Facts & Statistics

Number of events per season

  • approximately 2,000

Total visitors per summer

  • approximately 150,000

Demographics

  • 1/3 retired
  • 1/3 over 50 and still working
  • 1/3 under 50
  • Note: Enrollment at Children's School and Boys' and Girls' Club indicates a trend toward increasing numbers of children on the grounds.

Winter residents

  • 400

Average visitors per day (in season)

  • 7,500

Year-round staff

  • 110

Summer employees

  • 1,300 (approximately 500 others are hired by private businesses on the grounds.)

Number of Buildings (homes and buildings)

  • 1,200

Acreage (total)

  • 783 (approximately 250 on-grounds; 533 off-grounds)

Chautauqua Lake

  • approximately 18 miles long (average 1 mile wide)

Annual budget (total)

  • $16.8 million ($6.9 million from gate tickets; $6.0 million from earnings; $3.9 million from contributions)

Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra

  • began 1929
  • 77 members

Amphitheater

  • built 1893
  • 5,000 seats

Athenaeum Hotel

  • built 1881 (annex 1924)
  • 157 rooms

Bellinger Hall

  • begun 1974 with later additions
  • houses 250 people

Bratton Theater seating

  • built 1885, renovated 2000
  • 270 seats

Hall of Christ

  • built 1909
  • 200 seats

Hall of Philosophy

  • built 1906
  • approximately 700 seats

Hultquist Center for Continuing Studies

  • built 1889 (Oriental Bazaar until 1999)
  • 4 seminar rooms

Lenna (Elizabeth S.) Hall

  • built 1993
  • 500 seats

Norton Memorial Hall

  • built 1929
  • 1,365 seats
  • opera began at Chautauqua in 1929

Palestine Park

  • created in 1874

President's House

  • built 1985

Sheldon Hall of Education

  • moved to present site in 1900
  • 8 class rooms

Smith Wilkes Hall

  • built 1924
  • 450 seats

Turner Community Center

  • built 1968 (renovated 2001)
  • formerly Turner Elementary School
  • 11 class rooms
  • 2 computer labs offices
  • gym
  • pool
  • fitness center

Miscellaneous Facts

  • The Chautauqua Institution was founded in 1874 by Lewis Miller, an Akron, Ohio, inventor and manufacturer; and John Heyl Vincent, a Methodist minister (later bishop).
  • The Chautauqua Institution is a National Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designated a National Historic Landmark June 30, 1989.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his "I Hate War" speech from the Amphitheater platform in 1936.
  • Ronald Reagan addressed the Third General Chautauqua Conference on U.S. -Soviet Relations via satellite in 1987.
  • Carlos Roberto Reina, president of Honduras, was the first foreign sitting head of state to visit Chautauqua. He spoke during the Second Chautauqua Conference on Central America in 1995.
  • Thomas Edison was the son-in-law of Chautauqua cofounder Lewis Miller.
  • George Gershwin composed his Concerto in F in a Chautauqua practice shack in 1925.
  • Kellogg Hall (built 1889) was moved from Bestor Plaza to its present site in 1905.

Nine U.S. presidents have visited Chautauqua:

  • Bill Clinton* (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996**)
  • Gerald R. Ford (1965)
  • James A. Garfield (1880)
  • Ulysses S. Grant* (1875**)
  • Rutherford B. Hayes (1892)
  • William McKinley (1895)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt* (1917, 1919, 1929, 1936**)
  • Theodore Roosevelt* (1890, 1894, 1899, 1905**, 1914)
  • William Taft (1904)

* sitting President at time of Chautauqua visit
** year of Chautauqua visit during term in office