page_title: Colorado Chautauqua
section_title: 1900
hierarchical_section_title: Colorado Chautauqua / History / 19th century / 1900
caption_attribution_description: Front view of the Academic Hall (now an office building) at the Colorado Chautauqua, a chautauqua on the southwestern side of Boulder, Colorado, United States. Built around 1900, the hall lies at the heart of the Chautauqua Park, a National Historic Landmark, and is used as an office building.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: The Academic Hall was constructed in June 1900. Cottages built in 1900 included the Women's Christian Temperance Union cottage, which offered rooms to members at 50 cents per night. The prohibitionist cause was a continuing theme in the early days of Chautauqua lectures, as were women's suffrage, Populist politics, and a nondenominational Christian message of self-improvement.
  Republican and Democratic orators were invited to give campaign speeches for their respective presidential candidates, William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan. Jonathan P. Dolliver spoke on August 20, 1900 and Champ Clark the following week. This experiment was not considered a success, and overtly partisan election-year speeches would not return until 1932.
  On December 20, 1900, the Texas-Colorado Chautauqua was reorganized as the Colorado Chautauqua, with an entirely local board of directors. Title to the land remained with the city of Boulder, but the Colorado Chautauqua Association operated the Chautauqua under a long-term lease, since renewed several times.
  The reorganization, partly prompted by financial deficits, had both a broadening and a narrowing effect. More emphasis was placed on wooing attenders from states other than Texas, but at the same time The Colorado Chautauqua had become Boulder's own enterprise. More townspeople attended the presentations in the ensuing years. More Boulderites were also directly involved in managing the Chautauqua programs.
caption: Academic Hall, now the Chautauqua's offices
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