The Congregational Summer Assembly
By Nancy Morrison
Current Contributor
For more than 100 years, the Congregational Summer Assembly (CSA) has been a small hamlet of cottages, cabins, and community spaces, clustered along the western shore of Crystal Lake, just north of Frankfort. Founded by Congregational ministers in the early 20th century, the CSA has since provided religious, musical, athletic, and other activities to promote the welfare of its constituents. Today, a staff of 28 people oversee the daily schedule—comprised mostly of about three months of the year (June, July, and August)—with an elected Board of Trustees and Officers (president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer) who tend to the annual responsibilities. The 15 Trustees are elected on a revolving three-year term basis, with five incoming and five outgoing each year. Various ad hoc committees are peopled by volunteers from interested members and friends.
The CSA summer population has served to “grow Benzie County” and has furnished an uptick in tourism for the summer season for more than 100 years. Local merchants and artisans have all benefited from the life-long friendships with the “lakies.”
The CSA is situated on a strip of land that is approximately 200 acres—bordered on the west by Lake Michigan; on the north by M-22, running westerly through Pilgrim up to Crystalia along Crystal Lake; on the east by Lot #23 of the CSA plat, up to Gray Logs; and on the south by Thomas Road, off South Shore Drive. In all, there are 140 cottages contained within the CSA, with membership numbering around 1,400 annually, between cottage-owners, families, renters, and guests.
Before Benzie
Prior to permanent settlement by European descendants/non-Native peoples, Benzie County was a prime location for the lumbermen, with virgin timber to be clear-cut, sawn into building materials, and then transported to waiting clients. Between the 1890s and the 1920s, lumber camps sprang up, with their sawmills and dependency on the rivers for transport. At first, the lumber was piled and lugged on carts or wagons, pulled by oxen or horses.
One of the railroads—the Ann Arbor Railroad—capitalized on the opportunity to extend its siding tracks and accommodate the lumbering. The AARR recognized an advantage of having ferry service to transport the lumber from a Lake Michigan port to cities in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin. The AA No.1 and AA No.2 were wooden ferries that were constructed to carry heavy-laden freight cars to these new destinations. The first port, and natural harbor on the western shore of Lake Michigan, was Frankfort.
The AARR owned a line between Toledo, Ohio, and Frankfort. At the end of the 19th century, the AARR owners added a few passenger cars onto the rear of the freight trains that ran this route, which would bode well for future travelers. One route was from Toledo to Thompsonville. (Author’s Note: My Uncle Jim called it “The Milkshake Special,” because it was terribly bumpy!)
Meanwhile, in 1900, the Oberlin College Graduate School of Theology was turning out newly minted Congregational ministers whose pastorates were spread over several states. These clergymen proposed a “summer Bible college,” a gathering where they would convene with other, more senior pastors for a week or so during their summer leaves. They preferred this idea over their return to colleges/coursework that would be a strain on their budgets and time. Their proposal, initiated by Reverend Henry S. Wannamaker of Elyria, was presented to the Cleveland Conference of the Congregational Churches of Ohio. (Later, Wannamaker would be among the first lot-owners to build a cottage on the CSA grounds in Pilgrim.)
Families were also encouraged to attend, with assorted age-related activities available to youngsters; participation in the large adult and equally large children’s choirs was expected. Other activities were organized, with participation determined by individual preference. Women did the cooking and the musical direction. Seminars were attended by everyone.
In 1901, the Conference met again and approved the plan for a “summer assembly” of Congregationalists. The ministers and their families found meeting grounds at the Methodists’ campgrounds at Lakeside, Ohio, which were complete with a hotel and dining facilities, in addition to tents.
When the rental fee for this facility was raised the next year, Warren offered the use of his undeveloped 700-acre holding at Pottawatomie Point, near New Buffalo, Michigan. Accommodations in the rugged, primitive dunes were tents. Assembly participants endured epic storms that year, with gale-force winds that blew away their tents. Most impressive were the swarms of mosquitoes that successfully sought out the ready flesh-and-blood of the attendees. (One pastor from Kansas returned home before the week-long session was concluded!)
This Conference was part of a growing national trend during the 1890s and early 1900s toward evangelism and a “social Gospel” sprouted several camp-like retreats elsewhere that renewed the religious zeal among all denominations—such as Chautauqua, New York; Epworth in Manistee, Michigan; and Lakeside, Ohio. These retreats employed similar formats: lectures/discussions, structured physical exercise, and music, along with renewed/continued friendships.
Getting to Benzie
Even before the Conference landed in Benzie County, this area was home to Benzonia Academy, (now Mills Community House) founded by Reverend George R. Catton (1855-1919), a Congregationalist whose political beliefs included the abolition of slavery. The Academy maintained high academic standards for its students, including Catton’s famous son, Bruce Catton, honorary degree recipient from Oberlin (1957) and Civil War expert.
