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Syracuse, Neb. —
In days past, many crowds gathered at the Elms Ballroom for an evening of music and dancing. Sunday’s crowd, however, came to watch the historic building burn.
The Syracuse Volunteer Fire Department did a controlled burn on the Elms Ballroom, located at First and Mohawk streets, using the opportunity as a training exercise.
Yet, even though the building is gone, its legacy lives on.
“Apparently it was built in the 1930's by a man named Anderson, I think, who owned the lumber yard here,” said Wayne Zeiger, a former co-owner of the ballroom. “At one time they said the high school didn't have a gym here so they played basketball in it. It's been a skating rink and all kinds of things like that.”
Now a pile of ash and rubble is all that is left of the dance hall.
Zeiger remembered buying and re-opening the ballroom. “There was four of us who bought it in, I'm not sure of the year... It must have been the 1970's. When we bought it, it had been con- demned, the roof had fallen in, so we bought it, rebuilt it, put a new roof on it, re-laid the floor and made a nice dance hall out of it. We operated it for, I'm guessing 3 or 4 years,” he said.
He recalled the night of the ballroom's re-opening. “We hosted mainly dances. There were some wedding dances of course. We had ‘The Rumbles’ play our opening night. On opening night I think our take was $7,000. We pretty much stayed with ‘The Rumbles’ as much as we could get them for as long as we had it. They were a good band and had a big draw,” he said.
On Sunday a crowd showed up to the ballroom for the last time to see it burn to the ground. For past patrons it signified the end of an era; their memories being all that remain of the ballroom.
“My wife was alive then and we had some funny things happen. I can't remember the particulars but young bucks would try to sneak by without paying and I'd have to run them down, that sort of thing,” said Zeiger. “My wife and I sold tickets and we had some good memories. We spent some cold nights in that doorway selling tickets... my wife and I were older and there was a younger crowd doing the dances, but we had a lot of good memories there.”
In days past, many crowds gathered at the Elms Ballroom for an evening of music and dancing. Sunday’s crowd, however, came to watch the historic building burn.
The Syracuse Volunteer Fire Department did a controlled burn on the Elms Ballroom, located at First and Mohawk streets, using the opportunity as a training exercise.
Yet, even though the building is gone, its legacy lives on.
“Apparently it was built in the 1930's by a man named Anderson, I think, who owned the lumber yard here,” said Wayne Zeiger, a former co-owner of the ballroom. “At one time they said the high school didn't have a gym here so they played basketball in it. It's been a skating rink and all kinds of things like that.”
Now a pile of ash and rubble is all that is left of the dance hall.
Zeiger remembered buying and re-opening the ballroom. “There was four of us who bought it in, I'm not sure of the year... It must have been the 1970's. When we bought it, it had been con- demned, the roof had fallen in, so we bought it, rebuilt it, put a new roof on it, re-laid the floor and made a nice dance hall out of it. We operated it for, I'm guessing 3 or 4 years,” he said.
He recalled the night of the ballroom's re-opening. “We hosted mainly dances. There were some wedding dances of course. We had ‘The Rumbles’ play our opening night. On opening night I think our take was $7,000. We pretty much stayed with ‘The Rumbles’ as much as we could get them for as long as we had it. They were a good band and had a big draw,” he said.
On Sunday a crowd showed up to the ballroom for the last time to see it burn to the ground. For past patrons it signified the end of an era; their memories being all that remain of the ballroom.
“My wife was alive then and we had some funny things happen. I can't remember the particulars but young bucks would try to sneak by without paying and I'd have to run them down, that sort of thing,” said Zeiger. “My wife and I sold tickets and we had some good memories. We spent some cold nights in that doorway selling tickets... my wife and I were older and there was a younger crowd doing the dances, but we had a lot of good memories there.”
Zeiger went on to say, “If you talk to the older generation, they've had some wonderful times at the Elms Ballroom over the years. It has been a great place. You'll find some people condemn it. There was some drinking going on and maybe a little bit of rowdyism, but all and all people had a lot of fun there.”
Zeiger said that the ballroom had been rightfully condemned after one of the basement walls fell in, but said that a new ballroom is not a bad idea for Syracuse.
“If somebody would build one and manage it properly... I think the young people would enjoy a place like that.. It was a lot of fun.”
