Most Chattanoogans know that Warner Park has been a keystone of the Chattanooga Park System for over one hundred years and many have wonderful memories of the Rose Garden, special annual events or lazy summer days spent with childhood friends. Many may not know that Warner Park was originally Olympia Park, a privately-owned park and horse racetrack opened in 1890.
By June 26, 1902, Olympia had expanded and the new construction warranted a headline in the Chattanooga News announcing “Amusement in Store for Chattanooga.” The officials of Chattanooga Electric Railway had awarded a $3100 contract to D.J. Chandler for a theater building that would occupy the highest prominence in Olympia Park at the north end of the park. The design for the frame structure included a seating capacity of 1400 and featured the modern technologies needed for a renowned “vaudeville theater.” The front and both sides boasted a spacious veranda allowing patrons comfort and east of movement and seating. “Lunch counters and fruit stands” would offer “everything in the line of refreshments… at a moment’s notice.”
Stakes for the new building were already in place when the newspaper announcement hit the stands and excavation was scheduled to begin within a week. Chandler shared the construction timeline with the newspaper, projecting that the project would be completed in only “a few weeks.”
The theater was the most recent addition as the racetrack grandstand had been completed earlier. A new fence and a “grand entrance gate” announcing “Olympia” had been added. The owners had also purchased a steam well-boring machine for the benefit of clients and one well had been completed at a depth of 104 feet and producing water of the “very best limestone quality.” A second well was being drilled at the north end of the tract and together the wells would supply free water for all attending the races and the “sideshow” attractions. Mayor Warner announced that the new additions to the park would be fully operational by July 15. He predicted that “all the gay, laughing lads and lassies will have a chance to enjoy themselves in Chattanooga as they never enjoyed themselves before.”
While construction was occurring at the north end of the park, activities continued in other areas.
The weekend after Major Warner’s announcement regarding expansion the Chattanooga News reminded readers that an exciting baseball season would continue with the “Southern Express and Seventh Cavalry” crossing bats on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm. The sports stadium, home base for the “fastest baseball team” in the region, was “modern in every detail” and would seat 2500 fans with “comfortable seats with backs to them.”
Adding to the excitement of the ballgame was the promise that the famous Seventh Regiment Band would be in attendance and making “music all during the afternoon.” The military baseball team would arrive at the Central Depot by chartered train and Major Warner had planned a parade to the field - players in “special cars,” preceded by the regimental band.
Warner did offer one quip; he remined the “soldier boys” that Chattanooga’s Southern Express Team was “in fine shape” and the Seventh regiment team would have to “get up and hurry if they wanted to win the game.” The cavalrymen responded that their men were “all in the best training and ready to do battle with the bat and ball, as well as with the saber and carbine.”
At the same time Major Warner was announcing an expansion to Olympia, he was finalizing plans for a July 4th celebration with events unlike any seen in Chattanooga for several years. Bicycle races would be staged in the morning and a grand nighttime fireworks exhibition following a band concert guaranteed a “memorable” patriotic day at the park. The bicycle races for young men coincided with the Chattanooga Electric Railway Company’s plan to make Olympia Park a center for all athletes.
The races were categorized by distance and experience. The first race, one mile and open to veteran competitors, was immediately popular. Within hours of the announcement Charles Smith, Albert N. Hartley, J.M. Moore, K.C. Williams, Louis Schroth, W.M. Brown, Winston Bass and Joshua W. Campbell had registered. Four other races would occur and cash prizes awaited the first, second and third place winner in each race.
Warner suggested that families spend the morning prior to the Olympia activities at Chickamauga National Military Park with the soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry and the Third Artillery. The military park has planned its own program featuring “all sorts of feats of skill at arms and on horseback… thousands of people will be treated to a show…”
All banks, city and country offices and most public places would be closed for Independence Day and a visit to the nation’s first military park and Chattanooga’s finest public park seemed like the perfect way to enjoy the holiday.
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Linda Moss Mines is the official Chattanooga and Hamilton County Historian and chairs the Chattanooga Parks and Outdoors Committee.