From Smitty’s and Bud Olson’s Bar to Secret Park Lounge

It was five years after prohibition ended and the country was still recovering from the Great Depression when a middle-aged barber saw an opportunity to earn a living serving beer to the thirsty masses.

1931 Durham Museum photo of the building I believe housed Smitty’s, Carville’s and Bud Olson’s (before it moved) is shown next to St. Peter’s Church.

At 44 years old, Herman Smith purchased Al’s Place at 26th and Leavenworth Streets and opened Smitty’s Bar. Located at 2622 Leavenworth Street next to Saint Peter’s Church, Smith operated the bar for the next 15 years before calling it quits in 1953. The bar was turned over to his brother-in-law John Carville who renamed it Carville’s Bar. Carville, an ice cream maker by trade, likely spent a considerable amount of time in the bar learning the trade from Smitty himself. Carville’s would remain open for 12 years.

Bud Olson at its familiar 3207 Leavenworth location.

Carville’s daughter Barb married Marvin “Bud” Olson in 1951. When his father-in-law retired in 1965, Marvin opened Bud Olson’s Bar in the same location. Olson was likely quite experienced in the bar business given the family profession. His bar had a well-established reputation by the time he would relocate a few blocks west. It is my understanding that the church owned the property and wanted to create a parking lot for bingo. I suspect that they also weren’t thrilled with having a bar as its next-door neighbor. Bud moved his bar to its familiar location at 3207 Leavenworth Street in 1979. Its former home was torn down a year later.

Closeup of the neon sign which hadn’t been turned on in quite some time before closing. Photo courtesy of The Reader.

The new home of Bud Olson’s Bar was built in 1926 and housed a sheet metal followed by a furnace business and a motorcycle and auto repair shop. Olson along with many volunteers helped moved the 50-foot homemade bar from the original location to its new home in one piece. That behemoth making its way down Leavenworth had to be a sight to behold.

Photo of the backroom with pool table and a mural resembling George Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.

By the time the 1980s rolled around, his son Tom had taken the reins of Bud’s bar. I read that Tom was a literary conversationalist that could rap about your favorite authors. My first thought upon reading this was that of a young Brian Flanagan, the last barman poet, from the movie Cocktail. While Bud Olson’s didn’t come close to the swank places where Tom Cruise’s character would sling drinks, the Olson family embraced the dive bar character of the place. From cheap drinks to the long hours to the mish-mash of decor which included a library, barber chair (perhaps a tribute to Smitty years earlier), an ancient-looking Saint Patrick statue to the Norwegian monks around a skylight above the bar. The most surprising though was the mural in the back room depicting Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” You would recognize it as the painting that Cameron stared at in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Interior shot of Bud Olson’s Bar with the massive bar that was moved from the old bar.

Even though Bud passed away in 2010, the bar remained in good hands. Thrillist even named it as one of America’s Best Dive Bars in 2018. Clearly, the Olson family agreed as a homemade sign proclaimed it as such due to its “cheap, stiff drinks, pool table without a line, and a jukebox that still plays Johnny Cash.” Bud Olson’s, which poured its last drinks on Halloween 2019, is remembered as more than just a bar but a neighborhood institution where neighbors gathered to discuss life and current events.

The former Bud Olson’s Bar now Secret Park at 3207 Leavenworth Street.

The building was sold in June 2023 and reopened in September as a neighborhood bar called Secret Park. The new owners who grew up in the neighborhood completely remodeled the space into a relaxed and cozy atmosphere. With its dim lighting and lush greenery, it aims to be an oasis within the city. The name of the bar, which focuses on craft cocktails, was inspired by the “secret” park along the Field Club Trail.

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