One leading promoter in moving the Conference to the Frankfort locale was Reverend John H. Hull, an Oberlin graduate, who had accepted a pastorate at the then-40-year-old Frankfort Congregational Church; he was also Frankfort’s mayor at this time A year-round resident, he was intimately aware of the natural beauty of the Michigan location, so he encouraged his confreres to consider Frankfort as a permanent locale for the Congregational Summer Assembly.
The AARR provided a tour for some others on the organizing committee, and soon the deal was clinched.
The first summer in Frankfort was 1904. The new Royal Frontenac Hotel, constructed by the AARR, was available for lodging and meals. Local residents rented out rooms to visitors. The Frankfort Opera House was opened to lectures, and, for a nominal fee, Frankforters could join the CSA’s sessions.
Further enticements by the AARR served to draw the CSA summer visitors; the sweetest “deal” was the AARR’s offer of a land grant of 175 acres, just two miles north of Frankfort, north of the Larson dairy farm and west of the road leading to Crystal Lake (now M-22). This grant included the restrictions that the CSA would construct $10,000 worth of buildings within the next five years and would attract 200 or more attendees each year. The CSA then took a mortgage to purchase several additional acres from the Crane Lumber Co., to include the 500 feet of shoreline to the east of M-22, along South Shore Drive.
Not long after that, the CSA acquired property in Crystalia, annexing Marquette Court and Lover’s Lane. In 1905, the CSA recorded its plat with the Benzie County Recorder of Deeds. Reverend Hull, the CSA’s second managing director (after Wannamaker, the first), deeded his two lots—north of what is now Mayflower Field, where the Assembly Hall/Community Building is now located. Included in this 1906 property was the hill behind (north of) the Assembly Hall, to the overlook of Crystal Lake, above the sharp west curve of what is now M-22. (The Sue Frost Memorial setting is now used for Sunday Evening Vesper services.)
In the late 1950s, the CSA purchased the property that had housed the Olsen Standard Oil gas station/marina and the Polka Dot outdoor restaurant, located on the corner where South Shore Drive meets M-22. The Olsen dock enabled boaters to “gas up,” and swimmers cautiously ventured into the oil slicks that provided refractory glints on the surface of the lake. After a few years, the station and the Polka Dot were razed, and now the Crystal View cafe offers light refreshments to patrons. (It is open to the public, not just to CSA members.)
Individual lots were sold, and tents were available for rent, with a large tent being used for the big gatherings and meetings. Wannamaker bought the first cottage on the CSA grounds; it was built by a woodcutter. As the years passed, more members began to build summer cottages on their lots, to replace the tent accommodations. (Originally, these cottages did not enjoy running water, plumbing, or winterizations. Recently, however, most of the older dwellings have been modernized; newer construction includes winterization for members who wish to live “Up North” year-round.)
Robert J. Bennett, a wealthy wholesale produce merchant from Chicago, contributed heavily toward the construction of the wood-frame Lodge, which had 50 rentable rooms that were sparsely furnished—back then, the partitions that divided rooms on the lower floor did not extend all the way to the ceiling, and knotholes on the walls were stuffed with tissue to prevent neighbors’ peeping eyes from looking in! The chef had a large kitchen and ice house in which to create meals that were served in the Lodge’s dining room. The fireplace in the central lounge was the only source of heat.
Five years later, the AARR recognized that the conditions for the land-grant had been met, and the acreage was deeded over to the CSA.
Expansion and Longevity
The Oberlin founders of the CSA insisted on nurturing not only the spiritual/religious aspects of their weeks of retreat, they also maintained high standards in structured physical activities and musical offerings. A large tent was put up in front of the Lodge for meetings. Physical activities then included horseshoes, shuffleboard, tennis (on two clay courts in front of the Lodge), swimming, horseback riding, hiking, and bird-watching. One favorite, which has stood the test of time, was to search for Petoskey stones on the Lake Michigan beach.
Weekly church services were a major event for early Assembly-goers; even today, the Sunday services are attended by good crowds. At first, the sermons were delivered by the attending Congregationalist pastors and teachers; lately, there has been a trend toward welcoming pastors of other denominations. The musical offerings set the standard for the ages, with adult choirs numbering in the 80s and children’s choirs at 50 or more.
The next two buildings that sprang up on the CSA grounds were the Dining Hall (with its attached kitchen and seating for 80) and the auditorium that seated 400. Substantial funding from Bennett, the Chicago produce merchant who had also contributed to the first Lodge, enabled this expansion, so the “Bennett Auditorium” was named in his honor. The Dining Hall replaced the one in the Lodge; it also housed the Post Office (later) and the CSA Office. Smaller meetings were held in the Community Room, now known as “The Assembly Hall.”
