This week, I had the pleasure of speaking at Chautauqua, New York, the historic town about an hour and a half outside of Buffalo. The Chautauqua Institution has been an iconic American tradition for an annual gathering of art, spiritual, and educational events spread throughout its 856-acre property. I was not, however, speaking at the invitation of the Chautauqua Institution. I was brought in by the Advocates for Balance at Chautauqua (ABC), but more on that later. First, I wanted to share some of my experiences at this unique, beautiful town.
Chautauqua was established in 1874 and is now a National Historic Landmark. It was founded by inventor Lewis Miller and Methodist Bishop John Heyl Vincent as a gathering place for Sunday-school teachers. Indeed, the town was dry until just eight years ago. The original deeds of the town stated that alcohol cannot be served in the homes. The religious foundation for the Institution is evident in its religious sessions as well as the abundance of lovely little churches like this one:
Through the years, a steamboat would bring the teachers to the town for reflection and study. There is a paddleboat that you can ride on Chautauqua Lake for a fun excursion:
The town itself is a delight to explore with historic homes built in the late 1800s and preserved with loving care. Each home has its own personality, and most have gorgeous gardens. The week I spoke was the annual garden competition, and I pity the judges for having to choose among these horticultural delights.
You can walk along the lake in the morning and appreciate why this particular spot was chosen for religious reflection and study.
There are even a few trails to take your contemplations into the forest:
I had the great pleasure of staying at the historic Athenaeum Hotel, which is over 125 years old and overlooks the lake. It is a creaky, aging, and absolutely divine hotel. Designed by architect W.W. Carlin, it was commissioned by Lewis Miller. He turned to his daughter’s husband, Thomas Edison, to make the hotel one of the first to be illuminated by electricity. It was built in 1881 by ninety men in ninety days for $125,000. They are working on a $200 million fund to restore the hotel, but it has aged gracefully. The 160-room hotel has housed historical figures from presidents Ulysses S. Grant to Bill Clinton. Others include Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, and Robert Kennedy. You get the authentic feeling of walking through history at the Athenaeum:
The majority of properties rent out for visitors, but be warned: air conditioning was not the “Chautauqua Way,” so some of the homes still rely on the gentle breezes coming off the lake.
There are not many dining options. The hotel has a great breakfast and serves lunch and dinner. You can also eat or drink on the massive porch overlooking the lake. You can also eat at the Three Taps, which has a wonderful spot on the water and a truck that serves food:
The best meal outside the hotel dining room can be found at the 2 Ames restaurant off the plaza. Your bill comes in an old book that captures the culture of Chautauqua. It has only around eight tables, but it is a great place for lunch:
No matter where you stay, it is an easy walk to any of the events. The Institution has many sessions for prayer and faith as well as a wide array of other subjects. Chautauqua has two wonderful symphonies, including a youth symphony. They are amazing, and one of the performances combined dancers and performers for a magical evening:
There is also a Farmer’s Market and craft tents on Bestor Plaza.
Now, for the backstory behind my visit and the one disappointing aspect of the Chautauqua Institution.
Chautauqua is a unique place created for civil discourse and study. For most of its history, it offered a mix of discussions from across the political spectrum. That changed in recent years as a board took hold of the institution that virtually eliminated conservative and libertarian speakers. There are a few such speakers each year, but they make up a tiny percentage. It is a strikingly familiar story for many of us in higher education, where most departments have just a couple of conservatives, if any.
Chautauqua shows the same pretense of balance, but reflects an underlying intolerance for opposing views in the programming. Simply putting a question mark after a session on whether fascism is taking over the United States is hardly the same as a true exchange on the subject matter. It is a shame because this beautiful place could offer a real opportunity for people of opposing views to have meaningful, civil discussions. If we are going to move beyond the rage in our society, we have to start by again talking to each other. I cannot think of a more ideal spot to start that process of national reconciliation.
ABC invited me to speak on Rage and the Republic, and there are clearly many at Chautauqua who want to hear a greater diversity of viewpoints. However, the board refused to let ABC use any of the many spaces which were available at that hour. Instead, ABC had to rent the ballroom at the Athenaeum Hotel, which was limited by the fire code to a couple of hundred occupants. The event quickly hit capacity, and people had to gather at the windows and on the porch to try to listen. It was ridiculous, with a dozen empty spaces around town that could have accommodated twice that number.
The saddest aspect of the experience is that the ABC members have the same deep love and pride for Chautauqua. Many have been attending the Institution for decades. I found the same profound connection in others that I met over the weekend, including several liberal couples who came to the talk. They share a deep-rooted love for Chautauqua and want to restore its prior reputation as a place for diverse ideas and discussion.
I include this criticism with great hesitation. I do not want to discourage anyone, including conservatives, from attending the Institution. Even with the overwhelming ideological bias, this is still a special place that I hope many will visit. It is a true American gem and an extraordinary part of our American history. The care that residents have taken to preserve this place is a great credit to them and to the values instilled across generations.
