Today’s post is by John LeGloahec, Archivist in the Electronic Records Division at the National Archives in College Park, MD.
Last Friday the torch was lit in Paris France to start the Summer Olympic Games. The Olympic Games have been held in the United States a total of eight times, four times each for the Winter and Summer Games: 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri (Summer), the Winter Games were held in Lake Placid in 1932 (the Games returned to Lake Placid in 1980) and the Summer Games were held in Los Angeles in 1932 (the Summer Games returned there in 1984 – and will return again in 2028); the 1960 Winter Games were in Squaw Valley, California; the 1996 Summer Games were in Atlanta, Georgia, and the 2002 Winter Olympics took place in Salt Lake City, Utah.
There are properties in the National Register that reflect the Olympic Spirit including the Historic and Architectural Resources of Hardy, Arkansas (National Archives Identifier 26140702), “The district, spanning the north bank of the Spring River from the railroad line to Main Street, is locally significant as the best example in Sharp County of a commercial district that served a small but active resort community during the heyday of the spa community era. The intact historic fabric of downtown Hardy includes party-wall storefront buildings, separate commercial structures of various types and vintages, and a small number of significant residential buildings that are included because of their role in the unique character of Hardy’s historic commercial district. The historic buildings range from one to three stories in height. The vast majority of the buildings are of masonry construction, with brick and native stone being the materials of choice. A few wood-frame buildings survive; as do some historic formed concrete block structures. Coinciding with the commercial growth of the town was the development of Hardy as a resort town by capitalizing on the recreational and fishing opportunities provided by the scenic Spring River valley. In 1912, Dr. George Buford erected a resort often “wigwam” cottages on Wahpeton Hill, 165 feet above and across the river from Hardy. Meaning “Home Among the Leaves” in the Native American tongue, the fields along the river below Wahpeton Hill are believed to be the site of the Native American Olympic games, where even warring tribes gathered to smoke the peace pipe and join in games of skill.”
In Yale, Oklahoma, is the home of Jim Thorpe, “described by King Gustav of Sweden as the”world’s greatest athlete – this at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm after the Sac and Fox Indian had become the first competitor ever to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon – was born in 1888 near Prague, Oklahoma. He died in 1953, at 64, in Los Angeles. But from 1917 to 1923, while starring in both professional football and baseball he lived in Yale, Oklahoma, in a modest bungalow that is believed to be the only house he ever owned.”
“It was at Pennsylvania’s small Carlisle Institute that Thorpe first achieved fame as a super-athlete. With Glenn S. (“Pop”) Warner as coach, he and his teammates regularly whipped teams of many of the big colleges and universities around the country. As halfback, Thorpe won All-American honors in 1911 and 1912. Against a powerful Harvard team in 1911, he scored all of Carlisle’s points – with a touchdown and four field goals – in his team’s 18-15 victory. Olympic honors and world-wide recognition followed in 1912.”
“The Jim Thorpe (National Archives Identifier 86511886) house, on the east side of Tale (704 E* Boston), is a one-story, clapboarded affair painted gray. Not unlike countless other frame bungalows across the country, it is strongly representative of the modest middle-class society that produced it. Built in the winter of 1916-1917 it is small-town, mid-America housing of the early 20th century. Modest by today’s standards — five rooms and a bath, front and back porches — its size, style and construction, as well as its uneven lawn, scraggly shade trees and dusty street in front, combine to stamp it average for its day.”
Along with Thorpe, Jesse Owens is regarded as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of the United States. Following his triumph at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, where he “captured four gold medals for the United States in the 1936 Olympics, he organized and starred in a basketball exhibition held at the Mason City YMCA (National Archives Identifier 75338473). Spectators drove to Mason City from miles around to attend this well-publicized event in 1937.”
“The Mason City YMCA is a four story, rectangular brick building designed in Colonial Revival style and completed in 1926. Designed by Minneapolis architects, Tyrie and Chapman, this building, located just a couple of blocks from the center of Mason City, was constructed of red brick and accented with limestone reinforcing the appearance of symmetry. Windows on all four floors, a central entrance on the primary facade, limestone accents, twin roof pediments, and twin chimneys complete the symmetrical design. The perfect constellation of windows on the primary facade was slightly changed after the plans were detailed in order to allow for the main interior staircase.”