The Auditorium was unique, in that it had no supporting posts inside it. The design had been utilized in Illinois, where Bennett’s son had successfully built a similar structure. During the winter, cedar posts were installed to support the roof. For many decades, the dirt floor, the glass-less shuttered windows, the resident bats, and the creaky stage served as home to the Sunday services, musical events, pageants, “Stunt Nights,” and other meetings. Everyone in the community was welcome to attend these events. Eventually, the dirt floor was covered with a cement slab, and the piano was replaced several times.
In 1959, a hard winter that brought several feet of snow led to the collapse of the original Auditorium. In the summer of 1960, services and activities were held on the cement slab in the open air, and the weather cooperated. Plans for the replacement went full-speed ahead, and a successful fundraising campaign ended with the construction of the new Meeting House in 1961. Another bad winter struck that year, and in a repeat of the earlier debacle, the new building also collapsed—it was found that the welding in the steel girders used in the construction were faulty, so the Wisconsin manufacturer replaced the building, in time for the 1962 season.
The new Meeting House, in the spot where the original Bennet Auditorium had stood since 1909, was the central gathering place and thus needed to have a bell to announce services and to alarm cottage owners in the event of emergency. So James L. Taylor, from suburban Chicago and Crystalia, arranged with the Illinois Central Railroad for them to donate a bell from a retired locomotive. (Though the ILCR did not want the CSA to tell anyone, for fear that too many others would ask.) John A. Hawley then drove to Chicago to pick up the bell, and it was loaded into the trunk of his 1956 Buick Special—with such weight in the trunk, the car’s headlights were aimed at treetops on his seven-hour journey to Crystal Lake.
Present and Future
The CSA founding fathers had established by-laws at incorporation on August 20, 1904; the tradition has been both Congregationalist and democratic in nature. The original property deeds included a stipulation that no alcohol would be served in the cottages or on the grounds. Note that these documents were created during the Prohibition Era, with the advent of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Though, the deeds still stipulate the “no-alcohol” clause, these rules have been relaxed to the point where responsible alcohol consumption is tolerated but not encouraged; “drinking parties” on the Lake Michigan and Crystal Lake beaches, however, are still not allowed.
Throughout the years, the Board of Trustees have done their utmost to contain the fees for Privilege Tickets for members and their guests. Today, the fee is $27 per week per person; children three and under are exempt from fees. Various other fees are dependent upon usage of facilities—vehicle, boat, tennis courts, waterline, etc. These fees constitute the operating budget, along with investment income, as managed by the Treasurer. Community members who do not possess tickets are welcome to attend Sunday services and lectures, to sing in the choirs, and to participate in the various operettas and other activities. Tickets are required for use of the limited resources, like the beach and tennis courts.
In recent years, CSA members have emphasized charitable activities, which have grown to include financial and service donations to local organizations. Educational scholarships have enabled some area residents and graduates of both Benzie Central and Frankfort high schools to attend colleges; volunteers have served at the Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital, at The Maples, at the Benzie Shores District Library, and at Benzie Area Christian Neighbors (BACN). The prevalent attitude within the CSA is one of “cheerful giving!”
Today, more than 1,400 members, renters, and guests return to Pilgrim for their annual summer vacations. Some of the founding members could recognize their fifth and sixth generations of family members. Many can lay claim to “the Lake” and the CSA as “home,” despite their ever-widening geographical winter residences. This is a place, truly, that we all hold close to our hearts!
Following histories penned by A. M. Wilcox, Catherine Stebbins, Richard G. Browne, and Russel W. Freeburg, this article is an impression of how the CSA came to be. Acknowledgment is also made to the Oberlin College Alumni Directory of 1960.
Nancy (Hawley) Morrison is Reverend Henry Keeler and Theodosia Hawley’s granddaughter, one of their eleven grandchildren; “H. K.” was one of the founding pastors of the CSA, along with his older brother, John A. Hawley. Both H. K. and John were Congregational ministers and graduates of the Oberlin Theological School. In her 73 years, Nancy may have missed just one summer—1945, when she was born. Today, her grandchildren enjoy vacations “at the lake.”
The Congregational Summer Assembly’s Meeting House is located at 2128 Pilgrim Highway, just outside of Frankfort. Call 231-352-4751 with questions. Learn more at SummerAssembly.org online or at “Congregational Summer Assembly” on Facebook.
Featured Photo Caption: Check out those super rockin’ bathing suits. Photo courtesy of the Congregational Summer Assembly.
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