Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

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Title: Volume 075-4 - October 2021 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 10 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2023-12-30 11:48:05 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:34 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:34

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

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NCHS Bulletin October 2021 the newspaper said, “silently speaks volumes to their [Elizabeth Armstrong and her supporters’ ] persistence and devotion to an ideal.’””° Volunteerism Never Dies During its first decade, Memorial Park remained a largely volunteer project. Annual appeals drew contributions, especially from those who had helped establish the park, the mining companies, civic groups, merchants, miners and families. Citizens contributed at an annual celebration called “Maintenance Day,” the day everyone paid to enter the park, swim or play tennis. How much people paid was up to them. As they enjoyed the open air, they could listen to the town band performing and buy cold drinks and ice cream, all to benefit the park. “Memorial Park is the greatest thing that ever happened to Grass Valley,” said Chamber of Commerce president J. A. Curnow, and no one seemed to doubt it.”’ As the years wore on, citizens grew weary of these appeals. Then in 1927, something new. The Grass Valley merchants, led by newsstand and stationary shop owner George Trezise, conceived of a fund-raising baseball game between the Main Street Maniacs and the Mill Street Canaries. The two sides had colors borrowed from the high school: red for Main Street and yellow for Mill. They held demonstration in downtown Grass Valley, with impromptu bands and fireworks. Rainstorms delayed the game by two weeks, and in the interval, the fun began. When the Main Street merchants marched on Mill Street they wore red baseball caps and carried a nine-foot red baseball bat.”8 Mill Street responded to these provocations by launching yellow flares, hanging an effigy of George Trezise and marching on Main Street with the corpse of Main Street on a stretcher and a band playing “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here.” Locals and visitors crowded the sidewalks to watch, showing their loyalties by wearing either the red or yellow ribbons, sold for a quarter to benefit the park. When the rivals met at last on the Memorial Park diamond the two teams featured a few capable players past their prime, supported by rank amateurs, and nearly all of them middle-aged merchants. The antics included a beer keg waiting at third base for any runner who made it that far. What began as a jest, at least in 1927, turned into a wellplayed game, which earned $427 for the park. City Government Plays Its Part The volunteerism did not entirely relieve the city of responsibilities at the park. From the beginning the city council budgeted $100 a month for park maintenance, which paid the salary of a superintendent who lived in an apartment in the community building and oversaw the grounds and autocamp. The first superintendent was Thomas Griffith, a Welshman, who had been a sprinter at university and taught school in Wales. With his wife Ethel, he organized tennis, soccer and youth baseball teams with names like the Race Street Rovers and Columbus Aggies. He also mowed the lawns and maintained the pool. The way Tom and Ethel encouraged children, and shared their love of sports, endeared them to the community.” “Tom [Griffith] seemed to always be in a hurry to get something done,” remembered a boy who played in the park, “‘and it did get done.” Beyond his work at the park, Griffith supported the civic and charitable efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and Elks and led a scout troop. Tom loved fishing, too, and after the kids had returned to school in the fall of 1929, took his rod for a day of angling on the Bear River. At only 42 he was stricken by an apparent heart attack and died. His wife returned to her native Prince Edward Island. Henry Williams, a Grass Valley native and a scout master, replaced Griffith. Williams “held the love of the small children and the attention and discipline of the older boys and girls.” After Williams also died, a local garden club planted trees in the park in memory of Griffith and Williams. Ray Judson Steele later assumed the superintendent role,” The City’s Role Expands in The Great Depression In May 1929, Newmont Mining Company purchased the Empire mine, prompting another change. Since 1922, the Chamber of Commerce had held a provisional deed to the park property, granted by the Empire mine. Newmont revised the deed to remove any provision and ceded the land to the City of Grass Valley. In June 1930, the city took full responsibility and since then has maintained the park using tax dollars. But volunteer support didn’t end. Before the close of 1930, for example, the Grass Valley Tennis Club had paid to light the courts. Sports clubs and veterans’ organizations would continue to contribute.*! In 1935 the park saw refurbishments and improvements thanks to a new initiative provided by government relief programs. A grant from the State Emergency Relief Administration, a New Deal-style agency, led to repairs and fresh paint for the bathhouses, autocamp, community house, baseball grandstand and tennis courts. The City Council said the work would put the park “in the finest condition of its long period of service to the city.” A separate appropriation financed the building of a Boy Scout Hall for both scouts and Camp Fire Girls at an estimated cost of $6100. The success of Memorial Park encouraged other community efforts, especially the building of Grass Valley Veterans Building in 1930, which replaced the original function of the much smaller Community House at the park. Minnie Park on Brighton Street, on more land given