In the 1830s, the Methodists of Edgartown began to meet regularly in an oak grove at the northern end of town. Each summer the group attracted a larger number of followers who spent three months in a tent camp situated a short distance from the place where religious services were held. By the 1850s more than 12,000 persons were attending the annual services at Cottage City (as the encampment came to be known), and by the end of the 19C the city had been renamed Oak Bluffs for the oak grove where the first revival meetings were held. At about the same time, small wooden cottages were built to replace the tents that stood near the tabernacle, the center of religious worship.