Adam Bridge fondly recalls his youth at Chautauqua, a lively summer area. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

CARLISLE -- Before Kings Island, water parks, video games or megamalls, there was Chautauqua -- home of the finest swimming pool around.

Not to mention a bowling alley, skating rink and amusement rides. "They had everything the kids could use," said Adam Bridge, 77, a Chautauqua resident. "There was no pool like it. It was the most beautiful pool in the Miami Valley."

Before there was that Chautauqua, there was another Chautauqua, a religious retreat of white tents on the banks of the Great Miami River. They were the same place.

It all started in the summer of 1896, when the Rev. Thomas Harrison of Rochester, Mass., led an 11-day revival service at the old Franklin Fairgrounds.

Within five years, the revivalists found a permanent home when they secured 40 nearBY acres along the Great Miami River, three miles north of Franklin, at the border of Montgomery and Warren counties and just outside present-day Carlisle.

In the years since 1901, Chautauqua has come full circle: from religious revival center to amusement complex - summer resort, finally settling in as a tranquil community today that includes a church retreat center.

It was during the 1930s that Chautauqua changed into a recreation area, particularly after the Olympic-sized swimming pool opened in 1929. Other amusements soon followed.

Eventually it included a bowling alley, skating rink, auditorium, kiddie rides, a coffee shop, formal dining hall and restaurant. The Grandview Hotel overlooking Chautauqua was full every summer, all summer.

"Everything settled around the park," said Franklin Mayor James Mears, who made 25 cents an hour as a lifeguard at the pool. "(Franklin residents) went four miles just up the river and had a summer home. It didn't make sense but that's what the people wanted. And they could go to their workplace."

Revivalists' white tents soon gave way to summer cottages. Most of those cottages were expanded over the years and are homes today.

The Miami Valley Chautauqua Co., designed to teach the fundamentals of Christianity in a non-sectarian way, was modeled after the original community in Chautauqua Lake, N.Y. The movement blossomed across the country. BY 1905, the Miami Valley Chautauqua was a member of the National Chautauqua Alliance.

Today, Chautauqua, with about 500 residents and 200 homes, has narrow twisting streets with large wooden homes on thumbprint-sized lots. The cottages have names such as Holiday Inn, Wig Wam and Hiawatha. Residents say they know one another and visit constantly during evening walks.

The heartbeat of the past has always been the area where the early revivals began, the grounds, as locals call it. It was there that politicians, candidates and orators came. William Jennings Bryan, evangelist Billy Sunday, singers Bill Monroe and Loretta Lynn all appeared at Chautauqua's auditorium. In July 1940, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt drew 4,000 when she came to talk about the war in Europe.

"They put a special flagpole up at my neighbor's house just for her, and that's where she stayed when she came here," said Mr. Bridge, a longtime Franklin resident who moved to Chautauqua in 1991. "This place was thriving. If you'd come in here on a Sunday, you could hardly move around this place."

During its heyday, youth groups and sororities came for camp outings. Leading families from Franklin, Dayton and Cincinnati would spend summers at their cottages, and the local kids would practically live at the park. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was the place. "We came here every day to swim, see what sororities came, (which) people came," Mr. Mears said. "This was the place to be."

The local kids would hitch rides with friends to and from the grounds.

"If you were going to hitchhike coming back home, if you made it past this (entrance) street right here, you were worried," Mr. Mears said. "If you had to walk home at 11 o'clock at night, it was scary. . . . It was dark."

Like so many in the area, Mr. Bridge spent his youth at Chautauqua.

"I lived right across the river," he said. "In the summertime, you had all these sororities. . . . I met my wife here, down at the swimming pool."

For the guys, summer days of swimming turned to summer nights of eating ice cream and taking a stroll with a visiting coed.

Not everyone was disappointed when the sorority girls left on Sundays.

"We didn't like them because they were popular with the guys," said Eleanor Axiotes.

Mrs. Axiotes grew up in Franklin and moved to Chautauqua in 1960 when she married.

Chautauqua was private for decades -- self-governed and operated BY the cottage owners. An elected board of trustees hired a manager to run the park. Property owners paid to have the streets cleaned, and contracted for fire and police protection.

BY the 1960s, permanent homes were becoming the norm and the park was dying.

"A place like Chautauqua was becoming not as popular," Mrs. Axiotes said. "Kids were going to other places. It just got very expensive for the homeowners. We decided it was to our benefit to sell the park."

In 1968, it was sold to the Michigan Baptist Bible Fellowship Foundation, which holds youth camps and outings at Camp Chautauqua. The foundation paid $115,000 for the property.

"There's a lot of history, a lot of nostalgia," said Jerry Harmeyer, who grew up in Deer Park and has been the camp director for 22 years. "I find myself wishing I had been here 10 years sooner." The decision to sell was difficult and caused hard feelings, some residents say. In 1969, after the park had been sold, five suspect fires in five months destroyed several of the old buildings. Damage from the fires was about $400,000, but no one was ever arrested. In 1987, the community voted to become become part of Miami Township in Montgomery County. One of Ohio's last private communities was no more.

Today, Chautauqua is still close-knit and friendly, Mrs. Axiotes said. "It's just so private and so nice."

Last June, organizers of a Chautauqua Day at the old park were stunned when several hundred people showed up.

"It just proved that Chautauqua meant so much to so many people," said Trudi Callahan, who has lived in Chautauqua about eight years. "It was a period of history in this area I was afraid was just going to get swept under the rug."

Some people say Chautauqua maintains a bond with its residents. "We have several three-generation families," Mrs. Callahan said.

"The kids want to get away, but after seeing what the world is like, find out this is a gem."