By Carol Fisher Linn
Largest Spiritualist Community in the world, Lily Dale, is open for the 2026 Season.Discover a surprising Ellicottville connection.
A conversation with Town Historian Ellen Siriani Frank led to a conversation with Carolyn Litchfield Bauer, daughter of Keith Litchfield, and 3x great niece of Beals Litchfield. Beals wrote and had published his autobiography in the mid-1800’s which tells the story of his life as a Spiritualist. Litchfield Bauer (in an Olean Times Herald article, Deb Everts, July 2021) relates this about Beals: “Beals was a spiritualist and part of the Spiritualist movement that founded Lily Dale,” she said. “He wrote about going to (Cassadaga Lake). A group of spiritualists spent summers at the lake and some settled there. Beals had a summer cabin there.” In his book, Beals wrote about seances he and other spiritualists held in Lily Dale and in Ellicottville and sur-rounding towns. Not only was Litchfield one of the founders of what would become Lily Dale, the Litchfield family settled in Ellicottville in 1830 with many generations continuing to call Ellicottville home. Beals, his wife Lucinda and their children are buried in the Jefferson Street Cemetery. Siriani Frank, who conducts historic evening tours through the Jefferson Cemetery has related strange goings-on (i.e., floating iridescent blue orbs) in the vicinity of the Litchfield burial spot.
The largest Spiritualist community in the world is located a 57 minute drive from Ellicottville and 22 minutes from Bemus Point. The official “season” is open until August 30, although the grounds can be visited throughout the year for browsing, attending church services or readings by appointment. Mediums can be found year-round on their website page under “Mediums.” Of the forty I note on their page, two are male. Visitors to their site are reminded that ‘A meaningful reading can bring comfort, inspiration, and evidence of the continuity of life. Messages may include contact with loved ones, guides, and teachers, along with spiritual insight and philosophy.” They remind that “Mediums are not fortune-tellers.”
Lily Dale was incorporated in 1879 as Cassadaga Lake Free Association, a camp and meeting place for Spiritualists and Freethinkers. The name was changed to The City of Light in 1903 and finally to Lily Dale Assembly in 1906. The purpose of Lily Dale was to further the science, philosophy, and religion of Spiritualism. It is a place of renewal and discovery. Beyond me-diumship, its legacy is deeply rooted in healing and early social movements, including women’s suffrage. The Lily Dale Museum features one of the most highly regarded Susan B. Anthony women’s suffrage displays in the country. Anthony was a frequent visitor to Lily Dale delivering pivotal speeches on woman’s rights and temperance.
Located on Cottage Row, facing the auditorium and Melrose Park, the Marion H. Skidmore Library houses the largest collection of Spiritualist books in the world. The library is a non-circulating research library due to the nature and rarity of the materials in the collection.
From Wikipedia we learn that Lily Dale hosts the headquarters of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC), founded in 1893: the NSAC’s first president, Harrison D. Barrett, was a Lily Dale resident. A large population of people associated with Spiritualism reside in Lily Dale year round. Television mediums Lisa Williams and Michelle Whitedove have homes there as do most of the mediums who live year-round onsite.
The tale of the Fox sisters bears mentioning. In1848 Hydesdale NY resident, Maggie Fox (in her teens) and younger sister, Kate came up with a harmless prank, or so they thought. They told others that there was a spirit communicating with them by making otherworldly raps on the walls and furniture of their house. Their mom, rightly being skeptical, asked the “spirits” how many children she’d had. The correct number was rapped out. Once a neighbor claimed to witness strange sounds, word got out and spread like wildfire. Years later, it turned out that the girls made these noises by cracking their knuckles, toes and other joints—a fact Maggie confessed to the New York World 40 years later, in 1888. However, these “phenomena” stirred the growth of Spiritualism and their story is held sacred to this day. The humble Fox home was moved to Lily Dale only to burn down in 1955 with the ground on which it sat being converted into a memorial and meditation garden open all year round in the Forest Temple on East Street.
Go to their website at lilydaleasssembly.org to find a medium and follow their speaker se-ries. Lily Dale is at 5 Melrose Park Lily Dale, NY. (716) 595-8721