Name/Title
Wharton Grove CampgroundEntry/Object ID
2017.4.019Description
Wharton Grove Campground was founded by Roman Catholic John Palmer in 1893 for interdenominational meetings during the height of religious meeting camp revivals. The forty-acre campground was located along the banks of the Corrotoman River in Weems, Virginia. Palmer convinced Rev. F. W. Claybrook to hold a religious meeting camp at the campground during the summer of 1893. Claybrook, with help of Dr. H. M. Wharton, an evangelist, organized a ten-day meeting. Camp meetings were held each summer through 1927. Originally, there were forty cottages, two dining halls, a stable, meeting shelters, an eight-foot-wide wharf, and a three-tiered tabernacle. The tabernacle stood ninety feet square with a belfry. Only a few cottages survive today.