Tuesday, July 12, 2022

The Hyrum Dance Hall

I've driven by the Hyrum Dance Hall (also called Elite Hall) a few times but had no idea of it's story or significance until looking it up online.  Turns out that this was a pretty big project for such a small town when it was constructed in 1917. It's architect, K.C. Schaub gave it a very interesting feature that is even more rare today in that is has a spring-loaded dance floor. Yeah, you heard me, the maple wood dance floor is actually spring-loaded. 

After opening on Pioneer Day of 1917, the place was able to accommodate 1,400 people, and it not only hosted dances, but also other events like roller-skating, local meetings, and sporting events (of what I don't know). The place was initially privately owned, but it was officially given to the city of Hyrum in 1934. Hyrum is still a pretty small town and the dance events have slowed down somewhat since the 60s, but they have announced this year that they plan to start a restoration project to bring the building back to it's original look.  Thank goodness, because that nasty blue paint job is totally ugly and out of place for a building of that era. 

All info sourced from:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/elite-hall

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