.htm)

More about Millerism (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Nov1993/gewait.html)

Here are some interesting related links sent along by Island Girl (Thanks!)
Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association (http://www.mvcma.org/history.htm)
and
A History of the M.V. Camp Meeting Association (http://www.mvcma.org/brief.htm)

Article about March 2005 Fire (http://archive.citizen.com/2005/march2005/03.23.05/news/alton%5F032305a.asp) at the Campground.

October 2003 Fire at the Campground....click here (http://archive.citizen.com/2003/october2003/october%5F15/alton%5F10.15.03a.asp) and here. (http://archive.citizen.com/2003/october2003/october%5F14/alton%5F10.14.03a.asp)

[upthesaukee]

Nice post Mcdude. & thanks to JacksonB for making his material available. It is indeed interesting to walk through the ABCC now, as there are still many cottages left that are literally only a foot or two from their neighbor. (If you do walk through, no smoking and no alcoholic beverages). It is really quite a place to see, and a tie-in to the history of the lakes region.