I hope there is a resolution between these communities and greater inclusion of alternative voices. Indeed, I believe the course will only harm this institution. The participants in the Institution are overwhelmingly older, with many in their 70s and 80s. If this Institution is to thrive, it must attract new participants. It is a poor strategy to create a hostile environment that deters half of this country from experiencing this program. Again, it is the same approach that has produced failing revenues and trust in both higher education and the media.
The board can broaden the foundation for the future by restoring greater balance to its programming. I sincerely hope that it does. Chautauqua is far too important to our culture and history to become just another echo chamber in an age of rage.
This controversy should not deter newcomers from venturing to Chautauqua. While many families have deep roots in this place, Chautauqua truly belongs to this nation and should be experienced by anyone able to venture to the western part of New York State.
I feel a great debt to the generations that have preserved this place for the rest of us. Thank you for a wonderful visit.
An architectural and horticultural delight, Professor!
There is a hunger for civil discourse on delicate topics, if your overfull venue is any testament. John Wesley was known for open air preaching. Maybe an outdoor amphitheater would be a welcoming (and likely beautiful) place to speak?
We’re just returning from a lovely stay at the Chataqua Institute and how you described is perfect. After 10 years since our last visit, we could tell where the bias is and it saddened us to know that if THEY knew our political views we wouldn’t be welcomed.
We stayed for the delightful peace and quiet, the views of the lake, and the town’s charm. Unless they change their philosophical bias, I don’t think we’ll visit again. It is truly a jewel of history and beauty— in need of more facets.
If you are ever there its well worth the 10 mile drive to the Panama Rocks Scenic Park. Absolutely fascinating and breathtaking geology. It makes for a very nice walk.
All of “upstate” New York is gorgeous. Except in winter.
I don’t even mind that, I went to college in the Lake Erie Snowbelt. So long as you’ve always got a few days wort of food in the house, the snow can be absolutely beautiful.
Having had the opportunity to meet hear and talk with Jonathan Turley, he is the epitome of grace, tactful honesty and professionalism. Living in California since birth and living part time in the Chautauqua Institution for the past 19 summers, he accurately describes the inability of the Chautauqua Institution to return to its roots and a place for non partisan intellectual thought and conversation. Ramon Silver
I appreciate Professor Turley’s daily columns. Today’s column about the Chautauqua Institute was lovely. I have no expectation that he will write about topics of particular interest to me. The comments today have been thoughtful so far. I do find it disappointing that so many commentators post under the name “Anonymous” and lash out a a wonderful Professor of Law with their disrespectful diatribes, the First Amendment notwithstanding.
I have spent some time at Chautauqua myself back in my undergraduate days. I was attending SUNY Fredonia which is just up the road from there in Chautauqua County. It was a pleasant enough place then and it was inhabited in summer by many a professor from the college even then.
Fredonia was a music/fine arts/theatre school that was also a State Teachers College. You can see the lethal combination of these ideologies that would produce a highly progressive ethos that would influence the institution. Since I left there in 78 I can only assume that it did what academia did and swing far to the left as most of the people there, since its inception, were idealists and searchers for that utopian brotherhood that will never materialize.
The folks there always thought of themselves as just a little higher on the evolutionary scale than the commonplace farmers, grape vineyard workers and industrial types found in the surrounding area of the county. You are all familiar with that type – condescending, full of themselves and critical of the real world that lies beyond the grounds of the Institute.
As an aside, there is the close by community of Lilydale which is a famous center of psychic activity. You can go there to get your palm read, visit a deceased relative in a seance etc. I wonder if there is a connection between the two.
Lovely. Unfortunately to the modern left, ‘stewardship’ means absolute, total, tyrannical control. They know only destruction and hate. Pity.
Tolerance for political differences disintegrates quickly when partisans take up militant tactics. These needn’t be physical or violent, merely verbal. How can you have a conversation about illegal immigration (and how to treat it) with a person who simply refuses to make any distinction between legal vs. illegal — that is verbal jiu jitsu intended to shut down serious conversation. I lose respect for a person who comes at the topic bearing such premeditated verbal weaponry. The same when I’m accused of being a racist for wanting immigration laws enforced — when my motivation is civic, post-racial and goodwilled, wanting to preserve a culture where we can change law through an orderly, democratic process, but don’t take a shortcut and disobey laws we dislike.
.* “illegal immigration” is no longer a concept. It’s simply immigration. Actually immigration itself isn’t a concept anymore. Simply live where you want to live for as long as you want within the jurisdiction north of Mexico and south of Canada, pbinca. Voting? It’s just a fun thing to do as an historic exercise.
Imo
Lovely sentiment pbinca. The SCOTUS has spoken.
Looks like a beautiful place with its gardens, trails and streams, the lake itself. The wooden statuary is unusual. It’s quite early American?
