Mount Gretna Borough Hall is located at 101 Chautauqua Drive, Mt. Gretna PA 18064.
Phone: 717‑964‑3270.
Tiny Mount Gretna is the busiest of places, due to myriad activities related to the Pennsylvania Chautauqua.
Pennsylvania Chautauqua [1]
The Pennsylvania Chautauqua at Mt. Gretna is a vibrant summer community that attends to every facet of the "chautauqua concept." It offers a mix of religion, education, recreation and the arts in a wooded setting some forty miles east of the state capital at Harrisburg. Its programs begin Memorial Day weekend and end on Labor Day. An open-air playhouse and the Hall of Philosophy are important venues for the Pennsylvania Chautauqua. Ecumenical worship services with distinguished pastors and professional vocalists and instrumentalists convene in the open-air playhouse from July through the first Sunday in September. Both the Mt. Gretna Theatre and the Music at Gretna series utilize the open-air playhouse as well. The former is an Actors' Equity company that mounts five shows during the season, while Music at Gretna offers jazz and chamber music concerts. An annual Cicada Festival of family-friendly programs also occupies the playhouse. Many of Mt. Gretna's community events occur in the Hall of Philosophy. They include porch concerts, arts and crafts classes, book reviews, lectures, card parties, luncheons and exhibits. In addition, there are professional organ recitals in a private home and an art show "under the trees of old Chautauqua." Outdoor activities for all ages range from a supervised program for children at the playground, tennis courts, and swimming and canoeing at the man-made lake, to picnic grounds, nature walks, hiking and biking. The frosting on the cake are an 18-hole miniature golf course and a roller rink!
More than 100 years of Chautauqua at Mt. Gretna [2]
Since the establishment of the Pennsylvania Chautauqua, at Mt. Gretna, a long list of noted educators, authors and stage or platform performers of some kind have been attracted to the place. Among the most eminent who have appeared on the platform may be mentioned: Prof. Charles Young, the noted astronomer of Princeton; Prof. John Fiske, the historian of Harvard; Prof. Fred. Starr, the biologist and ethnologist of Chicago Universities; Bishop Vincent, the founder of Chautauqua; the late William Hamilton Gibson, the world-famous illustrator and author; Mrs. Rorer, of the Philadelphia Cooking School, and a very long list of singers and readers and instructors and jugglers. Governor Pattison and Lieut. Gov. Chas. W. Stone, and State Supt. Schaeffer were among the most noted State officials.