Lancaster Methodist Episcopal Camp Ground Historic District

Lancaster Camp Ground occupies about 45 acres on a wooded hill northwest of Lancaster, Ohio. It grew from camp meetings organized by the Ohio Conference Camp Meeting Association, which chose the site in 1877 after flooding along the Hocking River troubled earlier locations. The first meeting took place in 1878, and 227 cottages were built within five years. Streets radiate from a central auditorium whose roof truss spans 120 feet without interior supports. Most cottages follow the classic campground form: gable front, one and a half stories, about twice as deep as wide, often with board and batten siding and Gothic Revival vergeboards. Larger buildings include the Temple, the Tabernacle, Hotel Woodside and a museum. Owners built the cottages themselves between 1880 and 1930, when construction largely stopped. The district was listed as an intact example of the Methodist camp meeting movement, and it is still used as a seasonal community, with some cottages now winterized.