[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SHELBYVILLE CHAUTAUQUA CENTENNIAL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN SHIMKUS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2003

  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the citizens of 
Shelbyville, Illinois and their celebration of the Shelbyville 
Chautauqua's Centennial. The Chautauqua Auditorium is on the National 
Register of Historic Places, and on August 6th, the town will be 
celebrating the building's 100th birthday.
  In the late 1800's and early 1900's, thousands of people would gather 
in Shelbyville every August for the 2-week celebration known as the 
Chautauqua. It was the event of the summer, and families from around 
Central Illinois drove miles by horse and buggy to attend. The 
Chautauqua started off as a kind of community tent meeting where people 
who lived miles apart would gather, share news, and visit for this one 
time every year.
  Then, in 1903, the Shelbyville Chautauqua Auditorium opened in 
Shelbyville's Forest Park. The one-of-a-kind structure boasts a huge, 
round auditorium that is free of interior support posts that would 
obstruct the audience's view, instead relying on a unique series of 
beams in the ceiling. It is the largest building of its kind anywhere 
in the world.
  With the new auditorium, the event transformed from a community tent 
meeting into a larger event where families came to hear many of the 
famous speakers and entertainers of the time. Presidential candidate 
William Jennings Bryan, evangelist Billy Sunday, and future President 
William Howard Taft all had turns taking the platform in Shelbyville.
  The Shelbyville Chautauqua closed down in 1930, but the memories live 
on in events such as this Centennial Celebration. The Chautauqua 
brought a sense of community to the area that is unknown in our day, 
but with events like this, that sense is returning. I wish the people 
of Shelbyville the best in their celebration of a truly historic 
building that exemplifies what was so right about community life in the 
early 1900's.

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