GREEN BAY – Bay Beach Amusement Park has been welcoming families for well over a century, but the inspiration behind the park dates further back to June 1895, when the Green Bay Business Men’s Association was pushed toward the development of the property at Bay Beach.
“It is the intention of the association to push the work of developing a summer resort at the beach. An arrangement has been made with the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western Road for the securing of eighty carloads of gravel. This will be dumped alongside the track at 12th Street and hauled from there by team (horses) and used to cover the surface of the boulevard leading to the shore,” a June 1895 Green Bay Press-Gazette article stated.
“Already many people from this city drive out to the beach for the purpose of enjoying the splendid bathing. With the building of a first-class hotel there and the improvement of the surroundings, it will undoubtedly become a favorite resort for summer tourists.”
Plans weren’t developed, however, until the summer of 1899 when the Preble Town Board approved a street railway franchise through the town in the name of Patrick Glynn.
Glynn was also backing Capt. J.A. Cusick, who was planning and engineering the project.
Early sketches of the grounds showed “a casino for summer theatrical purposes, a pavilion for band concerts and dances, bathing houses and a modernly equipped bathhouse, a pier and baseball, golf and lawn tennis grounds… A handsome park is to be laid out between the casino and pavilion.
The proposed hotel will not be built this year,” a June 1899 Green Bay Semi-Weekly Gazette article said.
At that time, many amusement parks were being constructed around the country.
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and its “White City” had left its impression and those who visited Chicago during the fair took home new ideas and it helped usher in the “City Beautiful” movement.
In April 1900, work began on the hotel at what would become Bay View Beach in Green Bay.
“Work on the summer hotel to be built by M.R. Nejedlo, at Bay Beach, was begun this morning,” the April 3, 1900, Press-Gazette stated. “The hotel is to be built on the west side of the boulevard, in the grove of willows between the small bridge and the shore.”
The hotel was described as a large, roomy building with a broad porch with a balcony above it, extending around three sides of the structure.
Work on the bathhouses began in May and was completed in June, along with a small pier.
At the same time, subscriptions were being asked to improve the roads leading to the resort.
By July, Nejedlo was advertising his new resort at the “foot of North 12th Street.”
That fall, Cusick entered into a contract with Nejedlo to run boats to and from the resort.
In July 1901, Nejedlo began work on an existing dance hall, tearing out the rear portion to create a stage in order to host vaudeville performances.
During the same month, Cusick and Dominick Hagerty opened the first amusement rides at the resort — chutes — toboggan boats that would slide down a long ramp into the water.
That summer the pavilion was also completed.
In 1911, the Bay View Beach Amusement Park filed its articles of incorporation, listing Frank Murphy, Joseph Servotte and William Hoberg as the incorporators, purchased by Murphy and Rahr.
Cusick left in 1916 to work for Green Bay’s Indian Packing Company.
In 1920, Murphy and Rahr donated the park to the city — buildings included — with a stipulation that it remain a park.
The city changed the name from Bay View Beach to Bay Beach.
In 1924, city park department staff moved the bathhouse 200 feet to the east and turned it so it was parallel with the shore.
The following year, they worked to remodel the facility, splitting it in two sections — one for men and one for women — with an entrance in the middle.
“The new section will be covered with a roof with gables at right angles to the ridge line on the main building and extending a few feet beyond the present wall line. The new roof will be supported by a row of six pillars instead of by a wall thus relieving the long lines of the length of the building,” a Press-Gazette article stated.
In October 1929, a storm swept through the area causing flooding and about $150,000 of damage to bay-area homes.
The bathhouse was completely damaged and found resting against a nearby building.
The lumber from the bathhouse was gathered and stored and plans were drawn up to build a smaller structure with the salvaged wood, at a cost of $1,200.
The unexpected expense canceled plans for the construction of two tennis courts that year.
The new bathhouse was opened in time for the summer 1930 season.
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