Thanks for the pics. It’s lovely.
P.S. I used to hike along such trails with streams in the Sierra among the gigantic redwoods. That was before my bones were broken in the current age of hate and rage. 😏. What a grand time! ☺
Democrats are Brownshirt Fascists
They are fighting their 2nd Civil War.
When is the GOP going to DESTROY THEM once and for all!
I definitely agree with your comment other than I don’t want anyone “destroyed” because of their political stance. I’d strongly prefer that they be forced to study our Founding documents & understand that marxism has no place in a constitutional republic! If they refuse to accept that basic truth, they should be stripped of their US citizenship & expelled from the US. We cannot tolerate marxism.
What about the pro-Marxists born and raised here? How should we confront them?
Lead
Best you remain an armchair patriot.
The problem is, if armed, you would label your fellow American as an enemy with little inquiry of their true loyalty. Preventing this kind of rush to judgment is why we have a legal system for resolving political disputes — why civil war ideation must be mocked and derided as the ultimate ingratitude for what our ancestors handed us with the expectation we keep it alive and pass it on intact.
Right
The legal system does not resolve political disputes – see political question doctrine.
I love when you go to such beautiful places and give us a history lesson! My husband was this way when we traveled extensively and it was a joy!
My wife and I enjoyed your talk very much. We, along with a good friend who drove in from Cincinnati, got there early and had good seats. You could have easily filled up the Amphitheater which is just up the hill from the Athenaeum Hotel. We live in Chautauqua County and love everything about it. Hopefully you and your wife had a chance to venture outside the Institution itself as two very famous Americans were born or raised in small towns just outside of Jamestown, NY. Jamestown is the city at the south end of Lake Chautauqua and is considered the home of Justice Robert H. Jackson and Lucille Ball. I’m sure you’re quite well versed in the history of Justice Jackson. There is a wonderful Jackson Center in Jamestown dedicated to his life and legacy. Lucille Ball was born in Celeron, NY which is right on Chautauqua Lake next to Jamestown. There’s a small park there with two statues of Lucy. It’s a long story but one is known as the Ugly Lucy and the other is the Pretty Lucy. As a result of her influence on comedy in the United States, the National Comedy Center is now located in Jamestown, NY.
If you didn’t get a chance see these places on this visit, come back sometime and we would be happy to show you around.
Thank you! I thought I saw Lucille Ball among the statues! 🙂
I really love when you go to places like this and show pictures! We truly are blessed as a nation with such beautiful places that our God has created. Thnaks.
Oh yeah, blessed. 😏
Why would the left want diverse discussion? They can’t even answer simple interview questions from friendly reporters. They are a total national clown show. Maine is in meltdown because they backed a Nazi, sexual predator, now it looks like they’re backing a guy wearing a dress, Texas is falling apart because they backed a complete weirdo, Wisconsin is looking like a total washout. You have Newsome’s wife being called out on CNN for lying about who started the investigation of her husband. Walz pardons a child rapist so that he can avoid deportation (Thank you, Marco!). Mandami’s almost daily attempt to squeeze every last dollar from anyone who still has one. When Kamala looks like the only sensible one in your party, I would probably avoid having diverse discussions too.
Apropos meltdown, it obvious you’re having one.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
Need values and a conscience to be hurt by the truth, neither applies to whoever/whatever it says.
Psycho crap. Pringle–> ALL THE THINGS!!
What a beautiful place.
I know a couple who went for years then quit due to the “lack of diverse” discussion. They are very conservative and felt left out.
What a stupid comment.
How was your visit with Bill and Hillary?
Come for the common sense discussion on politics and law and occasionally get a some travel and tourism 😊 advice.
Yes, but I’d like to see more discussion of cutting-edge policy issues which don’t break down left v. right:
• What are reasonable regulations for AI to needed to preserve our legal system and business culture?
• Do parents have the right to exercise control over the media their children are exposed to (in ways that cannot be easily circumvented)?
• Do individuals own the rights to their personal information, private transactions, and daily pursuits? If not, how do we prevent the gathering surveillance society?
• Do AI companies have to pay for all the privately owned content they train on?
• If a corporation allows an AI to train on its proprietary info, who owns the AI after it’s trained? (Alex Karp has been raising a red flag over this issue).
• Is it time to reconsider Section 230? Why not treat all public sources of info as publishers saddled with the same responsibilities to prevent harm?
We have so many tricky, complex issues to be solved. Prof. Turley’s daily column would be much more relevant and engaging if controversies such as these were broached. I tire of his daily red meat. But his travelogues are splendid.
Be honest, it looks like the twilight zone 😂
Magisterial advice given with real appreciation. I hope that it illuminates what sounds and looks like a very beautiful place.
Another stupid comment.
Darren, a can of Raid here, please.
It’s a can of whoop-ass you mean?
That’ll work.
Another stupid comment.