Entry No. 34 — the Buffalo file — filed under: history
Lily Dale Assembly
Incorporated in 1879 as the Cassadaga Lake Free Association, Lily Dale is a gated lakeside hamlet where roughly 40 registered mediums live and take appointments — as of the 2026 season, only two of them men. In summer, free message services run twice daily at Inspiration Stump, a tree stump at the end of a trail through Leolyn Woods where mediums deliver messages from the dead to whoever shows up. The one-room schoolhouse museum, run for two decades by curator Ron Nagy, holds precipitated spirit paintings — portraits the Campbell Brothers and Bangs Sisters claimed were produced by spirits with no human hand — plus a spirit trumpet and instruments said to play themselves. The Marion H. Skidmore Library next door claims the largest collection of Spiritualist books in the world, and the museum's Susan B. Anthony suffrage material is a reminder the movement and Spiritualism grew up together.
→ Three more occult & metaphysical spots in Buffalo — never the same twice
The story
Spiritualists incorporated the Cassadaga Lake Free Association in 1879 to further, in their own words, the science, philosophy and religion of Spiritualism. It became The City of Light in 1903 and Lily Dale Assembly in 1906, and has compounded quietly ever since: about 275 year-round residents, roughly 160 private cottages on a gated grid above Upper Cassadaga Lake, the headquarters of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, and a National Register historic district since 2022. Susan B. Anthony spoke here; Spiritualism and suffrage recruited from the same rooms.
The working population is the mediums. Around 40 appear in the current registry, two of them men; all are tested and vetted by the Assembly and the Medium's League, and all run their own books. The Assembly sells the gate pass and keeps the schedule but will not make your appointment, and says so bluntly. Community administrator Havivah Richards runs the rest: workshops, lectures, and a summer entertainment slate.
It is a Victorian lake camp that never quite modernized. The Octagon Building dates to 1883, Assembly Hall to 1888, the Healing Temple to 1955. The museum occupies an 1890 schoolhouse where curator and Assembly historian Ron Nagy keeps precipitated spirit paintings attributed to the Bangs Sisters and the Campbell Brothers, spirit trumpets and a women's suffrage section; the Marion H. Skidmore Library on Cottage Row holds what it calls the world's largest collection of Spiritualist books. Behind all of it is Leolyn Woods — ten acres of old growth, white pines pushing 135 feet, trees 200 to 400 years old — and the trail that ends at Inspiration Stump. The Fox sisters' cottage was moved here in 1915 and burned in September 1955; a memorial garden by the Forest Temple stands in for it.
What it's like
You stop at the gate, pay, and park — the pass covers parking and every daily activity, so from there the day is just a timetable. Meditation at the Healing Temple runs 8:30, healing services 10:30 and 7, a Spiritualist service in the auditorium at 2:30, and message services at Inspiration Stump at 1:00, 4:00 and 5:30, with the Forest Temple at 4:00. For the Stump you walk a dirt trail through Leolyn Woods and sit; mediums take turns delivering short messages to individual people in the crowd, and most of the crowd goes home without one. Nobody is performing irony. Arrive early if you want to be near the front, wear shoes that tolerate a woods path, and if you want a private reading, book it weeks out and directly.
The move: Buy the $20 gate pass, walk the Leolyn Woods trail to the 5:30 pm Inspiration Stump message service, and sit through the whole thing without smirking — then loop past the Fox Sisters memorial and the lake before the hour's drive back, comparing notes on who in the crowd got a message.
📍 Before you go Summer season runs late June through August 30 (2026: June 19–Aug 30) with a $20-per-person 24-hour gate pass that includes parking; Stump services run 1:00 and 5:30 pm in season. Off-season the gates open and readings can still be booked with mediums year-round, but services and most programming stop. About an hour southwest of Buffalo off Route 60 near Cassadaga.
- 📍 Lily Dale
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 5 Melrose Park, Lily Dale, NY 14752
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Original American Kazoo Company Museum & Factory — Roughly 30 miles north in Eden and broadly on the way home, a metal-kazoo factory running since 1916 is the correct decompression chamber after an afternoon of messages from the dead — though it's closed Sunday and Monday, so plan the Lily Dale day around it.
- Griffis Sculpture Park — About 30 miles east in East Otto and open May through October, so the seasons overlap cleanly; Lily Dale asks you to sit still in the woods and listen, Griffis hands you 400 acres of hills and tells you to go find the sculptures yourself.
- Eternal Flame Falls — Roughly 40 miles northeast in Chestnut Ridge Park, a plausible stop on the drive back up through the Southtowns, and a useful bookend: one flame science can explain and still hasn't fully, one set of messages it can't and won't.
More weird in Buffalo
Good to know
What does it cost to get in?
A day pass is $20; evenings 6 pm to midnight are $10, three days $50, a week $120, a season $425. The fee covers parking and all daily activities, and you can buy online or at the gate. There are no refunds. Sunday morning church services are free if you're off the grounds by 1 pm, and 80-plus with ID and children 12 and under with an adult get in free at the gate.
How do I book a medium, and what does a reading cost?
Directly with the medium, through the registry on the Assembly's site — appointments are strongly encouraged in and out of season, and the Assembly explicitly asks that you not phone the office to arrange one. Registered mediums are vetted by the Assembly and the Medium's League but set their own rates, session lengths and recording policies, so ask when you book. Half-hour private sessions have been reported running into the hundreds.
When is it open, and is there anything there off-season?
The 2026 summer season is June 19 through August 30, and that's the window when gate passes are required and the daily schedule runs. Outside it the gates open, church services continue and mediums take appointments year-round — some by phone or video — but the message services and the programming stop.
Are the message services really free?
They're included in the gate pass, with nothing collected at the Stump. That's three Stump services a day plus the Forest Temple at 4:00 and the Healing Temple's morning and evening healing. Some extras are ticketed separately — the Octagon Building's Adventures in Mediumship at $20, a Wednesday physical phenomena and trance session at $30, beach yoga and drum circles around $10.
How far is it, and can we eat or stay there?
About an hour southwest of Buffalo, off Route 60 near Cassadaga in Chautauqua County. Sacred Grounds Coffee House is on the grounds along with shops, and there are hotels, guest houses and campgrounds on and around the property. Sleeping in your vehicle on the grounds is not allowed.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · thevillagerny.com · corneliamagazine.com · wkbw.com
📷 We made a card for this one on Instagram →
last checked: 2026-08-25