Camp Chesterfield Receives Federal Preservation Grant To Restore Historic Spiritualist Cottage

A federal historic preservation grant will soon help Camp Chesterfield restore a cottage on its grounds to help preserve the history of one of the largest Spiritualist communities in the country.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

 Camp Chesterfield in Madison County is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been the home of Spiritualism in Indiana since 1886.  But in 2015, it was also placed on an Indiana Landmarks list of the state’s most endangered places.

“It just kind of breaks my heart a little bit, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Back in 2015, Reverend Professor Todd Jay Leonard said the small cabins were built to house mediums and spiritual healers in the summer.  Now many are deteriorating, because not just anyone can lease one – only members of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists.  Spiritualism used to have a wildly popular following, but the community has shrunk drastically in the last several decades.

“Our main purpose now is to make sure it is saved, and it takes a lot of money – shockingly amounts of money.”

Now, a federal grant of $11,500 will help the Friends of Camp Chesterfield preserve an 1899 cottage that they say is the “most architecturally intact example” of the original cabins – complete with a room used for séances.  The group has already begun extensive renovations.  The money will help with exterior fixes for water leaks and damage by animals.

Muncie’s Cornerstone Center for the Arts also received a grant from the same program to continue to preserve its headquarters – a former Masonic Temple built in 1926.