Since 1895, Fountain Park has hosted an annual Chatauqua to promote traditional values and religious, social and educational activities. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on . At one time there were an estimated 85 Chautauquas in Indiana. Of these, only six continue the Chautauqua tradition including the cities of Columbus, Jeffersonville, Madison, Merom, Remington, and Rome City. Most host weekend festivals for art competitions, music, crafts, and historical re-enactments. Fountain Park Chautauqua continues in the tradition of a two-week event, which includes Sunday School, church services as well as family-oriented entertainment including singing groups and bands, speakers, art classes, talent shows and other recreational activities. Fountain Park is one of a few with permanent structures that built specifically for the Chautauqua. These include a tabernacle, recreational building, hotel and seventy cottages. Chautauqua The Chautauqua is significant in our nation's social history as a movement to provide cultural and educational enrichment to the people. The movement which began in 1874, spurred a tremendous popularity of the Chautauqua throughout the country. At the height of the movement, historians estimate that Chautauquas may have involved as many as 30 million people in 12,000 communities in a given summer. The Chautauqua movement began in 1874 in Chautauqua, New York, as a training camp for Sunday school teachers. The idea was that of a Methodist minister and Sunday School Superintendent, John H. Vincent and Lewis Miller respectively. The two men cofounded the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly Program. This program was aimed at religious education, but expanded to include music, art, and secular education. The first Chautauqua was so successful that the idea spread quickly throughout America. Independent Chautauquas, modeled after the "Mother Chautauqua" in New York, sprang up all over the country. The Chautauqua movement hit its peak about 1924-1925. From the 1880s to the Great Depression, Chautauqua was the window to cultural and educational enrichment for thousands of isolated towns from New England to the Rocky Mountains. Chronology Founded in 1895, a mile north of Remington in Jasper County, Indiana, Remington Bank's president, Robert Parker, envisioned an annual assembly to discuss various topics, including religion, science, and literature. In 1893, he purchased the land for Fountain Park. Recreational activities were part of program with boating, swimming, shuffleboard, and athletic contests. Parker purchased of land in 1893 and "saw its natural beauty as an ideal place for an annual,