I've really been in the mood for excursions lately. The day after returning from my Connecticut jaunt, I drove up to the North Shore in Massachusetts, my old home area, to go to an open studio of an artist acquaintance in Newburyport.
In the afternoon I visited Asbury Grove in Hamilton. It's a cottage community, one of the thousands that began as sites of summer camp meetings during the religious revivals in the 19th century. They were often affiliated with the Methodist church.
A Massachusetts architect and urban designer, Sara Hines, has written a book about these cottage communities as examples of "lean urbanism" which relate to the current interest in small houses and town planning that promotes walkability and community. She spoke in the chapel at Asbury Grove, and then we were given a tour of the community by members of the Asbury Grove Historical Society.
Many of the cottage communities that still exist (a thousand of them, Sara Hines said) have lost their church affiliation (often long ago) and are now just attractive summer cottage colonies. We have rented cottages in Maine for the last ten years in Bayside, one of these communities. Asbury Grove, on the other hand, is still faith-centered. We were told that you must belong to a church (they don't care which one) in order to buy a cottage there.
I was fascinated by the place. It's hidden away on a quiet road, and I would guess most people don't even know it's there. It felt like a holdover from another era. They have old fashioned activities like ice cream socials, pie socials, and covered dish suppers as well as hymn sings.
Of course I was enchanted by the sweet, colorful cottages. Bayside is like that too.