Owens also is said to have worked out in the Morton, J. Sterling, High School East Auditorium (National Archives Identifier 28892370), which was “erected in the years 1925-1928 at the urging of the community which was then ninety percent immigrant, mostly middle European. They had come to America with a dream and they wanted that dream expressed in this auditorium which was to be paid for with their tax money. Their belief in democracy and the American system is expressed in the eight oil murals by c. M. Fox which depict the Pilgrims landing, Bunker Hill, Washington leading the army, Fort Dearborn, Columbus discovering America, The Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln giving the Gettysburg address, and the battle of Argonne.”
In Middleburg, Virginia, in the Burrland Farm Historic District (National Archives Identifier 41680592) lies a property that has a horse cemetery that is “located along the southern fence of the paddock south of Barn # 2, the cemetery contains the graves of eight of Eleonora Sears’s horses. The graves (which are said to contain only the horse heads and hearts) are marked by granite headstones engraved with the names of the horses (Taffeta, Mehrabi, Ksar d’Espirit, Admiral’s Bride, Lola, Diamant, Rosalina and Douglas). The most famous horse buried in the cemetery is Ksar d’Espirit, once described as a magnificent gray thoroughbred show jumper who was virtually unbeatable in Pruissance events all over the world, scoring many Grand Prix victories and individual championships, and helping the United States Equestrian Team win the silver medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics.”
In Washington DC is the Potomac Boat Club, Washington, DC SP Potomac Boat Club “constructed in 1908, is one of two remaining early 20th century boat clubs along the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. Along with the Washington Canoe Club, the Potomac Boat Club represents recreational pursuits that were an important part of Washington life. The Potomac Boat Club survives as the only building in the District of Columbia associated with competitive rowing.”
“Potomac Boat Club has excelled in more recent competitions as well. Potomac Boat Club serves as the home of several local high school and college teams as well as a club for its adult members. While the club has been represented on every Olympic rowing team since 1948, it is perhaps most noted for Charles S. Butt, Jr., whose coaching success is comparable to that of Charles Courtney. Butt, who began coaching the Washingten-Lee High School team in 1949, has won more high school competitions than any coach in United States history. Described as “legendary,” Butt not only directed the Washingten-Lee crew to a national championship in his first year coaching, but went on to win several more national championships and five Henley regattas. Jeb Stuart High School, which also trains at the Potomac Boat Club, won the Royal Henley Regatta in 1968. Tony Hough and Larry Johnson of the Potomac Boat Club won a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics (Mendenhall, pp, 60-124). Thomas Horten, John Eiseman and Ken Clark were on the UK Olympic Canoe Team in 1948, having been the National quad double blade champions in 1947.”
In 1904, the Summer Olympic Games were held on the grounds of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri (National Archives Identifier 63818170), the “third of the modern “Summer” Olympic Games . . . the first such event in the United States and remains, along with the 1932 and 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the only ones hosted by this country. Francis Gymnasium and Francis Field, provided for in the original campus design, were completed specifically to accommodate the Olympic activities.”
“The official games occupied the week of August 29-September 3. The pageantry included the presence of Alice Roosevelt, the President’s daughter, who gave out medals. Attendance, however, was not as great as had been expected.22 Furthermore, the name “Olympic” or “Olympian,” as was then current, had been devalued by being attached to virtually every athletic competition held at the fair. These events had ranged from Bohemian and Turnverein gymnastics to handicap races and high school rallies. No doubt the most notorious of them was the “Anthropology Days,” when representatives of various “aboriginal” racial groups, including African pygmies, Ainus, Moros, and Sioux Indians, competed in games for which they were for the most part untrained and physically unprepared.” “In spite of the rather modest popular impact the St. Louis Olympics had at the time, they were an important step forward in the history of amateur athletics in this country. Almost every record from the two previous Games was bettered and done so by college athletes rather than older athletic club members. Both features were to characterize later Olympics.”
