Some people head to Cassadaga, Florida, for the chance to see a small, secluded, century-old, little-changed town that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. But most go to get their fortune told.

The town’s population includes some 40 men and women who make their living as psychic mediums. Combine that with a location that’s just over an hour from the Disney World-Orlando tourist mecca, and you have a town that has started drawing increasing numbers of inquisitive travelers.

“Instead of a sleepy little community hidden away, were turning into a tourist attraction,” says Janie Waidelich. Clara Gross agrees. She estimates the number of people visiting Cassadaga over the last few years has more than doubled.

Waidelich and Gross are among the reasons people are coming. They call themselves spiritual counselors, or psychic mediums, and they — as do Cassadaga’s other spiritual counselors — offer “readings” to the public.

You don’t have to be a true believer to get a reading. “Some people come on a lark, to see what its all about,” Waidelich says. “Others are quite serious about looking for information to help them solve a problem or see what’s ahead. Some also come for true spiritual counseling. They’re looking for a direction in life.”

Both Waidelich and Gross are ordained ministers in the Spiritualist religion. As Spiritualists they believe life continues after death and that some people can attune themselves to communicate with those in the spirit world.

These spirits, according to the religion, could be your relatives or friends who have passed on.

Now wait a minute. If you think your Aunt Sara never showed much sense when she was alive, why would you want her advice now. Well, the religion holds that while dwelling on the spiritual plane, spirits are in tune with Universal Intelligence. Aunt Sara presumably now sees things from a broader perspective.

Cassadaga was founded by Spiritualists as a winter camp and chartered as the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association in 1894.

Visiting northern Spiritualists, mainly from a camp in Lily Dale, New York, would set up tents to house them during their stay. But as the camp grew, a church, meeting hall and houses were built. And some began to stay year round.

Today the hamlet occupies 55 acres of wooded, rural Florida real estate fronting on two-lane Cassadaga Road (Country Road 4139). Where the road intersects Stevens Street, a pair of concrete pillars mark the main entrance.

The camp’s streets are narrow, a few barely the width of two cars. Its houses tend to be small, wood-frame homes. Most date from the 1920s. Many wear tin roofs. And some have a New England look to them — a number of the early Spiritualists came from Maine and Massachusetts as well as New York.

A stroll down Stevens Street takes you past some of the earliest buildings. At the entrance, the two-story Cassadaga Hotel stands on one side of the street. It was completed in 1928. Opposite sits the long, single-story Davis Building. Built in 1905, it now houses the camp’s metaphysical bookstore.

Next door to the hotel, the tin-roofed, three-story Bingham Hall dates to 1897. Originally it consisted of 18 single rooms which were rented to camp members. Renovations first begun in 1928 have converted most of those singles into three-room apartments.

Across the street stands Harmony Hall, thought to be the village’s oldest structure. A two-story apartment building, it was constructed in 1896 but renovated in the early 1980s.

A block farther along you’ll come to the Colby Memorial Temple where the Spiritualists hold church services. Built in 1923, its named for camp founder George Colby.

Taken as a whole, there’s enough of historical interest so that the entire camp was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

Despite Cassadaga’s growing popularity, its still not overrun with visitors. Most congregate in the area of the Cassadaga Road-Stevens Street intersection. But move deeper into the camp, and you’ll be struck by just how quiet and peaceful the village is. The tranquil setting makes you keenly aware of the mockingbirds chirping in the magnolia trees and the squirrels scurrying through the live oaks.

One unusual feature separates Cassadaga from other small, rural Florida towns — its signs. They hang on fences or from posts in yards. Some are nailed to houses or posted in windows. Small and discreet, most just bear someone’s name and a title such as Spiritual Counselor or Medium.

But that’s about as unusual as it gets. Nothing resembles a haunted house. You see no Bela Lugosi-like characters lurking about. And the residents look just like everybody else.

Take Janie Waidelich, for example. Nothing about this small, pleasant-faced women with long black hair and a ready smile appears out of the ordinary. Her life she says has also been fairly conventional.

She was born in Washington, D.C., but her Methodist parents raised her in suburban Virginia. She has held clerical jobs with the Central Intelligence Agency and in Florida with the Volusia County Sheriffs Department. She came to Cassadaga in 1989 and has served as president of the camp’s Board of Trustees.

If you visit Cassadaga and want to put these spiritual counselors to the test, drop in at the bookstore. There a daily changing board lists the names and telephone numbers of available readers.

You’ll also find signs proclaiming the availability of psychics, mediums and readings across from the camp, on north Stevens Street and the north side of Cassadaga Road. These mediums — about a dozen of them — are not associated with the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp, but they are a tribute to its success.

Clara Gross, who has set up shop on the north side of the road, says locating in Cassadaga gives her a certain amount of credibility. “You have acceptance from the public here,” she says.

You’ll also find several readers in the Cassadaga Hotel, which is located within the camp. But these mediums, too, are independent. The camp had to sell the hotel when it defaulted on the building’s bonds during the Depression.

If you do get a reading, Janie Waidelich suggests you don’t be too skeptical. “Someone can put up a wall you can almost touch,” she says. “Sometimes you can rise above it, but usually not. It's like going to the dentist and refusing to open your mouth.”


FAST FACTS

Getting there:

Cassadaga is located in Florida between Daytona Beach and Orlando. Follow Interstate 4 east from the Orlando area, or I-4 west from Daytona Beach, to exit 54. At the first traffic light turn right. At the first side road, turn right again on to County Road 4139 (Cassadaga Road). Continue about two miles to Cassadaga.


For additional information:

Contact the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Bookstore & Information Center, P.O. Box 319, Cassadaga, Fla. 32706, telephone (386) 228-2880.


Readings:

Readers work by appointment but also take walk-ins, time permitting. Bring a recorder to tape the reading or a pen and pad to make notes. Readings cost between $40 and $50 and can last from 30 minutes to an hour. During the camp’s Mediums Nights and Mediums Days, 15-minute readings are available in the Davis Building for $15. Telephone the bookstore and information center for dates. To contact Clara Gross, telephone (904) 228-0459 or (407) 323-7957, for Janie Waidelich call (904) 228-0313.