Built in 1881, it is the centerpiece of the summer camp meeting established in 1880 by Free Will Baptists led by Bates College President Oren Cheney.

It is a two-story wood frame structure, capped by an octagonal hip roof whose elements meet at a central cupola.

The main facade, facing south, is three bays wide, with a central projecting entry section topped by a doubled gable roof.

The interior of the building is a large open hall, with the speaker's platform on the north wall, and seating, much of it original, arrayed facing it.

This building was constructed in 1881 by James Bickford to a design by Dow & Wheeler, inspired in part by the popularization of octagon houses by Orson Squire Fowler in the 1840s and 1850s.