Asbury Grove Historic District

Asbury Grove is a Methodist camp meeting ground on about 83 wooded acres in Hamilton, Massachusetts. Founded in 1859, it grew from large tents around an outdoor pulpit, called the Stand, set in a pine grove. Tents gave way to society houses and then to small cottages on lots averaging about 30 by 50 feet. Roughly 70 percent of the cottages were built in the 1870s, mostly narrow, steep-gabled, 1½-story houses with Victorian Gothic, Italianate or plain vernacular detailing. Common buildings around Lee Park include a chapel from 1884, a tabernacle from 1894, a dining hall from 1900, a library from 1910 and a bakery. The community peaked at nearly 300 cottages around 1905. A 1927 fire destroyed nearly half of them, and hurricanes and a tornado took more. Today 153 cottages remain on land owned by the church, with the houses owned individually, and the grounds keep their original religious and summer-community character.