Within the confines of Adirondack Park in upstate New York is Lake Placid, where the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games were held, the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Bobsled Run (National Archives Identifier 75317791) “was constructed between August and December of 1930 and built specifically for the 1932 Winter Olympic Games. The bobsled run was the only facility for the 1932 Olympics constructed at this location. Events built for ice-skating were located in the village of Lake Placid itself, while the Intervale ski jump was constructed just outside the village on NY 73. A luge track constructed at this location for the 1980 Olympics is no longer extant . . . Immediately adjacent to the bobsled run is a contemporary combined luge and bobsled run built in 1999; this feature replaced the 1980 luge track and was constructed on its site. A small portion of the 1999 combined run was built atop the path of the original bobsled run, destroying all evidence of the 1930 track in that location . . . Despite this interruption, the original length, steep topography, and twisting route of the 1930 track are still apparent, enabling us to understand the significant events of the 1932 Olympics.”
“In 1934, the International Federation for Bobsledding established a one-mile distance as the standard for all future international competitions. To accommodate this change at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, the starting gate was moved one-half mile down, and the upper half-mile of track, above Whiteface curve, was abandoned. The original warming hut, a small wood frame building with gable roof, was moved to the new start location, where it continued to be used until 1980, when it was dismantled and moved to storage. Despite the lack of an ice cover, the trackside path, alignment, and earthen and stone structure of the section between the top and Whiteface Curve survives intact. Once overgrown, the upper section has recently been cleared and clearly illustrates its original design. It is also believed that the original water pipes survive below ground. In 1980, when the Olympics returned to Lake Placid, the one-mile bobsled run that had been maintained since 1934 was reconditioned for use in the winter games, and a new start house was constructed . . . From the start house down, the course was improved in 1980 by installing refrigerated pipes embedded in a thin layer of reinforced concrete on the surface of the track to allow for sledding in warm weather. Thirty-three miles of one and one-quarter inch black iron pipe was used to refrigerate the one-mile bobsled run . . . The addition of refrigerated pipes did not disturb the bobsled run’s original buried water line, which continued to be used to supply the water spray necessary to maintain the icy sliding surface. The half-mile start near Shady Comer Curve was still used for public sledding and driver training in 1980, and the road built for the 1932 Olympics was used to transport people and sheds to the starting gate. Other changes for the 1980 Olympics included installation of new bleachers and night lighting and enlargement of the parking lot. A path alongside the track was improved for pedestrian uses. The other major change in 1980 was the addition of a refrigerated luge track adjacent and nearly parallel to the bobsled run. Although they shared a refrigeration unit, the two tracks were completely independent of each other.”
Los Angeles, California hosted two Summer Games in 1932 and 1980 (and will again in 2028) – many of the events took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (National Archives Identifier 123857934) “situated in Exposition Park, is a reinforced concrete, cast-in-place structure in the form of a giant elliptical bowl. The ellipse is about 1,038 feet long by 738 feet wide at its midpoint. The structure of the Coliseum rises to a height of 106 feet from the field elevation to the top rim. The Coliseum was constructed in 1921-23, on a sloped bank of a sand and gravel pit, which had existed within the old racetrack oval on the site. The field level is thus 32 feet below grade. The lowest bank of tiered seats is cast on an excavated grade. The middle bank of stepped tiers is cast onto a compacted berm about 27 feet above the adjacent concourse grade. A raised earth bank around the excavated pit was enhanced in this part of the construction. The top, or third, bank of 25 stepped tiers was added in the changes of 1930-31 that fitted the Coliseum for the 1932 Olympic Games; it Increased the seating from 75,000 to nearly 102,000. This bank of tiers is a reinforced concrete frame system which rises above the adjacent concourse; it is supported on a continuous concrete pilaster and filler panel wall system. The top four tiers are cantilevered beyond the main pilaster wall and are directly supported by spaced concrete fin-brackets, giving an architectural cornice and bracket expression.”
“In preparation for the 1984 Olympics, a new synthetic track was Installed, and other refurbishing undertaken. The Coliseum overall, however, appears so much like its original self that participants and spectators in the 1932 Olympics who may return this year will find its appearance comfortably familiar.”
LET’S GO TEAM USA!
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring records from the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and National Historic Landmarks Program Records, 2013 – 2017 (National Archives ID 20812721), a series within Record Group 79: Records of the National Park Service.