The Clarence Brewer collection is valuable for anyone doing research on the development of the community recreation movement in the United States during the early twentieth century. Unfortunately, the Brewer collection contains very little material relating to the development of community recreation in Detroit. This is strange considering Brewer's long association with the City (1920-1941), first as Commissioner of Recreation and later as General Superintendent of Parks and Recreation. His personal papers do contain frequent reference to Detroit; the bulk of these, however, are concerned with such things as salary negotiations and civil service examinations. The extant material falls into three distinct series: Personal papers; other recreation and related organizations; and War Camp Community Service.
Clarence Brewer was one of the leading pioneers of the public recreation movement in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. He is known in Michigan primarily for his recreation work in Detroit where he served as Commissioner of Recreation (1920-1940) and General Superintendent of Parks and Recreation (1920-1942). From 1943 to 1961, Brewer served as a field representative with the National Recreation Association (first in New York and later in the Great Lakes area). During his tenure with the N.R.A. he gained national prominence for his work in promoting community, industrial, and military recreational programs.
Prior to arriving in Detroit in 1920, Brewer held posts in the recreation departments of a number of cities, including Columbus, Ohio (1910, 1914-1917) and Racine, Wisconsin (1917). He also worked for two years (1919-1920) as a community recreation organizer with the War Camp Community Service (W.C.C.S.), which was organized during World War I (May, 1917) by the Playground and Recreation Association of America at the request of the United States War Department. The original purpose of the W.C.C.S. was to provide constructive leisure time activities for servicemen by developing the recreation facilities of communities near the training camps in which they were stationed. Within a short time the program was expanded to include service to civilian defense workers. At the height of the war period, the W.C.C.S. operated in more than six hundred communities. With the end of the war period (June 1919) the emphasis of the W.C.C.S. (now shortened in name to "Community Service") shifted to developing recreation activities for the general public.
In 1930 the Playground and Recreation Association of America merged with several other recreational organizations to form the National Recreation Association. Community Service continued operations under the auspices of the NRA during the depression years. It was also quite active in developing recreation programs for both military and civilian personnel during World War II.
