- City:
- Schuyler, NE
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Community Centers
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1935
- Completed:
- 1937
- Artists:
- Architect, Emiel Christensen
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Oak Ballroom is situated near the bank of Lost Creek in the city of Schuyler’s Community Park (CX06-003). It was built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief project between 1935 and 1937 at a cost of $37,000.
The Oak ballroom was designed by a local architect to reflect the popular Period Revival and Rustic architectural styles of the time. It is constructed from native oak trees and stones from the ruins of the Wells & Abbott, Nieman Milling Company. The interior features a wood dance floor, band pit, dressing room, bar, and ticket and coat check rooms. A hand-painted mural depicting a wagon train on the Mormon Trail was added to the interior in 1960.
Over the years the Oak ballroom hosted several popular musicians such as Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk. The Oak Ballroom has been listed in the National Register for its role in community entertainment and cultural development, as well as an intact example of a WPA-era building that displays a blend of Tudor Revival and Rustic architectural styles.
More photographs can be found in the sources cited below.
Source notes
Schuyler Centennial Book Committee, Schuyler Nebraska Centennial 1870-1970 (Schuyler, Neb.: The Committee, 1970), 61
National Register of Historic Places, Oak Ballroom, Schuyler, Colfax County, Nebraska, National Register #8001082.
https://govdocs.nebraska.gov/epubs/H6000/B009.0971-2017.pdf
https://clarksonhistory.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/an-oak-ballroom-on-the-tallgrass-prairie/
https://www.e-nebraskahistory.org/index.php?title=Emiel_J._Christensen_(1895-1988),_Architect
Site originally submitted by Glenn Cada on June 18, 2019.
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