Digital Bob Archive

The town of Douglas grew rapidly during the first decade of this century. In fact, it more than doubled its population, from 825 in the 1900 census to 1722 in 1910. And its neighbor, the company town of Treadwell, where the mines were expanding their operations, grew even faster, from 522 to 1222. On the other hand, the number of people living in Juneau declined during that decade, from 1864 to 1644. Thus by 1910 there were 1300 more people living on the island than in Juneau.

The population difference was one thing that made Douglas a far more lively show and entertainment town than Juneau. It had more night life than Juneau because the Treadwell mine operations ran around the clock and part of the crew was always off shift. There was no such operation on the Juneau side in those years; in fact, the only winter mining operation was at Perseverance, at the head of the Gold Creek Valley, and it was relatively small. At least two entertainment centers in Douglas advertised \"Open All Night\" but no all-night place was then advertised in Juneau.

The Douglas Opera House was opened in the late 1890s by San Gius and was considerably enlarged in 1902. It was a saloon and dance hall with a stage on which a vaudeville troupe put on a show each evening. Usually there were six or seven performers, men and women, and a new troupe arrived every five or six weeks. In March, 1903, the Opera House was advertising \"Moving pictures, stereopticon views, the latest songs and music on Edison's new phonograph; 1000 feet of film for the moving picture machine. Admission free.\"

When one new vaudeville troupe arrived, the ad for the Opera House promised a new show every evening and \"a family show will be given in the near future.\" The difference was unexplained.

The second Douglas establishment that advertised all-night service was the Palm Garden which was opened by Martin Olson on Thanksgiving Day, 1904. In addition to a bar it had \"tables and comfortable chairs, and a corps of courteous waiters.\" It served hot or cold lunches and short orders at all hours and offered moving pictures and illustrated songs every evening.

Olson also installed what was called a \"PlanOrchestra\" which was described as 10 feet high, 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep, with 127 pipes, 62 piano notes, and capable of imitating the violin, cello, drums, chimes, trumpets, cymbals, castanets and several other instruments.

In 1902 A.A. Chisholm bought the Armory Building and converted it to the Douglas Natatorium, with a swimming pool and a large hall that served as a gymnasium and dance floor and where movies were shown by traveling companies. The Natatorium had hard sledding at first, but eventually it vied with the Opera House and the Palm Garden as an entertainment center.

If you lived in Juneau in those years and craved night life, you climbed aboard a ferry and crossed the channel to Douglas.