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Volume 077-4 - October 2023 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin October 2023
Brewers mortgaged the property for $1500 to finance
additional improvements: a petting zoo, a business office, better camping and picnicking facilities, a block
of bath houses for women, and a bridge to the island
in the lake.'* No admission was charged for entrance,
but modest fees were charged for renting bathing suits
and boats, for swimming lessons, and for access to the
area with the diving tower, tank, and other equipment.
Camping spaces and tents were rented.
Howard Brewer’s vision of Olympia Park was expansive in terms of both aquatic sports and music. He
gave swimming
lessons and introduced swimming
competitions
and water polo,
fostering Nevada
County youngsters’ swimming
capabilities—
much as he had
been mentored
in San Francisco.
The bridge to
the island in the
lake launched
the park’s long
and illustrious career as a
favorite Nevada
County dance
equipment. Courtesy Carl Mautz
This postcard image, also pre-dating Brewer’s ownership, shows spectators viewing swimmers
lining up for the slide and frolicking in the bathing tank or “plunge.” A barrier separates the
tank from the lake; rented woolen bathing suits with “Olympia” inscribed, dry on the railing.
The Brewers installed a 40-foot metal dive tower and a metal trapeze in place of the wooden
tion of pleasures for children and their parents over two
days, including three dances (one ragtime), a long roster
of children’s races, balloon ascension, parachute drop,
fireworks, and an illuminated parade of boats. Several
thousand attended; July 4th was the biggest day in the
history of the park."
Just as the Brewers were on the cusp of success, conflicts with the Twin City communities darkened their
hopes. To gain more income, Brewer applied for a
temporary liquor license to sell alcohol on the north
side of the lake near the entrance. The neighbors’ protest against the
“saloon” quickly
escalated into
a temperance
crusade by the
local Protestant
churches. Nevada City’s Mayor
C.W. Chapman
voiced his strong
objection to
“ragging” music.
When Chapman
(a stockholder in
the rival Glenbrook Park), was
asked to define
that class of dancing, he replied:
“Mix ragging...
venue. Taking up most of the island’s space was a 50
by 100-foot, spring-loaded dance floor, which was most
popular on moonlit nights. Likely the first to introduce
cutting-edge, modern music to Nevada County, Brewer
added ragtime to the conventional fare provided by local bands at weekly and bi-weekly dances. (Ladies were
free, and only men paid the 50-cent admission ticket.)
In the summer of 1912,
the Brewers inaugurated
Pop Concert Sunday
Special Rag Time-Binging and Playing } an annual program of
(By Stanley Arnot )
Dance Tonight events over the warm
oe or as eel and jubilant Fourth
OLYMPIA PARK
of July holidays. This
grand celebration had
an irresistible combinaRagtime music advertised in Morning
Union for the Fourth of July weekend,
1914.
with sexes, liquor and pine trees and you have the
greatest combination possible for working out evil.”'° A
raucous mass meeting of Congregationalists and Methodists was held to block the access to liquor in Olympia
Park to ensure the well-being of families. The Board
of Supervisors nonetheless approved his liquor license
unanimously, setting off another firestorm of moral
indignation. “We foresee a genuine asset for these two
cities for relaxation, amusement, and pleasure. but only
if the park was alcohol free,” said the protestors."
So fortunate early in life, the urbane Howard Brewer
unwittingly became the lightning rod for anxieties
about urbanization and modernization. The emergence of pleasure parks in modern America catalyzed
these fears, for here young people exercised freedom