Delta County Historical Society Photo The two-story “gazebo” stage in Ludington Park is shown during an Escanaba City Band concert. The top of the octagonal structure was ripped off in a storm, leaving the band to play out in the elements until the Karas Bandshell was built in the mid 1950s.

ESCANABA — Today marks the 100th anniversary of the first meeting of the Escanaba City Band and the beginning of countless hours music shared by generations of Delta County residents. The group is one of the city’s oldest cultural organizations.

According to a notice published March 18, 1924 in the Daily Press, the first members of the band met at 7:30 p.m. at city hall with Conductor Joseph H. Greenfield.

“Mr. Greenfield returned last week from a visit to his old home in England, and is ready to begin the season’s work. He is a widely known director and music teachers whose talents and ability are recognized throughout the country, and associated with him in the band is a group of some of Escanaba’s best musicians,” the notice read.

The funds for the city band were first made available following a ballot initiative spearheaded by R. B. Stack. Greenfield joined the band as director after leaving England, moving to Illinois for a time, and then moving to Escanaba. Historical documents from the City Band and the Daily Press suggest the primary reason he left Illinois was to alleviate his hay fever.

Following Greenfield, Frank Karas — born Frantisek Karas in a small town near Prague in what is now the Czech Republic — became the director of the band. After many years, he was succeeded by Charles Johnson, Albert Shomento, Paul Cowen, Cecil Collins, Chet Marrier, Jean-Paul Cote, Pat Henderson, and Bruce Cassell, who leads the band today.

The first concerts were played in Ludington Park in a small, circular building, before moving to a two-story, octagonal, gazebo-like platform near where the Veterans Memorial now sits. Crowds would listen to the concerts sitting on the hillside while children ran up and down the hill playing in the grass.

“Time took its toll on the gazebo and a strong wind took the roof off one day when we were luckily not playing. But it was never replaced, so we were at the mercy of the elements until the Karas Bandshell was built,” Arol Beck, who used to play the sousaphone wrote in a column for the Daily Press in 1987.

Roy Pearson, a drummer in the City Band and city employee who highly respected Karas, dreamed of a bandshell to honor the band’s second conductor. Karas died July 4, 1948, and by 1953 annual benefit concerts for the Karas Memorial Bandshell fund were well-underway, with 1954’s concert drawing around 200 local musicians to the Escanaba Junior High School Auditorium. Construction on the bandshell began in 1956.

The bandshell has been the primary home for the Escanaba City Band since its construction. The band performs Wednesday evenings at the Karas Memorial Bandshell throughout the summer, with this year’s first performance scheduled for June 19.

But the bandshell isn’t the only place the band can be found. Much like during Beck’s time — when the band would play at Rose Park to bring music to the people of North Escanaba — the band has made a point to be wherever music is needed. That means performing for the Elks Club Flag Day Celebration, the Waterfront Art Festival, the city’s Independence Day celebration, during Sidewalk Sales, Escanaba’s Labor Day and Christmas parades, and Gladstone’s Fourth of July parade.

2023 brought a few extra venues for the band and a busy schedule for its roughly 40 members. They welcomed Honor Flight veterans and cruise ship passengers, played at the Escanaba Christmas Tree Lighting, the Escanaba Public Library’s ice cream social, a holiday concert at Bay College, and, through a Sackerson Foundation grant, performed a series of outreach concerts at local nursing homes.

2024 brings a season-long celebration of the band itself. In addition to a special event and other anniversary activities now in the works — the details of which will be announced at a later date — the 100th anniversary of the band will be celebrated during each of the weekly concerts.

For more information about the Escanaba City Band and its activities, follow the band on Facebook at www.facebook.com/escanabacityband