NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 24-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. 1. Name of Property Historic name: Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District Other names/site number: Advent Christian Church and Conference Center Name of related multiple property listing: N/A___________________________________________________________ (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing ____________________________________________________________________________ 2. Location Street & number: _______150 Advent Lane______________________________________ City or town: ___Hartford_________ State: ______VT______ County: _____Windsor_______ Not For Publication: n/a Vicinity: n/a ____________________________________________________________________________ 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this X nomination ___ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property _X_ meets ___ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: ___national _X__statewide ___local Applicable National Register Criteria: X_A ___B X C ___D Signature of certifying official/Title: Date Vermont Division for Historic Preservation________________________ State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government 1 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District Windsor, Vermont Name of Property County and State In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of commenting official: Date Title : State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government ______________________________________________________________________________ 4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain:) _____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Signature of the Keeper Date of Action ____________________________________________________________________________ 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) Private: X Public – Local Public – State Public – Federal Sections 1-6 page 2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District Windsor, Vermont Name of Property County and State Category of Property (Check only one box.) Building(s) District X Site Structure Object Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count) Contributing Noncontributing _____21_____ ______12_____ buildings ______0______ _______0_____ sites ______1______ _______0_____ structures ______1______ _______0_____ objects ______23____ ______12 Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register __0_ ____________________________________________________________________________ 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) RELIGION: religious facility Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) RELIGION: religious facility _____________________________________________________________________________ Section 7 page 3 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District Windsor, Vermont Name of Property County and State 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) No Style Materials: (enter categories from instructions.) Principal exterior materials of the property: Wood, Stone, metal, concrete, vinyl Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance and condition of the property. Describe contributing and noncontributing resources if applicable. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, type, style, method of construction, setting, size, and significant features. Indicate whether the property has historic integrity.) ______________________________________________________________________________ Summary Paragraph The Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District is a religiously oriented summer community in White River Junction, a village in Hartford, Vermont. It is located on a 7-½ acre terrace between the Connecticut River to the east and Mount Olivet Cemetery to the west. Camp meetings were religious gatherings in a natural setting, characterized by large audiences attending religious services with on-site camping and lodging for an extended period of time.1 The Advent Camp Meeting Grounds consist of thirty-three buildings, one structure and one object. Established in 1887, the Advent Camp remains in active use and still hosts religious gatherings and services each summer. The buildings that make up the camp are of simple design and construction, and reflect national architectural trends in late 19th/early 20th century camp meeting grounds. These buildings consist of small residential cottages and service buildings including classrooms, dormitories, dining hall, kitchen and tabernacle. While minor changes in layout and limited new construction has occurred since its founding in 1887, overall the Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. ______________________________________________________________________________ Narrative Description The Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District consists of three separate buildings for group lodging, two separate classroom buildings, a kitchen building, baptistery, tabernacle, residential cottages and a single gravestone. Established in 1887, the Advent Camp Meeting Grounds host evangelical events attended by people of multiple denominations for extended 1 Lampl, Elizabeth Jo with Clare Lise Kelly, “Historic Context Report “A Harvest in the Open for Saving Souls -The Camp Meetings of Montgomery County,” Montgomery County Planning Department Historic Preservation Section, Maryland Historical Trust, July 2004. Section 7 page 4 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Advent Camp Meeting Grounds Historic District Windsor, Vermont Name of Property County and State periods of time. The meeting grounds are located in the Taft’s Flats neighborhood of White River Junction, named after Orren A. Taft, a farmer who owned all of the land in the present day neighborhood. The 7-½ acre site is located between the Connecticut River to the east and Mount Olivet Cemetery to the west. With the rapid growth of evangelical camp meetings throughout America in the mid-19th century, the Reverend B.W. Gorham’s 1854 Camp Meeting Manual influenced many northeastern camp meeting grounds’ design and layout. Gorham, a Methodist minister, felt the camp meeting grounds should be kept “as simple as possible, with modest cloth tents … [as] he felt it was important to have society tents so that member churches could hold more private prayer meetings.”2 Gorham felt that meeting grounds required a circular layout “for the worship area, with the preaching stand at the north end so the audience would not face the sun. Buildings were generally unheated, as they were intended for summer use.”3 The layout of the Advent Camp Meeting Grounds originally reflected Gorham’s circular design, but an 1895 fire resulted in a layout change to more of a horseshoe pattern, with the tabernacle located at the northern end of the site and the baptistery in the center. The cottages, originally densely clustered together, were also spaced farther apart in order to avoid another disaster caused by flames spreading from building to building. To accomplish this task, “…several of the cottages were lifted onto logs and moved, by horsepower, to their current location in the center green.”4 The religious camp meetings of the late 19th century “were largely open-air affairs, with rows of seats facing a preaching stand."5 This description of a camp meeting is accurate of the White River Junction camp. The large grassy area in the middle of the circle/horseshoe “was mostly occupied by a series of benches, which would allow two preachers to stand at either end of the green to deliver